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DVD S.W.A.T. - The Complete First Season
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
Review(s): DVD S.W.A.T. - The Complete First Season
35 episodes.... Where's the other 22 ????
Wow! What a stroll down memory lane! I remember playing SWAT with my friends and even had a plastic replica gun from the show. Every summer when I went down to my grandparents in Southern California I wouldn't miss an episode on Channel 5. Since there were no VCR's or DVD's back then, I used to set my cassette recorder in front of the TV and record the sounds so I could still re-live each episode after I went back home to Northern California. I am so glad to see the release of this show on DVD. I didn't have to read reviews to know that I wanted this set. I got it for my birthday and I have watched all 13 episodes many times, so HEY SONY.... WHERE'S THE REST OF THEM???????? It is definitely a "must have" set.
Still Waiting for Season Two
It's been nearly two years since the release of Season One. It's borderline criminal not to release the final series after so long a time.
S.W.A.T. - The orginal is usually the best.
I just loved watching this show. It is as wonderful as I remembered. Robert Ulrich is such a good actor. I hope that S.W.A.T. 2nd season come up for sale soon.
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