70s children, rejoice!

I heard about it a few days ago, but now there's more information out over on TVShowsonDVD.com.

Next month, Navarre Corporation's BCI is releasing a 4-disc box set of one of my favorite game shows, Match Game.

The set has 30 episodes, and according to the release, they are uncut, which I think is pretty cool. I doubt I've seen them without cuts since they originally aired -- and that means some of them I've never seen in their original form, as the show predates me by just a bit. There are also extra features, including an interview with Match Game regular Brett Somers.

I loved this show as a kid because -- among other reasons -- it just looked like they were having a bunch of fun. Watching the show now, I get even more jokes than I did when I was a worldly 7-year-old. Some of them, I'm surprised actually made it to air. It was like a grown-up version of Mad Libs, and the word "boobs" cropped up on the show almost as often it was by my friends and me.

You also never knew what was going to happen. If one of the props didn't work, all kinds of craziness would erupt. On one episode, host Gene Rayburn made a slip of the tongue when he tried to compliment a contestant on her pretty dimples.

It always struck me odd when either Brett Somers or Charles Nelson Reilly was missing from the panel. It just looked incomplete -- like Mount Rushmore without Washington.

The set is just under 35 clams, so those of you who have to buy a birthday present for your favorite pop-culture junkie within the next month are in luck.

What's the scenario?

I couldn't wait for it to be done. I only had a few minutes until it was time.

The steady chatter of my mom's sewing machine stopped, and she turned around in her chair to show me the project she'd been toiling over at my request.

"Here you go," she said, whirling it around.

Just in time. My Greatest American Hero cape was ready just as the familiar strains of the theme song came on our TV in the living room.

Yes, I was a nut for that show. Don't believe me? Check it out:


I loved the idea that a superhero could also be a klutz despite the powers. And I fully thought that Bill Maxwell was the coolest guy on TV. He was so cool, he'd even eat dog biscuits out of the box.

Ralph Hinkley was a high school teacher who, while out in the desert on a field trip, was given the suit by aliens to combat crime. Bill Maxwell was the tough FBI agent he met there.

Along with the occasional help from Ralph's girlfriend Pam Davidson, they took on all kinds of foes, from crooks trying to fix baseball games, to lonely spirits who just want to live again.

As a kid, I couldn't understand Ralph's reluctance to be a superhero. Just being able to fly (more or less) would've been worth it. Now I understand it a little more, though flying would still be pretty sweet.

I mention this because on the shelves today, you might spy The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series box set.

Not only do you get all three seasons of the show, but it comes in a limited numbered tin with a full-size cape, an iron-on of the suit's emblem and (this is my favorite) an instruction manual replica with working lights. That is just plain cool, I say.

Even cooler for GAH fans, 200 of the sets -- at random -- will contain an autographed photo of William Katt, who played our hero Ralph Hinkley.

So if your favorite Greatest American Hero fan has, say, a birthday coming up in just over a month, this would be a make a cool gift.

Here's a clip to whet your appetite: