Years:  1974, 1975
Genre:  TV series, Drama
Country:  United States
Languages:  English
Starring:  Karl Malden, Michael Douglas
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Streets of San Francisco was one of those shows that was cool more for who was in it than for what was in it. Because WHAT was in it kind of sucked. It was just a cop show set in San Francisco where bad guys did stuff and good guys caught them. None of the content was great, and the production values were so low that Streets of San Francisco couldn’t even showcase the one thing that could have set it apart from other shows. That being, the streets of San Francisco. Some of the greatest car chases in movies and TV have happened on those streets. None of them were on the show actually named after the streets.

     The reason Streets of San Francisco is worth watching is for the cast.  The magnificent Karl Malden, winding down his career by slumming it on this show, and the extremely young Michael Douglas as his partner, launching what would turn out to be a fantastic career by using this show as a stepping stone. And it’s a stepping stone you can now get on DVD, when Paramount Home Entertainment releases Season Three Volume One and Season Three Volume Two on July 3^rd.

Years:  1973, 1974
Genre:  TV series, Drama
Country:  United States
Languages:  English
Starring:  Mike Connors, Gail Fisher, Robert Reed
Theme music composer:  Lalo Schifrin
Run time:  21 hours 18 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment
DVD extras:  Not much of anything
Related reviews:  Mannix Season Two, Mannix Season One, Mannix Season Three, Mannix Season Four, Mannix Season Five

     When I sat down to watch Season Seven of Mannix, on DVD July 3^rd from Paramount Home Entertainment, I went through a rollercoaster of emotion! The first episode is about a clairvoyant who predicts a murder attempt on a lady in a polka dot dress and hires Mannix to try to stop it. And I thought oh, no! A sure sign of decline in a TV program is to do one of those clairvoyant episodes where they leave it up in the air at the end as to whether or not it’s real and blah blah blah…so I was depressed.

     Then it turned out that it was all just a big setup, and the fake psychic was just setting Mannix up. Mannix was the target of the murder attempt, not the girl! And I was like, whew! That’s MUCH better, thank heavens Mannix isn’t jumping the shark already, here in the seventh season by trying some obnoxious ESP twist. And THEN I thought, wait a minute – so this whole episode is about someone trying to kill Mannix? EVERY episode is about someone trying to kill Mannix! In the end, this episode is exactly the same as every other Mannix episode. And then I was like…meh

Year:  1974
Genre:  Drama, Mystery, Classic, Noir, Blu-ray 
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Diane Ladd, James Hong
Director:  Roman Polanski
Run time:  130 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Chinatown is, of course, one of the best movies ever made, a true classic in American cinema.  Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and the incredible John Huston in Roman Polanski’s beautiful 1974 film noir, the greatest mystery movie ever made.

     And now Chinatown comes to Blu-Ray, in a solid transfer to high definition that really does enhance the picture.  There are a ton of special features that were not included on the Chinatown DVD that I’ve had on my shelf for years.  There’s a commentary track by director David Fincher (The Social Network, Zodiac, Fight Club) and Robert Towne, the screenwriter who came up with the sensational script. 

     There’s a retrospective called Chinatown: An Appreciation where Hollywood folk talk for half an hour about their love for the movie.  There’s a very short interview segment with Polanski, Nicholson, Towne, and producer Robert Evans, a segment about the filming of the movie, and an interesting documentary about Water and Power in Los Angeles (which has little to do with the film itself aside from the fact that the movie centres around a corrupt water deal in LA).

     All in all, there are more than two hours worth of special features on the Chinatown Blu-Ray, and most of them are really great.  With all that extra content, and a significant upgrade to high definition, this new release of Chinatown, April 3^rd from Paramount Home Entertainment, is now the definitive edition of one of the absolute best movies anyone has ever seen.  Pick this one up.

