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Published on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 1:43am

DAISIES!! TREK!! BEETLEJUICE!! DIRTY!! SMOTHERS!! CHUCK!! SNL!! PYTHON!! DUCKMAN!! HercVault!!

I am – Hercules!!

“Pushing Daisies,” the hilarious and complicated tale of a pieman who can raise the dead and the dead girl who loves – but must never touch – him, is a romantic comedy for the ages and last season’s best new series. It boasts Bryan Fuller’s wit and Kristen Chenoweth’s breasts and Paul Reubens as a ratty man with supersmell. Private detective Emerson Cod is one of the most inspired comic creations in TV history.

The first season comes in both DVD and, since you want to see director Barry Sonnenfeld’s crazy visuals pop in HD, Blu-ray.

Star Trek: Alternate Realities contains a Geordi LaForge action figure and 20 episodes culled from “Star Trek,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Star Trek: Enterprise.”

Six of the 20 episodes deal with the Mirror Universe made famous by Bearded Spock:

Mirror, Mirror (TOS)
Crossover (DS9)
Through The Looking Glass (DS9)
Shattered Mirror (DS9)
In A Mirror Darkly Part I (Enterprise)
In A Mirror Darkly Part II (Enterprise)

Foolishly, CBS Home Entertainment elected to leave off the final two DS9 Mirror Universe episodes, “Resurrection” and “The Emperor’s New Cloak.” Were I King of DVD, I would have included both, as well as “The Tholian Web,” which turned out to be a prequel to “In A Mirror Darkly.”

(And I maybe would have figured out a way to bundle the set with Simon & Shuster’s 2007 Mirror Universe novels.)

The 14 non-Mirror episodes on the set are:

The Alternative Factor (TOS)
Parallels (TNG)
The Enemy Within (TOS)
Turnabout Intruder (TOS)
Frame of Mind (TNG)
Shattered (Voyager)
Yesterday’s Enterprise (TNG)
The Inner Light (TNG)
The Visitor (DS9)
Before and After (Voyager)
Timeless (Voyager)
Course: Oblivion (Voyager)
E2 (Enterprise)
Twilight (Enterprise)

Quite a range here. “The Alternative Factor” is likely the worst POS TOS episode produced. “The Inner Light” is my favorite TNG episode ever.

Note that the Kirk-Spock episodes on this set are “remastered” versions with all the fancy new 21st century special effects – which means the remastered version of season three’s “Turnabout Intruder” makes its DVD debut here.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: The Best Of Season Three contains uncensored versions of 11 of the 26 Vietnam-era episodes (one of which CBS never aired) produced for the show’s last and most controversial season.

Steve Martin and Bob “Super Dave” Einstein were writing partners and performers on the series. Guests on the 11 episodes, produced during the 1968-69 season, include The Doors, George Harrison, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Donovan, Ray Charles, Ike & Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, George Carlin, Bob Newhart, Jackie Mason, Jonathan Winters, David Steinberg and the cast of the stage musical “Hair.”

The set offers new introductions to each episode by the Smothers Bros., the Smothers-produced “Pat Paulsen For President” TV special (featuring restored footage of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, never aired due to his subsequent assassination), bonus footage of Paulsen visiting the White House, censored sketches, a censored segment featuring anti-war activist Benjamin Spock, rehearsal footage, and the press conference held subsequent to the series’ abrupt cancellation (just after the brothers had signed their 4th-season contract).

To anticipate the question, “best of” sets for seasons two and one are already in the works.

Though a pronounced drop off in quality (and budget) followed “Chuck’s” Josh Schwartz-scripted barn-burner of a pilot, I still endorse the abbreviated first season, if only for Adam Baldwin’s turn as angry and menacing government goon John Casey. The season, which tells the tale of how and why the slacker title character had a zillion government secrets implanted in his brain, also features lots of distractingly dreamy girls, including Schwartz’ fellow “OC” vets Rachel Bilson and Julia Ling, as well as Sarah Lancaster (“Everwood”) and comely Australian Yvonne Strahovski.

The reason I’m sticking with “Dirty Sexy Money” as it ramps up its second season is sexy 33-year-old Natalie Zea (“Eyes”) and her portrayal of hilariously distracted heiress Karen Darling. It’s like a magic trick how the actress gets us to care about such a relentlessly selfish character. The first season, streeting today, gets extra points because it’s apparently the last to feature as a regular Samaire Armstrong, who plays Karen’s bratty kid sister Juliet. The series is about a civic-minded family-man and lawyer (Peter Krause) who finds himself paid vast sums of cash to solve the many problems generated by Manhattan’s entire superrich Darling clan.

Why is the Beetlejuice: 20th Anniversary included in my horny TV-on-DVD column? Because it contains the DVD and Blu-ray debuts of "A-ha," "Skeletons in the Closet," and "Spooky Boo-Tique," three episodes of the animated TV series. Also? The movie is hilarious, and the best thing Michael Keaton ever did, and I’m guessing those Tim Burton visuals look rad in HD.

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