Customer Reviews

Hardcastle And McCormick / 5 DVD Set / Complete second Season

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up season 2 not too long ago because I vaguely remembered seeing it as a kid, and also because I couldn't find season 1 in stores anywhere. So I picked this up, and told myself I'd pick up season 1 sometime when I get the money. I couldn't really remember much about this show other than the cool car. So I popped in the disc, and it turned out to be a pretty good show. If you like car chases, somewhat suspenseful stories (E.G. Magnum P.I.) and a little bit of humour thrown into the mix.

I won't get into what the story is about because that's why you buy the dvd to see what the story is about, and get into the episodes. All I can say is the chemistry between Daniel Hugh-Kelly and Brian Keith is priceless. Sometimes they're at each other's throats, but most of the time they're poking fun at each other, and just having a good time. On a scale of 1-10 I would give this show an 8 for the quality of the writing and just overall great entertainment. But this is the positive part of the review, and I will now move onto some problems I had with this set.

This show I think was originally broadcast on ABC or something like that, and debuted in I think 1984? so the source material, or original masters would be pretty old. I understand that...but...I think what was done here was Stephen J. Cannell (who in my mind is a genius) worked out a deal with this canadian company called VEI to distribute the series on DVD. Not since Lion's Gate have I seen such poor quality on a dvd. I think if this was released by whatever company originally had the rights to it, it would be a lot better quality, but I think what happened is, they had no interest, so Cannell took his business elsewhere, or was approached by this lower budget company to release it. I think they basically just took the original masters, and if there was any problem with them, they left them as is, and released them.

I watched the first episode, and I am not lying when I say this, but it looked like during the theme song, the tape was eaten. Why they left this like that is beyond me. All they had to do was cut and paste the theme song from another episode, and put it in that place, but I guess that would have taken effort. I actually remember on a few episodes the theme song looking like the tape had been eaten. Anyway, another problem I had is the theme song itself. I heard a rumour that they changed directions during the second season, in order to keep up with the shows that were popular at the time (Knight Rider and The A-Team) so they changed the style of the show to a more serious show, with more of a murder mystery type of storyline, instead of the comic type episode that they were accustomed to making. I don't know if on this dvd set it was done to save money, but there is 2 different versions of the original theme song, and then there's the theme song that they changed about halfway into the season.

The original theme song was sung by Joey Scarbury, and was written by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer. It was a good catchy song called Back To Back. For those that don't already know Joey Scarbury also sung the theme song to The Greatest American Hero, which was also a show written,created and produced by Stephen J. Cannell. My problem with the theme song though was you have this really great vibrant sounding theme song sung by Joey Scarbury which sounds really well produced with great music and backing vocals, and then on select episodes the theme song plays and it's the same song but sounds completely different. It some country singer wannabe that sounds like a dog in heat, and completely sounds like utter crap. It hurts my ears to hear it. And then mid season they change the theme song to DRIVE or whatever it's called, which to me also sounds like crap. I would say that it alternates between theme songs for the first half of the season, for example Joey Scarbury's version of the theme would be episodes 1,3,5,7,9 and whoever that other person singing is something like 2,4,6,8 etc, and it's really annoying.

I think the set is a really good set, but a little pricy. And if you think the price matches the quality of the set, think again! It's a great show, and still would be an even better show if it was shown some care in transferring it to DVD, instead of just rushing it out, and leaving the mistakes in there. Since this is a canadian release, you will be paying a higher price due to it being an import.

If you can get past the minor quality shortcomings with the set, then you're in for a real treat with this set. There's some good episodes on here, and some cool car chases, reminiscent of The A-Team. So I recommend this set fully, but I just thought I would warn people about the quality of the discs, at least the ones in my set.

I LOVED this series when it was on and seeing the episodes on DVD just remind me how much I had enjoyed it. Downside, of course, is the fact that there are absolutely NO features on this ... not even closed caption.

But if you loved the series, you're watching this DVD for the episodes themselves anyways!

This is one of the best Series ever, with much good humor in it too.

Hardcastle and McCormick was without any doubt, one of the best TV series ever. Brian Keith was excellent as the Judge and I am so happy that the series to has finally come out on DVD. The wait was unbearable but well worth it. Now, let's see the rest.

Received on time and I enjoyed watching it because it had been many years since I'd seen it on TV.

The 1st season was great with humor & car
chases with every episode with a overturned
car! 2nd Season has some changes but is
just as good but with more of a serious tone
to some of the stories but still great car
chases & overturned cars but still funny.
The opening song was changed for a few
episodes but was changed back to the
original which was much better! Some of
the same scenes are used from other
episodes which is funny if you notice
them so watch carefully. Can't wait to
get Final Season! Great Show!

Was so happy to find the complete set for my son. He really enjoyed the show when it was on TV.