Years:  1972, 1973, 1974 
Genre:  TV series, Comedy
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Jack Klugman, Tony Randall, Betty White
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I love the old Odd Couple TV show.  It’s a little dated now, since we’ve seen so many TV shows based on the same basic premise since then.  Frasier and Two and a Half Men and countless other shows owe a big debt to Tony Randall and Jack Klugman.  Their chemistry was fantastic, and it’s showcased admirably in the new DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment, The Odd Couple Fan Favorites, out March 6th.

     There are eight great episodes on the best-of DVD, my favorite being the one where Oscar and Felix team up to go on the game show Password.  Which I guess was pretty big in the 70s.  The show was hosted by Alan Ludden, who guest stars on the episode with his wife at the time, Betty White. 

     What I found hilarious was that they made fun of Betty White’s age.  Her AGE!  Haha, she’s an old woman!  Remember, this episode was from 1972!  That’s right, Betty White was hilariously old FORTY years ago.  Ah, some things never change!

     There are some other guest appearances on the disc, including Bubba Smith who was playing for the Raiders at the time.  The best thing about the Fan Favorites DVD set though, is that at eight episodes, it is all the Odd Couple that you need.

Years:  1974, 1975
Genre:  TV series, Comedy
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Erin Moran, Anson Williams, Donny Most
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I was really hoping that the Happy Days Fan Favorites DVD, out March 6^th from Paramount Home Entertainment, would include the jumping the shark episode.  But it doesn’t.  One of the most iconic moments in television history, and just because it was STUPID, and it RUINED THE SHOW, they left it off the best of list.

     Then again, there was an awful lot of stuff left off that list.  Like, the final eight seasons of the show.  All eight episodes are from the first two seasons, when Fonzie was a secondary character and Ralph Malph and Potsie had a lot of screen time. 

     The first episode on the disc is the first ever episode of the show, where Richie Cunningham gets a date with a girl who has the reputation of putting out.  But then she doesn’t.  There’s a Hallowe’en episode involving a party at a haunted house, and a Christmas episode where Fonzie pretends he’s going to his aunt’s house out of town but the Cunninghams know he is going to be alone and conspire to get him over to their house for Christmas dinner.

     This is all fine, they’re good episodes and I like Happy Days, but are these really the fan favorites?  The pilot, the Hallowe’en episode, the Christmas episode?  It feels like this is a best-of chosen by a focus group rather than actual fans.  Maybe that’s because the fan poll was taken on facebook, and there are only nine people on all of facebook who actually remember the original run of Happy Days.

Years:  1974, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990
Genre:  Cartoon, Political
Country:  East Germany
Language:  No dialogue, German credits not translated
Directors:  Otto Sacher, Klaus Georgi, Sieglinde Hamacher, Marion Rasche, Hans Moser, Thomas Rosie, Lutz Stutzner, Peter Mibach
Run time:  57 minutes
Special Features:  Behind The Scenes at the DEFA Animation Studio, film essays, biographies and filmographies
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     The description of Red Cartoons indicates that it’s a collection of 16 short animated films from the former East Germany, produced by the country’s DEFA Sutiod For Animation Films between 1974 and 1990.  These films are apparently full of social and political satire that would never have been allowed in live action films by the oppressive regime at the time.  That being said, I can find that satire in only a few of the shorts.

     This had me feeling like an idiot for a long time – how come I can’t see the subversive nature of these cartoons?  Am I so poorly versed in the customs and conventions of the former East Germany and, indeed, the world that I’m the only one who can’t see this stuff?  I GOT the cartoons, but not the satire.  What’s wrong with me?

     The first cartoon is called Drum Beat.  And, admittedly, I didn’t understand that one at all, even as just a cartoon.  This guy has a drum, see.  His wife drops it on his head, but that’s cool he has more.  Then he walks around with it and ends up in a drum band.  That’s about it.  I don’t get it.

