Weis, Don

Perry Mason - Season One, Vol. 1

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 06/12/2007 Rating: Nr

There was a time when the defense attorney was a heroic everyman, not the butt of bad jokes; think Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, and, of course, Raymond Burr's incomparable Perry Mason. The first season of Perry Mason, which launched in 1957 on CBS, shows just how dramatic a "law and order" show could be. Shot in lush black and white, on film, the episodes have been lovingly restored (including lost minutes hacked from reruns to accommodate commercials). The story arcs and atmosphere feel more like film noir (Perry Mason + Philip Marlowe = separated at birth?) than early TV. The cast was stellar, including Burr's Emmy-winning Perry Mason, the indefatigable lawyer who takes tough cases no one else will touch. Burr's chemistry crackles from episode 1 with his costars, including Barbara Hale as secretary Della, William Hopper as private detective Paul Drake, and William Talman as Hamilton Burger, the well-meaning but overmatched district attorney. While it's true that the last-minute witness-stand confessions strain some credulity, the case-cracking, character development, and dialogue set a high bar for the legal shows that followed. "The Case of the Negligent Nymph," for instance, involves a comely young woman--and murder suspect--fished out of the Pacific; Mason deadpans to Drake, "Call off the search, Paul; we've landed our mermaid." The shows unfold at a leisurely pace, and yet don't rely on the overly expositive dialogue that, say, Law & Order does; the viewer learns a lot about each case simply as it happens. The set contains the first 19 episodes of the first season and will hook you, even if you're not a procedural buff. --A.T. Hurley

Perry Mason - Season One, Vol. 2

20 one-hour episodes from the first season Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 06/12/2007 Rating: Nr

The second volume of season 1 of Perry Mason fleshes out the splendid entire first year of the show, a masterpiece of '50s film noir and crisp, savvy TV writing. Raymond Burr's unflappable defense attorney Perry Mason is equal parts P.I., father confessor, and yes, judge, jury, and executioner. The crimes include murder most foul, and lots of that sordid specter that haunted people pre-internet: blackmail. Everyone has a motive, and everyone in the harsh light of Los Angeles seems to have something to hide. The boxed set contains the remaining 21 episodes of the first season, with highlights like "The Case of the Lonely Heiress," in which detective and Mason sidekick Paul Drake tracks down a rich woman, who is then suddenly accused of the murder of the man who tried to find her. Some episodes haven't aged well (one involves Mason interviewing a "schizophrenic" woman on the witness stand, interviewing "both" her personalities). But overall, the writing and the assured ambience of the series, and Burr's commanding presence, make Perry Mason among TV's topnotch armchair crime series. --A.T. Hurley

Perry Mason - Season Two, Vol. 1

A collection of 15 gripping cases from season 2 Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 06/19/2007 Run time: 773 minutes

There's something about Perry! Perry Mason, as a canny 14-year-old remarks in the episode "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client," is "the best lawyer in town." Here's the evidence. In 15 chronological second-season episodes from the classic series by which all lawyer shows are judged, Los Angeles attorney Perry Mason successfully defends a host of clients so seemingly guilty that Nancy Grace would have had them incarcerated by the first commercial break. Created by Erle Stanley Gardner, Mason was already a popular character in books, films, and radio before coming to television in 1957, and Raymond Burr, usually typecast as a heavy in feature films, did Mason justice (Mason was ranked 28th on the Bravo network's list of television's 100 best characters). Punctuating his sentences with that dramatic intake of breath, Burr's Mason exudes gravitas and expertise. He gets capable support from Barbara Hale as his secretary, Della Street, and William Hopper as private detective Paul Drake.

In what may be television's most thankless role, William Talman costars as district attorney Hamilton Burger, who nearly every week loses what looked to be an open-and-shut case, usually as the result of some dramatic surprise witness (in one episode, a parrot!), an unorthodox legal maneuver, or a cross-examination courtroom confession ("I didn't mean to kill him, your honor"). There is no delving into Mason's private life, although one episode hints at Mason being something of a ladies man. When Della suggestively tells him a new client is in his waiting room, he replies, "Blonde or brunette?" Cleverly plotted, and infused with a palpable noir sensibility , Perry Mason holds up as more than TV Land nostalgia, although it is fun to see such familiar faces as Jesse "the Maytag Repairman" White, Edgar Buchanan (Petticoat Junction), and Joseph Kearns and Herbert Anderson from Dennis the Menace. No extras, but these entertaining episodes will definitely please the court. --Donald Liebenson

