CINEMA RETRO'S LEE PFEIFFER LOOKS AT SOME TV FAVORITES ON DVD
Paramount Home Video has been inundating baby boomers with DVD collections of some of their favorite TV series. Among the more impressive recent releases: the second season of The Wild, Wild West and the premiere seasons of The Odd Couple, Hawaii Five-0 and The Untouchables. Needless to say, if you had to chose series to take with you to a desert island, these would rank pretty high at the top of most people's lists. Here's the low-down on each set.
HAWAII FIVE-0 PREMIERE SEASON
As political correctness banished this show from the airwaves years ago on the complaint that it was too violent, there have been precious few opportunities to see Hawaii Five-0 in all its glory. The few stations that syndicated it often cut it to shreds in order to squeeze in more ads. Thus, I had not really evaluated the show since it originally went off the air in the early 1980s following an amazing run on CBS. Paramount has now released the show's 1968 premiere season in a boxed DVD set and it can't be recommended highly enough. I had remembered the signature elements of the show, of course: Morton Stevens great theme song set against the memorable main title sequence (remember when shows actually had musical themes and title sequences?) and of course Jack Lord's indomitable presence. With his chiseled look and and a hair style that looked a tsunami, Lord dominated the show in every way. He was also actively involved in all aspects of production and was responsible (along with producer Leonard Freeman) in establishing the first major film production facilities in Hawaii. Incredibly, as late as 1968, there were no studios on Honolulu and the Five-0 crew shot the interiors in either actual local buildings or in a converted shack that became an ad-hoc studio. Lord was a notoriously tough taskmaster and few of his colleagues ever said anything remotely pleasant about him. However, all agreed that his obsession with quality benefited everyone who was associated with the series. Given the dearth of professional actors in Honolulu, Lord simply hired local people in every episode- usually with excellent results. In fact, Kam Fong (who played the wise-cracking middle-aged detective Chin-Ho) was, in fact, a retired local police officer. Zulu, who played the hulking detective Kono, was a local disc jockey. Like Kam Fong, he had no prior acting experience but became an integral part of the show's success. Lord's main co-star was James MacArthur, a professional actor who graduated from being the teen star of Disney films to a rough-tough leading man. The catch-phrase "Book 'em, Danno" derives from this series.
The boxed set presents every episode of the first season, and all of them are excellent. I had forgotten how good the technical aspects of the show were. The excellent use of location photography was instrumental in incresing tourism to Hawaii by an exponential amount. The shows all benefited from impressive, no-nonsense scripts and acting from occasionally "name" guest stars. The highlight of this set, however, is the show's two-hour pilot episode, which is superbly produced and is consistently gripping. In fact, it holds up better than most modern big screen thrillers. The lavish production values add immensely to the pilot's merits, as does an inmpressive cast of guest stars that includes Leslie Nielsen, Andrew Duggan and James Gregory. Curiously, the part of Danny Williams was played in the pilot by Tim O'Kelly, who had recently starred in Bogdanovich's Targets. It's not clear why producer Leonard Freeman recast the part for the series with James MacArthur because O'Kelly was perfectly fine in the role. The pilot also introduces the wonderful villain Khigh Deigh as Wo Fat, who would become a sort of Prof. Moriarty to Lord's Steve McGarrett. Deigh was really just reprising his role as the charming but ruthless brainwasher from The Manchurian Candidate, but his splendid performance puts him in league with the best of the Bond villains.
The only extra feature on the set is a good one: a one hour documentary titled Memories of Hawaii Five-0 from a local Hawiian show called Emme's Island Moments. Produced in 1996 and co-hosted by James MacArthur, it provides fascinating insights about the making of the series and some guarded insights into the notoriously private Jack Lord. This set is highly recommended, though it makes one sad to realize how few shows we've seen of this quality in the ensuing years.