     The second film, from the same director (Otto Sacher) is called Stars And Flowers.  At least I got that one.  A guy who lives in the stars longs to touch the flower on the ground, and a guy who lives on the ground longs to touch the stars in the sky.  Loneliness sees a shocking abuse of emergency services as an old man sets fire to his Christmas tree so he will have the companionship of the fire department and the ambulance attendants.

     Variants sees two neighbours in a dispute over what appear to be raked leaves, and although a trip to court works out their differences, it doesn’t fix their animosity toward each other.  The Rescue is a tale of greed and selfishness which involves a remarkable number of people who manage to fall down a series of crevasses.  Seven Rights of a Viewer explores seven different ways an audience can respond to a performer, from the great (showering him with flowers) to the terrible (getting up and leaving).

     Hello sees an unfortunate man, plagued by noises everywhere he goes and trying to escape.  Deserted islands offer him no solitude, nor do forests or mountains or anything else.  Eventually he meets Satan in the desert.  I think I get that one.  Consequence is a satire I get.  After applauding vigorously for a film that details how driving in cars pollutes and destroys nthe environment, the audience gets into their cars and drives home.

     The Solution involves a bunch of birds sitting on a wire.  One little bird at the end is a non-conformist, which of course means he sits the opposite direction as the rest of the flock.  And of course his little friends rat him out.  And he gets roundly punished.  Until eventually everyone else comes around, so to speak.  Belly And Soul is about people feigning interest in the performance of a pianist while secretly trying to get to the massive spread of food that has been laid out following the concert.

     The Breakdown sees a man desperately asking for help at the side of the road, as his car has apparently fallen in a hole.  Finally, th smallest car stops to help and pull him out, with surprising results.  I get the satire in this one too.  That makes two.  The Full Circle is the story of a plant that produces gas masks, polluting so much in the process that the people in the town are forced to wear…gas masks, of course.  And Mr. Daff Is Shooting A Film makes a joke out of a poor sap of a bus driver.

     The Monument sees the unveiling of a massive statue to great applause, then people forget about it pretty much right away.  Then the statue gets a phone call.  And ends up alone in what appears to be a desert, in an Ozymandias sort of finale.  I don’t really get it.  Sunday seems to depict a church, where everyone is going to look at a plant, and tickets are being ripped at the door and everyone, including the priest, is getting patted down.  I guess to make sure they are not bringing in their own water bottles or snacks.

     The final short on the set is Island Joke, wherein three shipwrecked and frozen men have a chance to warm themselves up with a blanket tossed to them by a helpful mermaid.  Not understanding the gesture, they do what they figure is most obvious with the blanket – they build themselves a flag and salute it.  Here, again, is a satire I can understand.

     About four of the sixteen shorts are obvious satires, at least to me.  Maybe six.  I would have really liked to see a special feature that explained a little more.  There are several special features on the disc, but one is a wordless slide show that just shows people working at DEFA, and the others are essays about the East German film industry and animation.  Which is all great stuff – very informative and interesting, but I would have liked to see something that dealt more specifically with the sixteen films that were chosen to be featured on this disc.

     Even though I didn’t understand a few of the films, I liked them.  I thought they were all charming, and this is a disc I can see myself watching over and over.  But the fact that I liked them all so much was the reason I wanted to know more about them.  Thanks to the special features I know a little more about the directors and a lot more about the East German industry, but no more about the films themselves.  Red Cartoons comes out January 19th from First Run Features.

“Book him too, Danno.”

Years:  1974, 1975
Genre:  TV series, Cop, Drama
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Jack Lord, James MacArthur, Kam Fong, Al Harrington
Guest stars:  Leslie Nielsen, Perry King, Bruce Boxleitner, James Olson, Sheree North, Ray Danton, Jessica Walter, Sam Elliott, Gail Strickland, Linda Purl, Ed Flanders, Scott Brady, Jo Ann Harris, Keene Curtis
Creators:  Leonard Freeman
Run time:  20 hours 9 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment
Related reviews:  Hawaii Five-O Season Four, Hawaii Five-O Season Five, Hawaii Five-O Season Six

