Why isn't Batman out on DVD?

Or Max Headroom?

Or The Wonder Years?

Or China Beach?

Our good friends at TV Shows on DVD have answers to many questions like these in a handy What's the Hold-Up? posting at their Facebook page.

The reasons tend toward a few familiar obstacles -- music rights (too expensive, too tricky to obtain), ownership squabbles (one company might control the characters, while another controls the produced program), and also, for those shows stalled after partial DVD release, just not enough initial sales to keep more sets coming.

Bianculli and I have known TSoD's Gord and Dave for years, so we can vouch for both the reliability of their info/sources and their personal devotion to TV on DVD. For two guys who weren't journalists by trade when they started (back in 2001), they've become a couple of the most intrepid reporters we know.

So bookmark TV Shows on DVD, if you haven't already. They're on top of upcoming releases and TV DVD trends -- even opportunities for fans to interact with studio executives, as in this heads-up about an upcoming online chat with Warner Home Video.

Be sure to vote at the site for shows you'd like to see released on DVD -- the studios do pay attention.

(Six of the 14 shows on my list eventually got released! And a seventh, Jim Hutton's 1970s Ellery Queen is said to be on its way.)

So please join me in lobbying for The John Larroquette Show [photo], Nothing Sacred, Now And Again, Bakersfield P.D., The Powers That Be and The Incredibly Strange Film Show.

And take the time to share your faves here, so other readers can lend their support. We gotta gang up on 'em to get the good stuff . . .