Harsh Realm and Millenium: According to Variety, With all nine seasons of The X-Files available on DVD as of last month, Fox Home Entertainment is turning its focus to "X" man Carter's other series creations. Studio is hoping to capitalize on the scribe-producer's cult following among fans, who see him as a sort of Gene Roddenberry for the late 20th/early 21st century.
A three-disc set of "Harsh Realm," which was canceled after just three airings in October 1999, hits stores Aug. 24. Collection will contain all nine episodes of the skein, which revolved around a military officer (Scott Bairstow) who gets trapped in a top-secret computer-simulated country.
A month earlier, on July 20, Fox will release the first season of "Millennium" on DVD. Skein, which ran for three seasons on Fox (1996-99), starred Lance Henriksen as a former FBI agent affected by the rising level of evil in the world at the turn of the century.
Major push for product from the Carter camp comes even though he hasn't been under contract to FHE sibling 20th Century Fox TV for quite some time. Nonetheless, Carter said he's fine with being a part of Rupert Murdoch's DVD machine.
"As long as he's making money for me, I'm happy to make money for him," Carter quipped.
"Millennium" and "Harsh Realm" shared a number of writers and producers. That allowed FHE to "cut their overhead" and produce extras for both DVDs at the same time, Carter said.
Releasing the two skeins within a month of each other also allows FHE to cross-promote the two releases. Indeed, the "Millennium" season one DVD set will feature an ad insert hyping the release of "Harsh Realm." Latter skein can use the extra exposure since it was on the air so briefly.
While "Millennium" aired for a while in syndication on FX, the nine episodes of "Harsh Realm" aired just once -- the first three segs on Fox, the remaining six on cabler FX.
"I'm happy people will be able to see it," Carter said. "The more people see it, the more they realize it was a mistake (to cancel the show so quickly)."