Bondelli, Phil

CHiPs - The Complete First Season

Where the rubber meets the road and the bad guys meet the badge -- that's where you'll find California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers Jon (Larry Wilcox) and Ponch (Erik Estrada). Set in the sun-drenched sprawl of Los Angeles CHiPs combines action heroics and fun in 22 Season One episodes whose event-packed storylines range from freeway gridlock (let's use a circus elephant to tow that broken-axled truck!) to wild roadway pursuits (who's that beautiful woman lead-footing a Rolls Royce?) from spilled onions (crying time fellas) to pure venom (an overturned van loaded with...sssnakes!). Attention all units: Report now for arresting entertainment!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 053939778526 Manufacturer No: T7785

Country boy Larry Wilcox got first billing, but Erik Estrada was the breakaway star of CHiPs, the popular late 1970s show about California highway patrolmen. With his blindingly white teeth, tight shirts, tighter pants, and exquisite '70s hair (which always emerged from under his helmet perfectly coifed), Estrada transformed his struggling career of playing hoodlums into becoming one of television's first Latino heroes--Frank "Ponch" Poncharello--and a skyrocketing sex symbol as well. CHiPs is basically Adam-12 on motorcycles. Ponch may have been a hothead, but there's not a hint that these cops are anything but perfectly upright and earnest in their duties--a far cry from The Shield or The Wire! Ponch and Jon Baker (Wilcox) cruise all over the southern California freeway system, grappling with car thieves, clearing away overturned trucks, and pulling beautiful girls out of car accidents. Every episode has at least one high-speed chase and just about every episode features Ponch hitting on a woman with gloriously feathered hair; watching episode after episode may feel a bit repetitive, but there's no denying that the stories are efficiently laid out and crisply executed. Foiling crime and rescuing lost dogs was the show's meat and potatoes, but the dessert was preposterousness like Ponch competing with a squad of middle-aged housewives on a game show or chasing after spilled chickens. The extras on CHiPs: The Complete First Season are meager, but many episodes feature introductions by Estrada, who's gained some weight but lost none of his cocksure charm. --Bret Fetzer

Fantasy Island - The Complete First Season

One of the definitive TV shows of the 1970s originally aspired to the dark moral complexity of anthology shows like The Twilight Zone. Even diehard fans will have to admit Fantasy Island fell short of its goal--but that didn't stop it from becoming hugely popular, lasting for seven powerhouse seasons. All the most iconic elements were present from the beginning: Diminutive Tattoo (Herve Villechaize, The Man with the Golden Gun) shouting "De plane! De plane!"; infinitely gracious Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) commanding "Smiles, everyone, smiles," before delivering pages of exposition with his implacable Latin gravitas; the white suits; the tropical island that somehow has all the vegetation and weather patterns in the world; the pageant of celebrities from Jim Backus to Karen Valentine, Barbi Benton to Don Knotts--it all added up to sneakily addictive television. After all, wish-fulfillment--be it a schlub who wants to be irresistible to chicks or kids who want their separated parents to reconcile or a former cheerleading team who want to relive their high school glory days--had a built-in narrative hook, even though the resolution (various versions of "be careful what you wish for") was never in doubt. Almost every episode bubbled over with sex, revenge, ambition, and regret, delivered with a shameless lack of subtlety. Over the course of the first season, the interplay between Montalban and Villechaize--each armed with an intriguing exotic accent--became more and more prominent, with Mr. Roarke becoming increasingly supernatural while Tattoo oozed the mortal sins of greed and lechery. Turn on any episode; you'll find it hard to stop watching, no matter how cheesy or ludicrous the storyline. This four-dvd set includes the original TV movie pilot, its sequel, and the 16 episode first season, as well as a couple of largely bland featurettes enlivened by the occasional barbed comment from executive producer Leonard Goldberg. --Bret Fetzer

Smiles everyone smiles! It's the fabulous first season of FANTASY ISLAND the mysterious Pacific paradise where anything can - and will - happen. Join Mr. Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and his assistant Tattoo (Herve Villechaize) as they welcome their very special guests - including Bill Bixby Don Knotts Juliet Mills Leslie Nielsen Ray Bolger and Sandra Dee - for a weekend stay and make their fondest dreams and wishes come true. This DVD includes the long-running series' initial 14 episodes plus the 1977 pilot and the original feature-length television movie that started it all!System Requirements: Running Time 776 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396114906 Manufacturer No: 11490

S.W.A.T. - The Complete First Season

Tough but not swaggering, serious but not solemn, S.W.A.T. won over its 1970s television audience with several unexpectedly interesting elements: A degree of storytelling sophistication; visually exciting, guerrilla-like street violence; and a subtle but determined fascination with the psyches of the show's five principal characters. To a non-viewer, S.W.A.T. looked like a fatuously reassuring, law-and-order shill in the aftermath of the Vietnam war and Watergate. In reality, creator-producer Robert Hammer (a Peabody Award winner for the 1979 POW TV drama, When Hell Was in Session) managed to make an ideal, mid-'70s Aaron Spelling cop show with an extra emphasis on the human factor in peacekeeping.

