Product Details

• Actors: Michael Chiklis, Theresa Saldana, Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Bette Ford, Philip Granger
• Directors: Barbara Amato, Brad Turner, Bruce Kessler, Fred Gerber, Gus Trikonis
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: November 16, 2004
• Run Time: 1029 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002Y4T88
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,360 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Television > Crime > The Commish

• For more information about "The Commish - Season 1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Emmy Award winner Michael Chiklis stars as Tony Scali, a former Brooklyn cop now the Police Commissioner of a small upstate city. But for Scali, this is no desk job. He's a tough yet compassionate boss, a loving husband and father, and a hands-on law enforcer with an unorthodox style of bending the rules. From parenthood to politics, from sex crimes to murder cases, one man takes it day-to-day with offbeat humor and street- smart skill. It all begins in this premiere season of the Commish. the Commish - Complete First Season includes all 21 episodes from the 1991/1992 season of the hit ABC- TV series, and features brand-new interviews with stars Michael Chiklis, Theresa Saldana and co-creators Stephen J. Cannell and Stephen Kronish produced exclusively for this collection.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice series - but badly cut DVD-set!, December 2, 2006

By	S. Fischer (Germany) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This DVD-set leaves me with very mixed emotions. On the one hand, the series was very nice. It's a cop-show with intelligent stories, a lot of humour and fine actors (with a great lead in Michael Chiklis, who has recently played a very different kind of cop in The Shield). It's particularly interesting since it depicts a cop who's trying to solve crimes and deal with people with compassion and intelligence instead of violence. That this character and some of the incidents depicted in the series are based on a real cop makes the show all the more fascinating to me. So if it were just for the series, I'd give it 4 points for being very enjoyable and nice in an "I'm having a good time" sort of way. But then there's the DVD set. I never had the chance to see the series on TV, but even so it's very obvious that it's been severely cut. In 2 episodes the complete teaser is missing, in 2 more the resolution. In one case that's already been described by another reviewer, that means that the lead, Scally, suspects a group of men of being criminals until they prove that they're singers by performing by the side of the road. In this DVD, he demands proof, then grins happily and tells them they can go. In another case, a cop's just explaining why they haven't kept a criminal in prison when the episode stops in the middle of his sentence. We never find out if the rapist the cops were looking for during the whole episode gets caught, what happens to the victim, or even the resolution to a gag in which Scally left a trap for his brother-in-law in the bathroom closet. With the missing teasers, I can only guess that the crimes these episodes deal with would have been shown. The cuts are up to approximately 4 minutes in length, so we're not talking about minor missing pieces. For me that pretty much ruins 4 out of 22 episodes, and who knows if there aren't any more cuts that aren't as easily noticed since they don't ruin the show completely by doing away with the beginning or ending. This set is only part of a trend where the company that publishes a series on DVD can't be bothered with (or is uncapable of) purchasing the soundtrack copyrights and either replaces the original music with some awful replacement, thereby ruining the atmosphere (Quantum Leap), or simply leaving out scenes or even whole episodes (Profiler, The Commish). Apart from the fact that the Commish-set is expensive enough that you could expect to get the complete show for your money, I'd generally be more than willing to pay a little more to actually get the complete show. And if they do sell it like this, I think they shouldn't advertise selling the "complete series" when it's actually a mutilated version of it. This is simply cheating the customer. Being from Germany, where it's unlikely that I'll be able to see this series on TV (and even if it's broadcast, it will be the dubbed version only), I can say that I at least got to see large parts of it by buying this box set - as opposed to none. But if you're from a country where you can get a decent (and uncut) recording from TV, I would recommend that you save the money Anchor Bay want for this cut version and record it from TV. If the DVD companies realise that they can't cheat customers out of their money with their rip-off versions, maybe in the future they'll think twice about cutting out scenes to save on copyright fees or avoid going to the trouble of finding who has the rights to the music. And one last information: Sometimes a non-US version has the complete episodes and music (e. g. Quantum Leap series 1, 2 and 3 from the UK or Profiler Season 1 in the Dutch DVD-set). But the only non-US version that I know of in the case of the Commish, which would be a Chinese set, contains exactly the US-version, only in a cheaper package and at a lower price. So unfortunately, there's no alternative there.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Loved The Show Hate The Fact The Episodes Appear To Be Edited, July 22, 2005

By	bristow3269 (California) - See all my reviews

I bought the first two seasons of The Commish because I really liked this show when it was on the air.


I wanted these DVD'S because they were a chance to relive the series again and while I have watched some of the episodes more than once I too was disappointed that these episodes are not uncut. I did write an emial to Anchor Bay expressing my disappointment at this but they just gave me the same tired company line about how they are only putting on dvd what is given to them by the licensor. Well okay I suppose I can understand that but they should at least but a disclaimer on the DVD packaging that states Some episodes may differ from that of the original broadcast versions so that the consumer can choose for themselves if they would like to purchase these dvd's. I for one will not be buying any future DVD releases of this show. Sorry for the long review and the lack of punctuation I have never understood when or where to use it in a sentence.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's About Time, September 9, 2004

By	Josh Kelly "Josh" (Indiana) - See all my reviews

I just about fell out of my chair when I saw this classic show from the eary 90's was going to be released on DVD, because while I hoped for it, I really never expected it to be released. There are plenty of reasons not to remember Michael Chicklis as "Tony Scali" of the Eastbride Police Department either because you were watching "Walker Texas Ranger" at the time, like so many other people, or you weren't home on Saturday nights where they stuck the series, but it was able to build up a fine and loyal fan base for five seasons, and ABC has not had a hit in that time slot since the Commish was cancelled in 1996 so that says something. Scali was a cop who solved problems with brains instead of braun, something totally different than his character does now on "The Shield." If you remember the show or are seeing it for the first time, either way it would be a great series to own and I can't wait until it comes out in November. Trust me, if you are tired of graphic, gruesome, cop shows, you will love this one and will not be disappointed.