Benson (Robert Guillaume, TV's "Sports Night") confronts two new obstacles to maintaining order in the wacky household of the widowed Governor Gatling - Chief of Staff Clayton Endicott III (Rene Auberjonois) and Press Secretary Pete Downey (Ethan Phillips). While working to fix the problems these two newcomers create in the executive mansion, Benson manages to foil a foreign plot to steal a priceless gold statue, help his chief nemesis Gretchen Kraus (Inga Swenson) gain citizenship, and withstand a siege by protesters who've encircled the governor's mansion. And after he and Governor Gatling are caught by a muckraking press corps as they are helping an old friend who has taken ill in a bordello, the unexpected death of the State Budget Director leads to Benson being elevated to the post. Newly remastered.
It's been close to five years since the mid-2007 DVD release of
the premiere season, but then Sony stalled the home video sets of this program, since sales numbers were far below expectations. Since then fans have been hoping the studio would either give the sitcom another try themselves, or else license it out for release by another studio (as they have with many other stalled-on-DVD shows).
Now we're pleased to tell you that
Benson - The Complete 2nd Season, the first season where the cast was joined by Rene Auberjonois (
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) and Ethan Phillips (
Star Trek Voyager), is coming to DVD at long last on
April 3rd. And no, there's nothing to "Shout!" about here: Sony is actually releasing this title themselves. However, it won't be available in stores. Rather, Sony has elected to make it part of their manufacture-on-demand (MOD) program, which means it will be available online from the Warner Archive (at WBShop.com) and CreateSpace (at Amazon.com).
The title isn't available for pre-order yet, and package art hasn't been finalized at this time. We can tell you that it will be a 3-DVD set, running 580 minutes, priced at $35.99 SRP. Guest stars during this second season (out of 7 seasons total) included Jerry Seinfeld, Ted Danson and character actor Ed Peck, all in recurring roles. Stay tuned for updates, as more becomes available!
