Product Description

When professional basketball player Ken Reeves sustains a career-ending injury, he accepts a job as basketball coach at a Los Angeles inner-city high school. Now, in his second year at Carver High, he realizes he's become more than just a basketball coach. He's the person his players can turn to when things go wrong at home, or when things get tough out on the street. Clashes still arise highlighting the differences between the world Coach Reeves knows and the tough neighborhoods where his players live, but ultimately the bond between coach and player is strengthened—and the daily hardships they face become a true learning experience for all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20816 in DVD
• Brand: Team Marketing
• Released on: 2006-03-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 1173 minutes

Amazon.com
The White Shadow's sophomore year, its last with the series' original roster, is a winning season as the inner city Carver High School basketball team, led by former Chicago Bulls forward Ken Reeves (Ken Howard), further share "the unique joys and sorrows experienced in organized sport." To quote an aspiring sportswriter in the season opener, "On the Line," it's the "blending of friendship, teamwork, discipline, and trust that makes this unit what it is." The Carver team will be tested on and off the court in their run for the city championship. Several episodes take an authentically gritty look at such hot-button issues as sports betting ("On the Line"), race ("Albert Hodges," "Links"), child abuse ("The Hitter"), sexually transmitted diseases ("Me?"), inappropriate teacher-student extracurricular activities ("Salami's Affair"), and the scourge of drugs ("Gonna Fly Now"). But it is the hard-earned life lessons that put The White Shadow in a class by itself. In "Globetrotters," a good team goes astray with bad sportsmanship after a winning streak, prompting Reeves to recruit an incognito Harlem Globetrotters to give his players a much-needed comeuppance. Tragedy strikes in two of the season's most memorable episodes. In "Sudden Death," Reeves is guilt-stricken after a promising player he encouraged to join the team suffers a fatal aneurysm during practice ("I hope very much this burdens you for the rest of your life," the boy's unforgiving mother tells him). And in "The Death of Me Yet," jubilation over the team's Cinderella story is short-lived after one of the team's (and series') most valuable players is slain during a liquor store robbery.

The White Shadow was never a ratings slam-dunk, but, especially, if you were on a high school basketball team, it was must-see viewing. Some more prurient episodes find The White Shadow off its game (in "The Stripper," Reeves is stunned to discover his new girlfriend, a Carver chemistry teacher, moonlights as an exotic dancer), but overall, it still scores with its real-world tone that often leaves conflicts and crises unresolved by the final freeze frame. Now available for replay on DVD, The White Shadow should find a new generation of fans. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

More "Fast Times At Carver High"
Ken Reeves (Ken Howard) and the basketball team of Carver High School returned for a second season of antics on and off the court. In this season, a lot more personal issues were dealt with, such as Gomez dealing with a father who when he wasn't gambling was physically abusing his family, Thorpe dealing with VD because he and Coolidge were both physically involved with the same girl, and Jackson learning his dropped out ex girlfriend became a prostitute. The series reaches its climax in the end as several team members are about to graduate just after winning the city championship, one will not live to see his cap and gown (I'll be nice and not give any more away). A few changes were made to the cast, Ken's sister and brother in law, the Donahues were slowly moved on. Russell Phillip Robinson joined up as team equipment manager Phil Jeffers, and John Mengatti in the occasional role of Salami's (Tim Van Patten) cousin from New York (and new player) Nick Vitaglia (he will join the opening credits in the final season which will hopefully be out soon after this one). As I said before in my review of season 1, this was a series I grew up with during Junior High (and it helped prepare me for the life of a high school kid). I am looking forward for this set (and when it comes out season 3 as well) to arrive in my DVD library.:-)

I'll Overlook the Cover. The Shows More Than Make Up For It!
I loved The White Shadow when it had its TV run when I was a teenager in the late 70s. The storylines were pretty interesting and the cast, which contained a mix of decent actors (Thomas Carter as Hayward, Kevin Hooks as Thorpe, Ken Howard as Reeves) and lousy actors (pretty much everybody else) but nonetheless had great chemistry together. That's probably why people are so upset over the use of the 3rd season cast as the cover of the 2nd season discs. The cast from Seasons 1 and 2 are the one that fans remember the most. The Season 3 cast ended up bringing the show down in a huge hurry.

But I'll overlook this huge mistake as I believe these 24 episodes from Season 2 were some riveting television. I watched all the episodes in less than a week (if I didn't have a job, I would have probably done it in about 2 to 3 days). There was hardly a clunker in the bunch. Personal favorites are the episodes where Hayward considers avenging the death of a cousin from a drug overdose, the episode where Salami was seduced by his teacher (which seems ahead of its time considering there are a lot more stories about this happening today than way back when this show came out) and the death of Curtis Jackson during the teams prep for the city championship.

The funny thing about watching these episodes in a short amount of time is how out of sequence things are. For example, in the first episode of Season 2 you see the new character "New York" Vitalgia in game action with Coach Reeves yelling at him. A few episodes later, Salami introduces "New York" Vitalgia to Coach Reeves and asks him if he can try out for the team. A couple of episodes later Reeves asks Vitalgia how he pronounces his name. Plus it seemed like Carver played "South" about 4 or 5 times that season.

Extras on the DVD set are a short documentary on Bruce Paltrow, the creator of the show (yes, he was Gwynneth's dad), another documentary on how 3 of the players (Thomas Carter, Kevin Hooks and Tim Van Patten) have become respected directors. Also, most of the players contribue a fun commentary on the episode with the Globetrotters (they give a nice tribute to Nathan Cook, who played Milton Reese, who passed away almost 20 years ago).

I know a lot of folks are going to say they won't buy Season 3 when it comes out on DVD, but it looks like there is going to be a great documentary on the series in this set (according to a preview of it on the disc). My guess is the DVD producers know it probably won't sell well of its own accord, so they need to add a sweetener. I'll be buying it.

the white shadow season 2
After all these years it was great getting to view my favorite show when I was young! I can remember there was no vhs back in those days and having to record each episode via tape recording. Thanks for finally getting these on dvd. I await the third season.