Hill Street Blues - Season 1

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 08/05/2008 Run time: 850 minutes Rating: Nr

Created by Steven Bochco and one of television's most influential series, Hill Street Blues was not your father's cop show. The Emmy-winning pilot episode, "Hill Street Station," immediately established the series as less a police procedural than an up-close and personal "interface with the police experience." To establish gritty, documentary-like realism, the show featured sequences, such as the pre-credit roll call, that were filmed with a hand-held camera. There was chaotic, overlapping dialogue. There were sudden, shocking bursts of violence that claimed popular characters. Story lines were not wrapped up at the end of the hour, but instead, unfolded serially throughout the season. It's no wonder that Hill Street, while championed by most critics, was initially not embraced by viewers. It was, in the beginning, one of television's lowest rated shows, its case not helped by NBC's criminal practice of juggling it in its primetime schedule). But there is justice in Hollywood. Hill Street Blues won the Emmy for best drama in its first season. Also honored were several members of the ensemble, including Daniel J. Travanti as the compassionate and incorruptible Precinct Capt. Frank Furillo, Michael Conrad as the avuncular Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (whose cautionary, "Let's be careful out there," became the show's pop culture signature), and Barbara Babcock as the wildly sexual Grace Gardner, who rocks Esterhaus's world (particularly in the episode that earned her her statuette, "Fecund Hand Rose").

There were no big stars on Hill Street Blues (or, for that matter, no little stars, as one of the cast members jokes during a near-hour-long reunion featurette included as a bonus feature on this three double-sided disc set). Each was an indelible character, among them Charles Haid as cowboy cop Andy Renko, Veronica Hammel as sexy public defender Joyce Davenport, Bruce Weitz as the untamed, animalistic Belker, Keil Martin as LaRue, whose descent into alcoholism is one of the season's most compelling dramatic arcs, and James Sikking as the gung-ho Howard Hunter. Once daring, Hill Street Blues seems almost quaint today, with none of the graphic sex or language that scandalized NYPD Blue (in one episode, a captured cat burglar, portrayed by a pre-L.A. Law Michael Tucker, makes a reference to "wolf pee-pee"). The ethnic portrayals, too, are not exactly nuanced. But the human dramas at the heart of Hill Street still make for arresting television. --Donald Liebenson

Perry Mason - Season Two, Vol. 2

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 11/13/2007

We strenuously object! Raymond Burr was conspicuously and criminally missing on Entertainment Weekly's list of the top 100 TV icons. This is a TV Land injustice, but this four-disc set of episodes that complete season 2 lays the groundwork for an appeal. Burr was honored with an Emmy for his commendable work this season as Los Angeles defense attorney Perry Mason, as was Barbara Hale, who portrayed his faithful secretary Della Street. Who knows how many impressionable viewers Burr inspired to become lawyers with his masterful portrayal of the unflappable, incorruptible Mason? No matter how much evidence district attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman) and Lt. Tragg (Ray Collins) collect, and no matter how damning it is, it will usually collapse once Perry gets the real guilty party to break down on the witness stand or, in one case, in a beatnik hangout. In "The Case of the Lame Canary," a woman is discovered over her dead husband's body, gun in hand, and burning a stack of letters. "If she has any sense, she's at the airport waiting for the first plane out of the country," someone cattily remarks. Nope, she has better sense than that; she's at Perry's office.

Filmed in black and white, Perry Mason has a seductive noir sensibility. Here in sunny California are convoluted cases involving corruption, blackmail, scandal, revenge, and greed. Perry, with the help of private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper), sorts it all out, and in the episode codas, further parses the evidence ("I still don't see what put you on the right track" is a typical query) in inscrutable ways that invite replay. Beyond the pleasure of watching an actor thoroughly embody his character, it's also fun to spot familiar character actors. "The Case of the Petulant Partner" stars Will Wright, who played mean old Ben Weaver on the early seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, and that's a rather fetching Marion "Mrs C." Ross from Happy Days in "The Case of the Romantic Rogue." The episodes crackle with some old-school, hard-boiled dialogue. Almost worth the price of the set is hearing Lt. Tragg make with the beat talk in "The Case of the Jaded Joker." "I'm one of the cool ones," he jokes with Della and Perry. "I don't dig slick chicks trying to goof me up, daddy-o." Once again, this set is guilty of providing no extra features, but we'll let them off with a warning. This time. --Donald Liebenson

