Mcdougall, Don

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries - Season One

The Hardy Boys Mysteries and The Nancy Drew Mysteries began in 1977 as separate series alternating in the same time slot on ABC. Early the following year, the casts combined, and in the fall of 1978 the Nancy Drew thread was dropped and The Hardy Boys Mysteries continued on alone. This Season One boxed set captures the twin-series idea at its most ambitious, with adolescent brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, created by author Franklin W. Dixon, sleuthing for clues one week and Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew investigating crimes the next.

Actually, as fans of the books know, Dixon and Keene were both pen names used by Edward Stratemeyer when he created those characters in 1927. Just as the young detectives have been updated in print every so often to accommodate successive generations of readers, so too did the TV show present Joe (Shaun Cassidy, brother of David Cassidy of The Partridge Family), Frank (Parker Stevenson), and Nancy (Pamela Sue Martin) as thoroughly 1970s kids. The boys are outfitted with motorcycles, Joe enjoys a retro-pop singing career, and Nancy has a certain freedom of movement only the hippest of dads in a permissive age would allow. Hardy Boys finds the always-amicable siblings following in the footsteps of their father, Fenton (Edmund Gilbert), a private detective, as they untangle capers that take them from haunted houses to Hawaii. The Hardy episodes make for brisk, family viewing, much better than the bubblegum reputation that built up, undeservedly, around the series. Slightly less interesting are the Nancy Drew programs (despite a more entertaining supporting cast), but only because the heroine is less focused and distractingly man-crazy, and the storylines are less exotic. An emphasis on the supernatural and science-fiction themes lends a Scooby-Doo vibe to several programs in both series, though the best stories are the ones with straightforward, meat-and-potatoes detective work. Among the directors on either series are Jack Arnold (The Creature from the Black Lagoon), Winrich Kolbe (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and actors Vince Edwards and Stuart Margolin. --Tom Keogh

The Hardy Boys Mysteries and The Nancy Drew Mysteries Trivia
• Jamie Lee Curtis and Robert Englund, who played the biker couple Mary and Gar in an episode of this series, started acting in horror films during this era.

Follow the clues to mystery, adventure and thrills as Season One of the The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries comes to DVD for the first time ever! Teen sensations Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin star as brave super-sleuths in 14 spooky episodes loaded with spellbinding action and smash-hit pop songs, including Shaun Cassidy's #1 hit "Da Doo Ron Ron." Inspired by the hugely popular books and with an amazing lineup of guest stars, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Mark Harmon, Bob Crane, Rick Nelson and more, it's no surprise that The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries is an open-and-shut case for fun!

The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete Seventh Season

The Duke Family -- cousins Bo and Luke assisted by their cousin Daisy and their uncle Jesse- fight the system and root out the corrupt practices of Hazzard County Commissioner Boss Hogg and his bumbling brother-in-law-Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. The down home antics continue in the seventh and final season of this good ol boy TV series!Running Time: 822 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 012569815490 Manufacturer No: 81549

The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete First Season

The Dukes of Hazzard was part of America's redneck fetish in the mid-to-late 1970s, otherwise evident in popular songs, movies, and television shows highlighting fast cars, truckers, citizens' band radio, moonshine, irreverent hicks, and clueless lawmen. Created by writer-producer Gy Waldron and inspired by his own 1975 bootlegging comedy, Moonrunners, Dukes milked seven seasons of material from the tale of a Deep South family of reformed whiskey-makers and their running feud with a greedy impresario and his chief lackey, a buffoonish, venal sheriff.

This three-disc set includes all 13 initial episodes of Dukes from 1979, a period fans fondly recall because some of the programs were shot on location in Covington, Georgia, rather than a Burbank backlot. Also noteworthy is that a couple of key characters, particularly Hazzard County's corrupt lawman, Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best), hadn't gelled yet into permanent hayseed stereotypes and were arguably more interesting at the beginning. At the center of the action is Sheriff Coltrane's nemeses, cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), a couple of wild boys buzzing through the backwoods in the "General Lee," a souped-up Dodge Charger. Bo and Luke are good at heart but have to behave themselves while on indefinite probation, complicating but not halting their efforts to vex Roscoe and his patron, diminutive bigwig Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke). The enmity runs both ways: Roscoe and Boss Hogg, with the aid of witless Deputy Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer), dream up ways of eliminating the Dukes--including their wise old Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle)--but their efforts always backfire.

