All of the hooplah surrounding Arrested Development Season 4′s debut on Netflix last weekend got me waxing nostalgic for another beloved series that was all too short-lived: Paul Feig‘s Freaks and Geeks. When you consider its impressive shelf life, it’s hard to believe the series only aired on NBC for one season and consists of merely 18 episodes. For the sake of comparison, ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager will air its series finale this Monday and will finish with five seasons and 121 episodes in hand. Continuing down that path, Freaks and Geeks averaged just above 6.5 million weekly viewers during its run while Secret Life‘s most watched episode to date (the Season 2 premiere) garnered a little over 4.5 million viewers. In addition to the frustration I feel for having 103 more Secret Life episodes to never watch than Freaks and Geeks episodes to cherish, this also provides an interesting example of the ratings expectations/requirements of a network series in comparison to that of a cable series.

I could go on and on doing my best Brendan Bettinger: Stats Genius impersonation but the real reason I’m here is to present this week’s Top 5. In this installment you have at your disposal our visit to the set of Man of Steel, Allison watching the Indiana Jones movies for the first time, After Earth interviews with Will and Jaden Smith, another set visit for The Wolverine, and Matt’s review of the aforementioned fourth season of Arrested Development. As you’ve grown to expect, a brief recap and link to each of the above makes its home after the jump.

Amazon’s Gold Box Deal of the Day is Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray for $38.99 (61% off)  The set contains Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and a bonus disc of special features.  I own this set, and the transfers are terrific.  The picture and sound quality is top notch, and even if you own the DVDs of the first three movies, this is a worthwhile upgrade, especially at today’s price.  “But I don’t want Crystal Skull!” I hear some cry.  That’s okay!  It also functions as a drink coaster.  Like all Gold Box deals, it’s only good while supplies last or until midnight tonight.  Click here to buy.  For hundreds of additional DVD and Blu-ray deals, click here.  And for more Indiana Jones stuff, be sure to read Allison’s recent series, “Confessions of an Indiana Jones Virgin“.

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Our daily series where Allison Keene watches the Indiana Jones movies for the first time. Read her intro/explanation here, and here’s her reviews of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom)

Praise be to the sequel gods for The Last Crusade, which did right by the franchise by stabilizing things from the shaky ground of Temple of Doom.  After I had some time to digest that later film I still think it’s the odd man out in the franchise (so far).  It’s a B-movie from front to back, and while that’s not a bad thing on its own, it just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the Indiana movies.  For Last Crusade, Steven Spielberg wisely returned things to their Lost Ark roots: Nazis, Biblical artifacts, and a new PG-13 rating.  After what I had seen under the PG banner in the last two films, I was practically expecting a two hour orgy of sex and death.  Instead, I got a really funny and engaging movie.  Whodda thunk?  Hit the jump for why this was definitely the best of the franchise.

So here it has happened again, another strange gap in my movie knowledge has been uncovered: I’ve never seen any of the Indiana Jones movies.  Like with Star Wars, I’m not sure I have any explanation beyond that my parents aren’t that into movies, and I was busy watching a lot of TV.  And on the whole, based on my straw poll research, in my day [reaches for cane] girls weren’t really steered towards those kinds of movies; at least, before they became such huge hits.  In any case, I remedied some of this cinematic gap starting in high school, and ended up minoring in film in college.  What you may not know about many film programs though is that they tend to end their discussion of cinema around 1968 (it took so long to get to talkies in my semesters of film history that when Al Jolson spoke actual words in The Jazz Singer we clapped and wept).

In summation: what they don’t teach you, usually, in film history is about Indiana Jones.  What’s a girl to do?  I’m always looking to learn, so better late than never, right?  Hit the jump for what I already know about the films (pretty much zilch) and what I hope to accomplish with this series.

Every time there’s a new home video format, there are always a couple of films that wait years to hit the market. But what better way to get people excited about buying something they’ve already owned (and perhaps multiple times)? And so finally in 2012, we get Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures on Blu-ray. It comes with all three Indiana Jones films and this other film on Blu-ray with an additional disc of bonus features. All things told, the supplements don’t warrant an upgrade, but the picture and sound quality make this a must have. Our review of the Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures Blu-ray set follows after the jump.

If you’re a fan of the Indiana Jones franchise, September is a great month.  Not only did Raiders of the Lost Ark get a special one-week IMAX release, but the entire franchise hits Blu-ray next week and the box set is loaded with incredible behind-the-scenes extras.  For a full list of what’s included, click here.  But trust me when I say, this is a set absolutely worth owning.  Click here to order Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures on Amazon.