The Love Boat - Season One, Vol. 1

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 03/04/2008 Rating: Nr

(With apologies to Titanic): It's been 31 years, but I can still hear the laugh track. Sex was referred to as "the good stuff." And Charo had yet to coochi-coochie on the Fiesta deck. The Love Boat was called the Show of Ratings Dreams. And it was. It really was. Available at last on DVD, that ultimate 70s show fulfills its Velveeta-drenched theme song's seductive promise of "something for everyone," so "set a course for adventure, your mind on a new romance," as the Pacific Princess embarks on its inaugural cruises. The Love Boat answered the question of how Gavin McLeod, late of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, would make it on his own. He sailed into pop culture immortality as Capt. Merrill Stubing, who is gruff, but, as he compassionately tells one of his crew, "I'm also a human being." Tending to the passengers are perky and adorable cruise director Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes), Yeoman-Purser "Gopher" Smith (future congressman Fred Grandy), major operator Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell), and bartender Isaac Washington (Ted Lange). Lesser hands would have been sunk by the terrible jokes, but this personable ensemble keep things afloat. As with Love American Style, this anthology series was truly buoyed by its guest stars, an irresistible mix of faded movie and TV legends (to the question, "Where are they now?" the answer during the show's run was invariably, "The Love Boat"), then-current big and small screen favorites, and future stars. Adding to the fun was that many were cast against type. Bonnie Franklin, who portrayed a nurturing single mom on One Day at a Time, shows up as Capt. Stubing's witchy ex-wife. Jim "Gomer Pyle" Nabors appears to be reprising his country bumpkin persona, but first appearances turn out to be deceiving. Loni Anderson has a bit part opposite Steve Allen as a blonde bimbo, a stereotype she would later explode on WKRP in Cincinnati.

The stories range from silly (a wife, whose husband is planning a surprise party for her, thinks he is trying to kill her) to serious (a mother grieves over the loss of her young son). This being the late '70s (and a show produced by Aaron Spelling), there is much hanky-panky (Isaac has an onboard fling with an incognito jazz singer portrayed by Diahann Carroll), but traditional family values usually win out (though feminists may want to hurl themselves overboard after the episode in which successful advice columnist Eva Gabor agrees to take a break from her popular column to tend to neglected and straying husband Leslie Nielsen). Those who have been looking forward to this pleasure cruise may be disappointed to find that the DVD accommodations are not exactly deluxe. It's only the first 12 episodes, the pilot movie that launched the series is not included, and there are no episode commentaries, interviews, or other extras, save for optional viewing episode promos. But The Love Boat itself is still a great escape, so "come on board, we've been expecting you." --Donald Liebenson

Fantasy Island - The Complete First Season

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 11/15/2005 Run time: 776 minutes

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

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

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 03/29/2005 Run time: 564 minutes Rating: Nr

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

TJ Hooker - The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 08/09/2005 Run time: 1137 minutes Rating: Nr

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

Starsky & Hutch - The Complete First Season

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/27/2008 Run time: 1173 minutes Rating: Nr

In the rough-and-tumble, wildly entertaining world of Starsky & Hutch, impatient cops--anxious to join a foot race in pursuit of a villain--throw themselves out of moving vehicles and roll to a bruising stop. Undercover detectives Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul), hardly imbued with the powers of Spider-Man, routinely scale walls, hop from rooftop to rooftop, and fling themselves down steep hillsides to stop bad guys from doing what bad guys do.

Two years before Hill Street Blues redefined the cop genre as a mesh of overlapping storylines and workaday frustrations, Aaron Spelling's Starsky & Hutch capped a five-year run (1975-1979) portraying LA's finest as madly heroic creatures of reckless determination and physicality. The Complete First Season reminds us how startlingly brutal this primetime series could be while maintaining a delightful, often incongruous, self-deprecating humor.

From the series pilot on, partners and best pals Starsky and Hutch work a fine line between predator and prey, relentlessly pursuing suspects while also snared by crime chieftains or short-sighted superiors. In "The Fix," Hutch's secret romance with the former girlfriend of a mafia boss (Robert Loggia) results in the lawman's kidnapping and forced addiction to heroin. Similarly, in "A Coffin for Starsky," a mad chemist injects the wisecracking cop with a slow-acting but lethal poison. "Jo-Jo," written by Michael Mann, finds our guys at loggerheads with federal officers over a dumb deal the G-Men make with a serial rapist.

The 23 episodes in this set are all fun, if sometimes shocking, viewing. Expect each character to take as much abuse as he dishes out. Still, the comic sight of Starsky and Hutch (in "Death Notice") trying to conduct business amidst busy strippers is well worth the surrounding violence. --Tom Keogh