While every episode is a variation on the previous one, predictability is a virtue in Dukes. The series pilot, "One Armed Bandits," finds Luke and Bo, with help from their sexy cousin, Daisy (Catherine Bach), diverting slot machines (smuggled into Hazzard County by Roscoe and Boss Hogg) to sundry watering holes where they can raise money for Bo's girlfriend's charity. In "Money to Burn," Boss Hogg tries to frame Bo and Luke for robbing an armored truck, while in "Deputy Dukes," the unarmed guys are forced by Roscoe to escort a deadly prisoner from one town to another. The Dukes hit back in "Daisy's Song," investigating a scam that took Daisy for $50 and implicates, of course, Boss Hogg and Roscoe.

Yes, it's a show about rubes, car stunts, and a legacy of moonshine, but there's something comforting about it, in a tongue-in-cheek way. --Tom Keogh

Join Luke and Bo Duke--a couple of good old boys--and their cousin Daisy Duke as they stay just ahead of the sheriff in their souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger The General Lee and have fun thwarting the plots of the corrupt county boss.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 085393226428 Manufacturer No: 32264

Dallas - The Complete First and Second Seasons

Dallas: The Complete First and Second Seasons is an American equivalent to those British miniseries about historical chapters in that country's royal monarchy. Full of family in-fighting, political intrigue crossed with personal triumph or disappointment, and plenty of sensational infidelities and betrayals, Dallas is a captivating story of a wealthy oil family's power and travails. It is also uniquely fun and daringly absurd, albeit with a straight face; this hugely successful, primetime soap opera began in the late 1970s and ran 14 seasons in all, built on a handful of primary relationships that stretch credulity but never descend into self-parody.

Not unexpectedly, Dallas begins with a Romeo and Juliet tale that instantly exposes an old feud between two families and strips the civilized veneer from several major characters. Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), youngest of three sons of independent oilman Jock Ewing (Jim Davis), arrives at the Ewing clan's Southfork ranch just outside Dallas, Texas, with a new wife, Pam Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal). Pam is the daughter of Digger Barnes (David Wayne), an old business rival of Jock's and one-time suitor of the Ewing matriarch, Eleanor (or "Miss Ellie," played by Barbara Bel Geddes). Pam's also the sister of a state senator, Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), whose vendetta against the Ewings is played out in the legislature, imposing costly regulations on their business and holding committee investigations into questionable practices of company president J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman). Pam's status as the newest Ewing causes an uproar in the family (besides being a Barnes, she also dated the Ewings' genial but lonely foreman, Ray Krebbs, played by Steve Kanaly) and prompts Dallas' charming villain, J.R., to make many Iago-like attempts, over the first two seasons, to drive her from Bobby's arms. Pam has a different set of problems with the other, jealous Ewing women, including J.R.'s possibly barren and alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), and teenage Lucy (Charlene Tilton), daughter of exiled Ewing son Gary (Ted Shackleford). With new and old resentments flying and everyone deeply suspicious of everyone else's motives (even the ailing Jock doesn't trust J.R.), there's plenty of drama to chew on. Still, storylines are often larger than the sum of these parts, with lots of kidnappings, marital affairs, plane crashes, and shootings ratcheting up suspense. Dallas is pure pleasure, a little guilty, perhaps, but not a sin. --Tom Keogh

Power wealth sex glorious extravagance. One place has them all - Dallas. This 5-disc set includes all 29 of the hugely entertaining show's First- and Second-Season Episodes including a cast reunion special. Patrick Duffy Victoria Principal and more play Texas sons and daughters whose lives revolve around oil family and power. And Larry Hagman portrays petroleum magnate J.R. Ewing whose pursuit of in no particular order money and clout knows no limits.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 085393358129 Manufacturer No: 33581

The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete Sixth Season

The Duke boys are back home in Hazzard and are ready to kick-up some dust in the General Lee!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSICS UPC: 012569758179 Manufacturer No: 75817

The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete Third Season

Season 3 finds The Dukes of Hazzard coasting on its popular 1980s formula. Cousins Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) Duke are still tearing up the road in their '69 orange Dodge Charger, the General Lee, while Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) everlastingly tries to frame them for everything from the theft of his cutlery at the Boar's Nest ("The Hazzardville Horror") to the heist of Stonewall Jackson's sword ("Along Came a Duke"). Meanwhile, leggy cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) adds some dimension to her eye-candy character by becoming a reporter for the Hazzard Gazette ("By-Line, Daisy Duke") and a kidnap victim ("Enos Strate to the Top") whose innocuous photographs of Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle) in Atlanta happen to capture a couple of bank robbers in action.

