It is available on DVD, but you may have to hunt for it. In the bargain bins.

The 1997 miniseries version of "The Odyssey" was a rather expensive production by TV standards -- it aired on NBC in two parts and was filmed on location in Malta and Turkey, among other places. But that's the sort of production you get from Francis Ford Coppola -- the famed director's American Zoetrope production house backed the miniseries.

That's why, unlike most made-for-TV movies, which disappear as soon as they air, "The Odyssey" was released on DVD.

However, it's still a telefilm, and so lacks the prestige of a big-screen movie. One of the tricks the producers tried in order to move some DVDs was bundling it together with other, similar telefilm productions and putting it on sale.

So you can buy a DVD that collects both "The Odyssey" and the 1996 production of "Gulliver's Travels," which also aired on NBC and starred Ted Danson.

Or you can buy "The Odyssey" as part of a five-disc boxed set that also includes telefilm versions of "Arabian Nights" (2000), "Jason and the Argonauts" (2000), "The Lost Empire" (released in 2001 and starring future "Criminal Minds" star Thomas Gibson) and 1998's "Moby Dick," which starred Patrick Stewart and was also produced by American Zoetrope.

Though telefilms may not get the same respect as big-screen films, in the TV business, "The Odyssey" did quite well for itself. It won a pair of Emmys -- best miniseries director for Andrey Konchalovskiy and best special effects for Mike McGee.

Armand Assante, who starred as the legendary Odysseus, didn't even get a best actor nomination from the Emmys, but he did from the Golden Globes (he lost, though, to Ving Rhames for his lead in a Don King biopic).

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