There has never been a detective cooler than Peter Falk's rumpled, cigar-smoking Columbo. Allegedly inspired by Dostoyevsky's Inspector Petronovich (and, some say, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot), Falk's laconic crime-solver is one of the great pleasures of '70s TV. Columbo - The Complete First Season is a five-DVD set that contains every episode from the show's 1971 run and all your favourite '70s guest stars are here - Robert Culp! Suzanne Pleshette! Don Ameche! Leslie Nielsen! The collector's edition also contains two TV movies, including 1968's Prescription: Murder, in which our hero makes his first appearance.

Oh, and just one more thing: George Romero's 1978 zombie classic Dawn of the Dead is finally getting the ultimate DVD treatment after several weird reproductions with incorrect aspect ratios and poor sound. This new four-disc set includes both American and European editions of the movie (the latter re-cut by Dario Argento), as well as the extended version of the movie shown at the '78 Cannes fest. Documentaries, commentaries and essays round out the set. » Mark Slutsky