You've hit upon a strange phenomenon where all three of these shows stalled at Season 3 on DVD. It appears to be just a coincidence, though, as the reasons given for the delays are different.

Warner Home Video owns the rights to "Third Watch," and the company confirmed your suspicion during an online chat hosted on HomeTheaterForum.com.

"Music costs are very high on 'Third Watch' Season 3," its publicity team said during the chat, held on April 5, 2010. "We're still looking to see if we can make that work."

But this problem isn't insurmountable. The company had the same problem with Season 2 and just replaced the problematic songs for the release. The back cover of the Season 2 set includes the disclaimer "Some music differs from original televised version."

According to TVShowsOnDVD.com (a great go-to for this sort of information, as you can guess by the name), the reason for the delay in the "Early Edition" release is simply that CBS/Paramount, which owns the rights, is slowing down its DVD-release schedule, a fact that also stalled releases of even higher profile titles such as "Melrose Place" and "The Love Boat" (which is also stuck at Season 2).

As for "Once and Again," the delay is somewhat mysterious -- perhaps there really is just a third-season curse.

After a three-year delay between the first- and second-season releases, Disney announced that the third would be released in early 2006, just a few months after the second. Series star Sela Ward even announced, in an interview with MSNBC, that she and some other cast members had recorded a commentary track for it. However, later in 2005 Disney announced a delay in the release, and hasn't said or done a thing about it since.

According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, Disney's license for the show has now expired, so the producers are looking for a new company to release it.

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