     I must begin my review of Hawaii Five-O, Seventh Season, on DVD October 20th from Paramount Home Entertainment, with an apology to Steve McGarrett.  Mr. McGarrett, I apologize, from the heart, for previously comparing you to David Caruso.  It is with sincere regret that I re-read my review of Season Six of your television program, where I suggested that the similarites are glaring.  I apologize to Jack Lord, the actor who played Mr. McGarrett as well, for my Season Five review where I called you Caruso-esque.  And I am contrite and ashamed when I read my review of Season Four, where I suggested Hawaii Five-O was a blueprint for the career of Caruso as Horatio in CSI Miami.

     The reason I apologize is that I recently watched the Seventh Season of CSI Miami.  At the Seven-Season mark of both shows, a perfect comparison can now be made.  Yes, Lord is intense to the point of being silly.  But he doesn’t take off his sunglasses and put them back on like he’s playing the Record Producer in a porno movie.  And yes, he relies a little too much on intense catch phrases, like “book ‘em, Danno”.  But his supporting cast, including Danno, is actually noticeable in each episode.  When there are guest stars on Hawaii Five-O, they are given equal screen time to be bad guys, like Leslie Nielsen in the episode where he wants to lych a guy on his crazy-guy compound.  And no one in Hawaii Five-O drives a hummer.

     I complain, often, that Hawaii Five-O spawned series like CSI: Miami, and that it helped to ruin television as a result.  But having made the direct comparison, I no longer hold a grudge.  I don’t blame Minor Threat for emo.  They were good, and they can’t help that their message was taken by less talented folks and used for evil.  And I don’t blame Hawaii Five-O for the crap that came after.  It was, is, and will always remain better than all the silliness that has sprung up in its wake.  Bring on Season Eight!

“You know how some guys go out on a tightrope, even though they know how dangerous it is?”
“So, this guy’s some kind of tightrope walker”
“Symbolically, yes.”

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Years:  1973, 1974
Genre:  TV series, Cop, Drama
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Jack Lord, James MacArthur, Kam Fong, Al Harrington
Guest stars:  Slim Pickens, Lew Ayres, Don Porter, Ed Flanders, Victor Buono, Andrew Duggan, Peter Strauss, Peter Donat, Anthony Zerbe, William Devane
Creator:  Leonard Freeman
Run time:  20 hours 9 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment
Related reviews:  Hawaii Five-O Season Four, Hawaii Five-O Season Five, Hawaii Five-O Season Seven

    I really can’t help seeing David Caruso every time I look at Jack Lord in Hawaii Five-O.  The similarities are just too glaring.  Only Lord and Caruso could have delivered a line like “symbolically, yes”.  Lord has just finished making a comparison between a thrill-seeking thief who almost lets himself be caught before making his escape, and a tightrope walker who does his act miles in the air for the thrill of it.  It’s terrifically obvious to everyone that he is making a comparison, speaking metaphorically.  Yet he feels the need, after making this statement, to hammer it home.  “Symbolically, yes.”  EVERYONE watching the show, EVERYONE in the room with him, knows he was referring to the tightrope walker “symbolically”, and not to a real tightrope walker.

   But, much like his latter-day counterpart, David Caruso on CSI: Miami, Lord feels the need to spell everything out, assuming that those around him, and those watching the show, would have a hard time wrapping their puny intellects around his fancy talk.  And such is the nature of Hawaii Five-O, which feels incredibly dated thanks to Nash Bridges, the CSI series, and numerous other followers in recent years.  The show still has the greatest theme music of any cop show ever (unless you count the music provided by The Who to the CSI series).  And it still manages to entertain.

   Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing Season Six of Hawaii Five-O on April 21st, and it’s worth the purchase.  Just because something has become very, very dated in recent years does not mean it isn’t fun for an hour at a time.  Like Hawaii Five-O, or Madonna.  It’s fun.  And I don’t mean that “symbolically”.