The predictability of the show in its third year by no means makes the series, created by writer-producer Gy Waldron (Moonrunners), anything less than shameless, tongue-in-cheek fun. Booke's cartoonish villain remains an outlandish self-caricature, chortling over every (doomed) opportunity to nail the Dukes and/or take Uncle Jesse's farm through a crooked boxing match ("And in This Corner, Luke Duke"), a bank robbery set up (by Hogg) to appear that Bo and Luke pulled off the crime during the wedding of Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best, in "Mrs. Rosco P. Coltrane"), and even by pretending to be amnesia victim Bo's father ("My Son, Bo Hogg"). After some cast uncertainty in season 2 (boycotts, etc.), things have mostly settled down and Booke's popularity is obviously in ascendance at this point in the show. Special features here include a special welcome by Schneider, Wopat, and Bach, and on-camera commentary by the same trio. --Tom Keogh

Get revved up and ready to go in 2005! Following the phenomenal success of Dukes of Hazzard Seasons One and Two on DVD Warner Home Video will release Season Three on May 31st complete with a FREE Movie Ticket* to the theatrical release starring Jessica Simpson Sean William Scott Johnny Knoxville Burt Reynolds Willie Nelson and more! With the #1 performing Action-Adventure classic TV series on DVD the much-anticipated theatrical release and the return of series to cable TV 'The Year of The Duke Boys' is here! Season Three contains 23 action-packed episodes in a 4-disc collector's set! * In initial ship units only.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 012569691674 Manufacturer No: 69167

The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete Fourth Season

The Dukes of Hazzard: The Complete Fourth Season finds the redneck comedy down to a fine science almost comforting in its predictability. Cousins Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) still raise hell with the General Lee in rural Hazzard County (and still have no visible means of financial support). Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach) is still the picture of wildflower innocence despite her tomboyish temper and barely legal short-shorts. Uncle Jesse Duke (Denver Pyle) still basks in righteous anger at longtime enemy (and fellow former moonshiner) Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg (Sorrell Booke), the latter an unrepentant schemer for whom every living thing seems an obstacle in his quest for vast (and unethically acquired) wealth. As sure as the sun rises every day, any scene involving Boss Hogg and the idiotic Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best) will be played for maximum slapstick-cartoonish energy, all the better if dimwitted Deputy Cletus (Rick Hurst) becomes entangled in their shtick.

Season highlights include "Mrs. Daisy Hogg," with guest star Jonathan Frakes--destined to play Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation (please note that Dukes' executive producer is one Paul R. Picard)--as a counterfeiter who falls for, and thus endangers, poor Daisy. "Double Dukes" finds Boss Hogg hiring two thugs to disguise themselves as Bo and Luke, but the real fun with this episode is a recent commentary track (optionally chosen via special features) with Wopat, Schneider, and Bach kidding around and reminiscing like naughty siblings. "Diamonds in the Rough," directed by James Best, concerns out-of-town gangsters searching for stolen diamonds stuffed in a Bugs Bunny toy that made its way from the Dukes' hands to Boss Hogg's Cadillac to Roscoe's hound. "Ten Million Dollar Sheriff" is a two-parter in which Roscoe inherits a load of money, and--for a time--becomes a kingpin even more dangerous than Boss Hogg. Comedian Jeff Altman makes a comeback as master-of-disguise villain Hughie Hogg, who implements grand plans to eliminate the Dukes and salt-of-the-earth tow truck driver Cooter Davenport (Ben Jones). Sprinkled throughout the season are musical performances by Buck Owens, Mickey Gilley, and other country artists. --Tom Keogh

The down-home craziness continues with the Duke boys on DVD in The Dukes of Hazzard: The Complete Fourth Season! Following the phenomenal success of the TV franchise on DVD Season Four's release will precede the much-anticipated theatrical release staring Jessica Simpson Johnny Knoxville and Sean Scott Williams. All roads lead to fun in this 27-episode 9-disc collector's set with special features including an inside look at the series with John Schneider Cathering Bach Tom Wopat and Creator Gy Waldron!System Requirements:Running Time 146 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 012569727250

The Dukes of Hazzard - The Complete Second Season

The Dukes of Hazzard settled into a comfortable run in season 2. The show, originally shot on location in Covington, Georgia, was now permanently produced on a backlot in Burbank, California. While a couple of cast members (Ben Jones, who plays mechanic Cooter Davenport, and James Best, who portrays Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane) briefly boycotted the series in its second year (ushering in a parade of brief replacements, including Mickey Jones of the New Christy Minstrels, Dick Sargent of Bewitched, and James Hampton of F Troop), the actors relaxed into their now thoroughly cartoonish characters.

