Product Description

Movie DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11473 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 2003-06-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .55 pounds
• Running time: 564 minutes

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

"T.J., go high!"
Ah, those unforgettable words...especially poignant since they were said to me by Steve Forrest (Hondo)a number of times. Yep, I played T.J. McCabe in the original series, the guy with the bolt action scope rifle who'd climb up on high places (technically the sniper was called the "high man"), yank my cap around and try to emulate Steve McQueen's smooth moves with guns. So it's a real gas to see the original 13 come out on DVD...especially because I never had good copies of the originals!

SWAT was a great experience, with a bunch of great guys. We were surprised when they cancelled the show...it had been doing great, #1 all summer...then ABC switched it to try to win another night...good old network TV wisdom...and we lost our audience.

The scuttlebutt around the 20th Fox lot was that Aaron Spelling hated the show...it wasn't what he felt his name should be associated with...you may remember he went on to do Family and Dallas after that...so he allegedly swapped us out for Starsky and Hutch, which was a more character-driven show. Can't say I blame him...the writing got pretty stale pretty quick, because at least one of the line producers would take good scripts and turn them around to focus on Hondo and also dumb 'em up in favor of action, whereas we kept hoping they'd give us more of a shot at a Rookies-style, character-strong program.

We did have a lot of fun in that short 35 episodes...and I was particularly happy to find out that Rod Perry (Deke), whom I believed, thanks to a story Mark Shera (Luca)told me in the mid-80s, had died of a heart attack way back then, is in fact still very much alive!

But still sad that my old pal Bob Urich (Jim Street in SWAT, Dan Tana in Vegas, Spencer in Spencer for Hire)is gone for real. He was a good and good hearted man.

The only bummer about the new movie is that at least a couple of the guys from the old show did brief cameos in the flick, but since I live in NY, and the casting agent told me there was no real effort to include all of us anyway as in a reunion scene, I got left out of the movie. That was a little disappointing, I would have loved to do a bit in it, especially since they reprised our original character names (and made my character into a bad guy!) Well, that's Hollywood for you.

Best news is I'm happy to hear our old fans are still out there and rooting for good over evil on the streets of L.A. Thanks for still digging the show, everybody!

your ever-lovin', crime-fightin' T.J.

James Coleman

T.J. (James Coleman's) memory...
Well, I played Dominic Luca in the original series, and what Jim has told you (above) about the devolution of the writing and focus of the show is true. Aaron Spelling was embarrassed about the series' violence--mild compared to today's fare. And with more than a little public pressure, the networks conceived and implemented what came to be known as the "Family Hour." No guns, no death, no violence. And soon after, no SWAT. But I'm afraid his recollection of a rumor about Rod Perry's demise is a little fuzzy. Not only is Jim's mention of Rod's heart attack news to me, but no such story of Rod's death was relayed to Jim by your's truly. And yes sadly, Bob Urich's passing was a terrible shock and sadness to us all. He left a great legacy, though. And he lives on in this wonderful compilation of shows. Great fun to view episodes that I've not seen in decades!

BTW: I didn't get a chance to be in the film because...well... no one asked. LOL!!!

Best,
MS in LA

S.W.A.T in Action
This is one of the 1970s action dramas about S.W.A.T team in action. Many of us who enjoyed this show were saddened that this show did not reappear in re-runs and thanks to the producers and the studio for 13 glorious episodes (three DVDs). Now we have the opportunity to view, entertain and enjoy this show. This is one of the few shows about a team of cops in action. There were several single cop shows such as Beretta; two-cop shows such as Starsky and Hutch, but S.W.A.T is the only one about a team. The show stars well known actor Steve Forrest and this show also paved way for the success of Robert Urich (Vegas) and Mark Shera (Barnaby Jones). I hope the success of this DVD set will convince Columbia TriStar to produce second set of DVD covering the second season.