Spun off from an earlier Spelling series, The Rookies, S.W.A.T. was the story of Special Weapons and Tactics, an elite branch of the Los Angeles Police Department assigned the most critical cases of urban violence in an American era of cult terrorism, snipers, assassinations, traumatized war veterans, and organized crime. Considering what the S.W.A.T. team is up against in every episode--shooters with sophisticated weaponry, psychotic revolutionaries, vulnerable takeover targets (nuclear reactors, etc.)--one might have expected the show to be swallowed up in gadgetry and fancy police protocol for extreme emergencies. But from the pilot (technically, a two-hour Rookies episode not included in this set) on, S.W.A.T. was clearly much more interested in the way team leader Lieutenant Dan "Hondo" Harrelson (Steve Forrest), Sergeant David "Deacon" Kay (Rod Perry), and officers Street (Robert Urich), Luca (Mark Shera), and McCabe (James Coleman) tried to understand the modern world even while keeping its meanest tendencies in check.

Inventive stories with occasional twists and appealing guest stars (James Keach, Cameron Mitchell, Annette O'Toole) keep one glued to the 13 episodes contained here. Among the best: "A Coven of Killers," starring Sal Mineo as a Charles Manson-like monster; "Jungle War," featuring Mitchell as a career cop and war vet facing an emotional breakdown; and "The Bravo Enigma," an apocalyptic tale of a curiously likable hit man (Christopher George) unknowingly spreading a plague through L.A. --Tom Keogh

From producer Aaron Spelling (TV's "Charlie's Angels" and "Starsky and Hutch") comes one of the toughest action-packed crime-fighting shows of them all: S.W.A.T. Spun off from "The Rookies" and fueled by its signature hit theme song S.W.A.T. chronicled the covert missions of the LAPD's Special Weapons and Tactics unit an elite five-man force tackling situations too dangerous for even the police to handle. The show introduced a new breed of hard-as-nails cops to audiences: Lt. Dan "Hondo" Harrelson (Steve Forrest Spies Like Us Mommie Dearest) Officer Jim Street (Robert Urich TV's "Vega$" "Spencer for Hire") Sgt. "Deacon"Kay (Rod Perry) Officer Dominic Luca (Mark Shera TV's "Barnaby Jones") and Officer T.J. McCabe (James Coleman).Now remastered and on DVD for the first time relive all those tense showdowns and standoffs during S.W.A.T.'s 13-episode debut season as that infamous black van rolls around the mean streets of L.A. delivering justice the hard way.System Requirements:Starring: Steve Forrest Rod Perry Robert Urich and Mark Shera. Running Time: 564 Min. (Total) Color. Copyright 2003 VPD Inc.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 043396003460 Manufacturer No: 00346

The Greatest '70s Cop Shows (Charlie's Angels / Starsky and Hutch / S.W.A.T. / Police Woman / The Rookies)

From POLICE WOMAN to Aaron Spelling classics like CHARLIE'S ANGELS STARSKY AND HUTCH S.W.A.T. and THE ROOKIES grab a seat and get ready to revisit all your favorite moments from the coolest crop of '70s cop shows. Digitally remastered on DVD for the first time ever TV's sexiest adventures high-octane car chases and thrilling shoot-outs have never looked better! This DVD collects five sought-after first episodes from the first seasons of these beloved action-packed hit series.System Requirements:Running Time: 252 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396003538 Manufacturer No: 00353