What else can one say: The General Lee, the souped-up '69, orange Dodge Charger that belongs to cousins Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) Duke, has a full tank and is ready to ride. The Duke boys, scions of a proud--though reformed--moonshining family, are still on probation with the law but continue to root out the criminal schemes of diminutive villain Boss Hogg (Sorrell Brooke) and his Wile E. Coyote-like lackey, Sheriff Coltrane. Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle) is still a fount of grizzled wisdom as well as Boss Hogg's old whiskey-running nemesis. Cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) still burns up the road with her short-shorts, and Coltrane's deputies Enos (Sonny Shroyer) and Cletus (Rick Hurst) remain idiots with an edge of sympathy. Season 2 highlights include a funny fan favorite called "The Ghost of General Lee" (also co-star Schneider's favorite episode), in which Bo and Luke are assumed to have drowned when their stolen car ends up at the bottom of a pond. Hearing that Boss Hogg plans to blame them anyway for a theft they didn't commit, the Duke boys haunt him and Coltrane with apparitions of the General Lee as a "ghost." NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough makes an appealing guest in a story about the development of a secret turbo charger and Hogg's effort to steal it, while Loretta Lynn turns up as herself in a damsel-in-distress tale, featuring the country superstar as a kidnapped hostage. "Witness for the Persecution" introduces a recurring theme on Dukes: Occasions in which the vile Hogg must be protected from his enemies by hiding out with (gasp) the Dukes. The best of The Complete Second Season, however, may be "Days of Shine and Roses," in which Hogg and Uncle Jesse, after watching a film of their old moonshine-delivery exploits with the Ridge Runners Association, get into an argument about who was best and decide to resolve the question with a grudge race. Special features include Wopat and Schneider's screen tests, and a documentary about the Dukes' 25th anniversary festival in Tennessee, featuring series stars and stunt drivers. --Tom Keogh

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: NR
Release Date: 25-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Dallas - The Complete Fifth Season

Blink while watching Dallas: The Complete Fifth Season, and one might miss some of the fastest moving nastiness ever seen on the granddaddy of primetime soaps. Hovering over everything is the tragic loss of grizzled patriarch Jock Ewing (Jim Davis, who died prior to season 5), off on business in South America but dead before he returns to Southfork Ranch and the arms of Miss Ellie (Barbara Bel Geddes). While the widow grieves for her loss, charming scoundrel J.R. (Larry Hagman) finds new lows to reach as he conspires to woo estranged wife Sue Ellen (Linda Gray) back to Southfork and blackmail younger brother Bobby (Patrick Duffy) into abandoning his shares in Ewing Oil, thus giving J.R. control. Even J.R.'s schemes mask deeper ploys: getting back Sue Ellen means getting back their toddler son, John Ross, which means adding John Ross's ten shares to J.R.'s arsenal. Sheesh.

There's also more collateral damage than ever from J.R.'s machinations, notably the complete destruction of chronic loser Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), whose romantic overtures toward Sue Ellen stand in J.R.'s way. Not only does poor Cliff lose Sue Ellen's affections, he falls hook, line, and sinker for a fake deal dangled by a J.R. confederate, costing him the respect and support of his family and threatening his health. But there's also the infant son of Sue Ellen's late sister to think about: Bobby and baby-starved Pam (Victoria Principal) want to adopt him, but J.R. claims to be the father and threatens to take the boy away. (How do most of these people manage to live under the same Southfork roof?) Meanwhile, young Lucy (Charlene Tilton) deals with divorce and the emotional aftermath of being held hostage, and Jock's son Ray (Steve Kanaly) threatens his marital stability with impulsive investments in real estate. Everything comes to a head with a new eruption in the old Ewing-Barnes family feud, and an internal fight for control of the Ewing empire. Down and dirty, and completely irresistible. A nice special feature provides a tour of the real-life Southfork ranch. --Tom Keogh

The saga of the wealthy Ewing family continues in its fifth season - full of sibling wars adultery reconciliation and power struggles. In its fifth season the Ewing Family is struck by tragedy when Jock is presumed dead in a plane crash J.R. schemes to gain ultimate power over the Ewing business and battles for custody of his son and ultimately tries to win Sue Ellen's love back. Bobby adopts Kristin's baby and gets caught up in a murder charge.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 012569755543 Manufacturer No: 75554

CHiPs - The Complete First Season

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

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