Customer Reviews

Simon & Simon: Season Three

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like the rest of the reviewers, I grew up on Simon and Simon. Loved watching it. The characters of Rick and AJ were terrific and loved the supporting cast Mom Simon, Downtown Brown, Myron Fowler and Janet Fowler. Would have loved to have a dog like Marlow. Even now when I hear the theme music it brings a smile to my face cause I know good television is fixing to hit the screen from my dvd player. So Amazon how bout you joining the rest of us and get seasons 4 - 9 released? I'll buy em! I would rather spend 35.00-40.00 dollars on good television entertainment than watch the majority of tv. shows today.

Season 3 of Simon & Simon is where the show really hit it's stride. 1983 was a great year and this show captures the time perfectly. For fans of the 80s, don't forget you get the added bonus of a Whiz Kids crossover episode (starring Matthew Laborteaux etc).

All that and the assurance that Shout Factory will do yet another stellar job on great dvd quality and artwork! Perfect summer viewing and perfect nostalgia.

There is something nearly magical about being 'on top of your game', and "Simon & Simon: Season Three" was truly at it's peak. Not only were stars Jameson Parker (as sweet-tempered, preppy A.J.) and Gerald McRaney (as gonzo Vietnam vet, Rick), superb, and Mary Carver, as their long-suffering but loving mom, Cecilia, given real opportunities to shine (and let's not forget Marlowe, Rick's scene-stealing big ol' mutt), but the arrival of Tim Reid, as funny, street-savvy Det. 'Downtown' Brown, provided the missing element the show needed; a likable authority figure to tell the boys their clients are guilty and their theories, crazy, then join in the adventures to catch the real villains ('deputizing' them, regularly!). While he doesn't arrive until the seventh episode, the chemistry is spontaneous, and by the end of the first appearance, he's 'family'!

For those who followed the series faithfully, some slight but noticeable 'tweaking' is evident; Rick's 'Nam backstory is beefed up, providing more dramatic opportunities (if making some of his first season silliness a bit out-of-character); the stakes are raised (with the brothers occasionally in REAL hot water with the police on both sides of the border); and the clients and fees are a bit higher-class (although the guys still have problems collecting!)

Some stand-out episodes: "Shadow of Sam Penny", a nifty Film Noir detective movie homage, with film legends Scott Brady, Dane Clark, Joan Leslie, Anne Francis, Elisha Cook, Jr., and TV's best 1960s leading man, Robert Lansing, as Penny; "The Bare Facts", with the brothers 'under cover' at a nudist colony (no easy feat on G-rated network TV!); "Betty Grable Flies Again", with Pat Hingle as a disgraced WWII AAF pilot trying to find his old plane (a beautiful, vintage bomber); "The Wrong Stuff", with Gary ("2001: A Space Odyssey") Lockwood again an astronaut, if an alcoholic, washed-up one; "Double Play", where the boys are framed, arrested in Mexico, and lose their license, with Mary Carver giving a moving speech on her unhappiness at their careers; and "The Dillinger Print", a potentially farfetched tale of gangster John Dillinger still being alive, lifted by one of Parker's finest porformances of the entire series, and cameos by veteran 'tough guys' Harold J. Stone and "The Untouchables" Bruce ('Frank Nitti') Gordon.

This is THE season, the real start of the best seasons of the series, and if you love "Simon & Simon" (or would like to see why the show was so popular and ran so long), this is a great place to find out!

I'm so glad the show became available again after a dismal first release. It's been wonderful re-visiting TV of the 80's with the Simon brothers. There's a certain innocence about it that is completely lacking in many contemporary shows as American society has grown increasingly narcissistic and salacious. The guys still get their fair of action but women are still treated with respect. What a couple of gentlemen. As for the DVD's, season three is, as others said, when the show hit its stride. I'd agree with that although the 1st season has its "newness" kind of charm. The brothers make me LOL all the time despite the plot holes that spring up from time to time. I also like all the episodes neatly and nicely packaged together like this (my old copies were a few scattered episodes on worn-out VHS tapes).

I wish to echo what the other reviewers have said. This season is when Simon and Simon really hit its stride. The first two season are good, but this season we meet Downtown Brown, their buddy on the police force. After this the series really took off. Thank you Shout Factory for releasing another season of this great series. Please release all the seasons. A great extra for the final season would be to add on the one TV movie that came out a few years after the series ended.

Sibling PI's (and best friends) Rick (Gerald McRaney) and A.J. (Jameson Parker) Simon really hit their stride in this third-season box set, which includes some of their most intriguing cases and also introduces Tim Reid as "Downtown" Brown, the plainclothes SDPD lieutenant who quickly becomes almost a third Simon himself. As is usually the case with this series, many of the episodes aren't even murder cases, yet they work equally as well as the ones that are, and the chemistry between the two leads is something you have to see to believe. Rick and A.J. tackle such mysteries as the apparent theft of an illusion practiced by a well-known magician, a missing rock DJ, the death of a skydiving record executive married to a former barmaid at their favorite watering hole, a cache of diamonds stolen 30 years ago and never found, a long-lost WW2 B-25 bomber whose existence may prove that its former captain didn't abandon his crew to enemy fire, a hijacked cruise ship, an imperilled witness who happens to be a compulsive gambler, a ring of thieves targeting race horses, a malpractice suit that may be fraudulent, and a murder committed with a gun bearing a fresh fingerprint of the notorious '30's criminal John Dillinger. And Rick finds himself plagued by repeated terrifying dreams in which he kills his own brother--dreams that may be all too likely to come true. Mary Carver returns as the Simons' spirited mother Cecelia. Watch for gems like Rick's "Ernie Boyer, Sacramento" ("The Grand Illusion") and "Hammerman, Federal Reserve" ("Harm's Way") masquerades, A.J.'s reaction when he learns ("Bon Voyage, Alonso") that the cruise ship on which his mother and brother are travelling has been hijacked, and Cecelia's tearful reactions to stress in "Alonso" and "Double Play." S&S stands as one of my all-time favorite TV series, and this is among the very best of its seasons.

Was a wonderful series in the 80's. I enjoyed the series today as much as I enjoyed it then. Everything arrived on time and was packaged well. The dvd's ran well.

Don't forget -- this season includes a rare guest appearance by Dick York, in the episode "Too Much of a Good Thing." He didn't do much TV after "Bewitched," but this was an exception. He still looked pretty much the same in 1983.

Simon and Simon: Season Three is a delight to watch. It is full of fast-paced, wholesome fun so the whole family can enjoy it together.

I can't wait for my copy of Season 3 to arrive in my mailbox! The first two seasons were very well done and I want to thank Shout for bringing season 2 to me after a long wait, now season 3. Please, please, please, let us have the other seasons!

One of my favorite 80's shows that I grew up with. They just don't make tv like that anymore.