It may sound like a gimmick--The Greatest '70s Cop Shows is a compilation of first episodes from Starsky and Hutch, Police Woman, S.W.A.T., The Rookies, and Charlie's Angels--but this DVD anthology really opens one's eyes to the look and feel of dramatic television during the so-called Me Decade. Except for Angels, which never wavered from its self-mocking, glossy action/stiff exposition playbook, these cop-program debuts (four of them from Aaron Spelling) import much of their fluid camera movement, multiple points-of-view, and dynamic, often wordless storytelling from the era's rough-and-tumble action movies (e.g., The French Connection). Which is to say these shows may be dumb but not necessarily cheesy (except Angels' post-modern cheese). There is a lot to admire about the opening ambush in S.W.A.T.'s "The Killing Ground," the hard-boiled camaraderie of Police Woman's "The End Game," and especially the reckless physicality and ironic jokes of Starsky and Hutch's "Savage Sunday." --Tom Keogh

TJ Hooker - The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons

A street cop who gives a damn! The cop drama series T.J. HOOKER starred William Shatner as a police detective who turned his back on a gold badge and went back to patrolling the streets and training recruits. The long-running series also starred Adrian Zmed James Darren and launched the career of sexy Heather Locklear. Highlights include the show's original pilot and a special guest appearance by Leonard Nimoy!System Requirements:Starring: William Shatner James Darren Adrian Zmed Heather Locklear Running Time: 1137 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396097759 Manufacturer No: 09775

Florid of face and flamboyant of voice, William Shatner oozes smarmy self-importance with the barest sliver of irony...yet that sliver transforms him from unbearable to bizarrely charming. Mock him all you want--and you will--but the man is unstoppable; T. J. Hooker was his fifth TV series (not counting assorted mini-series or the animated version of Star Trek), with more to come. As a freshly-divorced, middle-aged cop who--out of either proletariat zeal or just a bad attitude--would rather pound a beat than be a detective, Shatner swaggers around in a sausage-tight uniform and lush wig of curly hair, casually spouting right-wing speeches and fearlessly hurling himself onto moving vehicles. With cocky Adrian Zmed (Bachelor Party) and mischievous Heather Locklear (another TV diehard, co-starring in this show and Dynasty simultaneously) as co-stars/eye-candy, T. J. Hooker is a glorious slice of Aaron Spelling cheese.

The brief first season--only five episodes--delved into the dark side of Hooker's character, brooding over booze and mounting debts, riding his recruits because of his own regrets. All that went out the window as the second season roared into action, turning Hooker into a standard tough guy with a heart of gold. But the classic Spelling elements were there from the start: Almost every case involves a relative or an old friend; the bad guys announce their sleaziness from the moment they appear; and no opportunity to show a little skin is missed (short-shorts and tight, nipple-emphasizing tops are de rigueur). Featuring street gangs, snipers, Bible-toting psychos, baby-faced arsonists (a very young David Caruso, NYPD Blue), and vengeful cops (Shatner's old pal Leonard Nimoy), T. J. Hooker had no pretensions to anything but roiling melodrama with some midlevel stunts thrown in every few episodes. It all rests on whether or not you like Shatner. If you do, you'll hug yourself when Hooker's ex-wife tells him, as if intoning a zen koan, "You'll do your best, and I know you already have, because you always do." No commentaries, alas; the only extra is a pointless compilation of "Next week on T. J. Hooker" snippets. --Bret Fetzer

The Best of Charlie's Angels, Season 1

Once upon a time, Jill, Sabrina and Kelly were police officers whose skills were being wasted in menial duties such as answering phones and filing. A mysterious millionaire named Charles Townsend took them away from all that by having them work for his private detective agency. Starring Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, David Doyle. 250 minutes. ANGELS IN CHAINS The Angels discover that the sheriff, prison authorities and the local County Manager are partners in an extortion-murder scheme in which wealthy young women are arrested and virtually enslaved as prostitutes until they sign over all their assets in exchange for an "early release" and then are killed. THE SEANCE The Angels are called in when rich widows and widowers are hypnotized into thinking their deceased spouses still manage their business affairs from the "other side." DANCING IN THE DARK Lured by a gigolo, wealthy women studying ballroom dancing are blackmailed for all they're worth. CONSENTING ADULTS A computer dating service, fronting for prostitutes and their robber accomplices, starts an underworld war by stealing hot diamonds from a syndicate courier. HELLRIDE Sabrina becomes a race car driver while Kelly, Jill and Bosley assume unusual disguises to learn why a pretty woman driver lost control of her car and died in a flaming wreck. They discover a conspiracy that extends far beyond the track.

Charlie's Angels - Angels Under Cover

The Bionic Woman Vol. 2 [Region 2]

The Bionic Woman Vol. 1 [Region 2]

Coral Dreamscapes: An Exotic Aquarium