To help promote the release, I recently got to visit LucasFilm in San Francisco and participate in a group interview with Sound Designer Ben Burtt and Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren.  They talked about their thoughts on how the films hold up, the visual effects, their favorite moments, how Burtt came up with some of the signature sounds, if anything changed during the restoration process, and a lot more.  Hit the jump for what they had to say.

It’s Indiana Jones week here at Collider: we’ve already told you about the Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures coming to Blu-ray this September 18th, the IMAX re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark for one week starting on September 7th and even comments from director Steven Spielberg on the conversion process of Raiders from 35mm to the 70mm IMAX format.  Now, all four Indiana Jones movies are coming to the screen for one epic marathon at participating AMC theaters on September 15th!  Hit the jump for more details, including a list of theaters, ticket prices and all the swag you can handle!

Today, the Alamo Drafthouse announced a new film series, so it’s time for everyone outside of Austin, Texas to start seething with jealous rage.  The programming series, “Presented in Amazing AlamoScope: 70mm at the Ritz”, will show off the beauty of 70mm film, which is the best way you can see some of cinema’s best classic films.  It’s also becoming a rare experience as theaters and studios dump film for digital.  For those living in Austin, Texas, you’ll be treated to a line-up that includes West Side Story, Cleopatra (the film sucks but the visual experience will be great), Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Baraka, Playtime, and Paul Thomas Anderson‘s new film, The Master.  The Master will be shown beginning September 21st, so it’s possible that it could also play as part of Alamo’s Fantastic Fest, which runs from September 20 – 27th.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer for AlamoScope, along with the press release which will tell you when each of these films will be playing.  Tickets for West Side Story are on sale now.  You can also buy a badge providing access to all 7 films including The Master.  The badge includes access to the first show on Saturday for all repertory films and the premiere screening of The Master on 9/21 at (approximately) 7:00pm.

My Blu-ray budget is about to expand significantly as we inch closer towards the holiday season, and the Steven Spielberg trifecta kicks off this month with the Jaws Blu-ray, followed by E.T The Extra-Terrestrial and Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection in the ensuing weeks.  A full list of the special features included on the four-film Indiana Jones Blu-ray set has now been released, and it appears that only one new documentary will be on the set.

Nevertheless, the two-part “On Set with Raiders of the Lost Ark” boasts nearly an hour of rarely seen footage from the set and archival interviews, and the collection also includes a 1981 making-of documentary for Raiders that was previously unavailable on DVD as well as all the bonus features that appeared on earlier home video releases of all four Indiana Jones films.  Hit the jump to check out the entire list of what the set entails, including specifications.  Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection hits stores on September 18th.

As we reported last month, all four Indiana Jones movies will be making their way to Blu-ray on September 18th (Crystal Skull was already available).  A new trailer for the box set has gone online, and this trailer will presumably play on a loop at the Lucasfilm Pavilion on the exhibition floor (booth #2913), which is where there will also be a Well of Souls “live snake pit”.  We still don’t know exactly what will be in the seven hours of bonus features, but it looks like there will be rare behind-the-scenes footage and the primary players looking back on the movies.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The 2012 San Diego Comic-Con runs from July 12 – 15th.

It’s gonna be one hell of a Blu-ray season this fall for Steven Spielberg fans.  Jaws comes to Blu-ray for the first time on August 14th, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial hits the format in October, and now a release date has been set for Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection.  We previously learned that Indy would be getting the HD treatment back in February, but now Lucasfilm and Paramount Home Entertainment have announced that the set will hit stores on September 18th.  The collection includes remastered versions of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as well as a completely restored version of Raiders of the Lost Ark supervised by Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt.

The discs will include documentaries, interviews, featurettes and “new bonus features,” though it hasn’t yet been announced what these new features entail.  I’m pulling for an extended, candid retrospective with Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford, but that seems unlikely.  Hit the jump to check out the artwork, read the press release, and watch the previously released Blu-ray trailer.

The first three Indiana Jones movies will finally make their way to Blu-ray this fall.  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is already available on Blu-ray, but who cares?  We want the good movies in the series, and they’ll be available in one box set.  Crystal Skull will also be in there, but no one’s going to force you to watch it.  As for extras on the Indiana Jones box-set, “there will be a ‘best of’ collection of documentaries, interviews, featurettes and a few new surprises”.  Presumably, we’ll be getting everything that was on the Adventures of Indiana Jones DVD box set.  If Lucasfilm and Paramount Home Media Distribution were smart, they would throw in Jamie Benning’s unofficial Raiders of the Lost Ark “filmumentary,” but unfortunately that will probably never happen.  Still, I’m not going to nitpick over getting Indy in HD.

Hit the jump for the press release and the trailer for the Blu-ray set.