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HAWAII FIVE-0 CINEMA RETRO PHOTO SCRAPBOOK
THE UNTOUCHABLES PREMIERE SEASON
One of the greatest of all crime shows was actually the brainchild of Desi Arnaz. Long considered Lucille Ball's straight man and husband, Arnaz was also one of the most innovative and creative forces in the television industry. He not only built I Love Lucy to a legendary status in American pop culture, but also produced other classic series as well including The Untouchables. Paramount's Vol. 1 of the premiere season contains fourteen of the initial twenty-eight episodes. The show, a hard-hitting and (for the time) shockingly brutal look at FBI agent Elliot Ness's battle against Al Capone's mob in Chicago, premiered as a two-part episode in 1959 as part of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Robert Stack played Ness as though he was posing for Mount Rushmore. This image would define the actor's later screen career until he successfully ended up spoofing himself in the Airplane films. The highlight of this set is the two-part premiere episode which was later cobbled together and released as the feature film The Scarface Mob in 1962 (and you thought The Man From U.N.C.L.E. pioneered profiting from releasing TV episodes theatrically!) The set presents the pilot in the theatrical format, but wisely retains the televised introductions by Desi Arnaz and Walter Winchell, whose somber, machine-gun like narration would become the hallmark of the series. Each of the episodes in this boxed set holds up well and provides intelligent, well-scripted entertainment. Neville Brand plays Capone quite satisfactorily, even if his Italian accent periodically sounds like a drunk's imitation of Chico Marx. If there is one complaint about Paramount's special editions, they often aren't very special in terms of extra content. This release meets that criteria with no extras provided whatsoever...c'mon guys, at least spring for a couple of criminal justice experts to provide some insights into the real Ness for future releases.
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THE WILD, WILD WEST SEASON TWO
One of the most creative and innovative of the James Bond-inspired TV series was The Wild, Wild West. Robert Conrad starred as a 19th century government agent who used outlandish gadgetry to thwart larger-than-life evil doers. His fellow agent, Artemus Gordon (played by Ross Martin) was a master of disguise who accompanied West on top secret missions. Because of the time period in which the series was set, the scriptwriters often had to be especially creative in finding space age uses for rustic devices and weaponry. As the series progressed, the episodes became increasingly outlandish and silly but the episodes presented in this set from season 2 are all gems. In fact, the mastering of the episodes gives them a stunning quality- indeed the show has never looked so attractive. Among the pleasures seen in the 28 episodes of this 7 disc set is the periodic appearances of the wonderful character actor Michael Dunn as West's arch nemesis, Dr. Loveless. If the only time you ever experienced The Wild, Wild West was through the dreadful Will Smith feature film of recent vintage, do yourself a favor and relish the real thing through this boxed set. Not to be a crumudgeon, but as with The Untouchables, there is nary an extra feature in the entire set- a flaw that will hopefully be rectified in future releases.
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WILD, WILD WEST PHOTO SCRAPBOOK FROM CINEMA RETRO
THE ODD COUPLE PREMIERE SEASON
Remember when hit movies actually spawned hit TV series? They're as rare as hens teeth in recent years, but the phenomenally successful Odd Couple holds up very well indeed, as evidenced by Paramount's recent release of the entire first season from 1970. The series derived from Neil Simon's Broadway smash with Walter Matthau and Art Carney (as the original Felix Unger). The play begat the equally successful big screen version that recast Jack Lemmon in the Carney role. The TV series, of course, had Tony Randall as Unger and Jack Klugman in the prime roles - and lightning struck a third time. The basic premise of the show is timeless. Two old friends end up rooming together when they split with their wives. That's it- the entire premise, save for the fact that Unger is an obsessive neat freak and his reluctant roomate Oscar Madison is a notorious slob. Such a scenario would be impossible to launch today without invoking gay overtones. Even in the 1970s great pains were taken to assure us the Randall's fey Felix was really straight- despite his preoccupation with traits that were generally assigned to stereotypically gay characters. From such simple elements comes great comedy especially when so many top bananas are involved in the writing, producing and directing. All 24 episodes from the first season are presented here and there isn't a disappointment among them. Happily, this is one set that Paramount garnishes with great extras including audio commentary by Klugman and others associated with the show, original TV promos, a rare appearance of both actors on The Mike Douglas Show, a gag reel, the duo in a stage production of the play, home movies and much more. Hours of old-fashioned entertainment - and that's meant as a compliment.
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