'Streets' leads off releases of TV series
Documentaries, sitcoms and reality shows also on tap
Each show's "Season 1, Volume 1" was released last April, and now the remaining Season 1 episodes will be released on Tuesday, along with a bevy of other TV programs.
Mystery/action
• "The Streets of San Francisco: Season 1, Volume 2" (CBS/Paramount, 1973, four discs, $42.99). More 'Frisco crime-busting with veteran Karl Malden and young, pre-stardom Michael Douglas as police detectives. Some of the plots are routine, but the location shooting, the parade of familiar '70s faces (Leslie Nielsen, Dean Stockwell, Brenda Vaccaro, etc.) and the chemistry between the two stars make this one a keeper.
Extras: Full frame, 13 episodes
• "The Untouchables: Season 1, Volume 2" (CBS/Paramount, 1960, b/w, four discs, $42.99). Leslie Nielsen also shows up in an episode here, with more gangbusters action as Eliot Ness (Robert Stack) and friends break up the mob. The real treat, however, is a "Lucy Show" bonus feature with Stack and friends (including narrator Walter Winchell!) spoofing their images.
• "Numb3rs: The Third Season" (CBS/Paramount, 2006-07, six discs, $61.99). Another solid season of this FBI procedural that uses a math expert to help solve crimes. Rob Morrow and David Krumholtz are great as disparate brothers, as is Judd Hirsch as their dad. Co-star Peter MacNicol, however, disappears for much of the season, explained away by his character being accepted for a space mission! (It was really so MacNicol could take a co-starring role in last season's "24.")
Extras: Widescreen, 24 episodes, audio commentaries, featurettes, bloopers
• "The Unit: Season 2" (Fox, 2006-07, six discs, $59.98). More action with Dennis Haysbert and his team of Special Forces soldiers executing covert operations.
Extras: Widescreen, audio commentaries, featurettes
• "Cracker: A New Terror" (Acorn, 2007, $24.99). Robbie Coltrane returns to the role that earned him fame, as an English forensic psychologist. He's been gone for awhile when this picks up, and he doesn't like the changes in post-9/11 England. Coltrane is great. (Included is a 45-minute retrospective of the series.)
Extras: Widescreen, featurette
• "Midsomer Murders: Set Nine" (Acorn, 2004, four discs, $49.99). More grisly murders are investigated in this popular series about a family-man detective and his young assistant in England, a show that is still in production.
Extras: Widescreen, four episodes, text biographies/filmographies
You can be the first to comment on this story.