|
HUNTER
SEASON 1
ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS
Release Date: January
11th 2005
MSRP Price: $39.98
Amazon Price: $27.99
Costco Price: $28.99
19 Season 1 Episodes
Format: full-screen
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Run Time: 953 minutes
Number of Discs - 6
Sound - Mono
Anchor Bay Website
Hunter Season 1
Rating:
video/audio/overall: B/B/B
STARS: Fred
Dryer, Stephanie Kramer, Garrett Morris, John Amos, James Whitmore
Jr.
Guest Stars: Brian
Dennehy, Ed O'Neill, Dennis Franz, Dennis Farina, Bo Svenson, Joanna
Kerns, and others.
Hunter premiered in
September of 1984, the same season as Miami Vice. Unlike Vice,
Hunter struggled thru its first 13 episodes of the first season
slowly gaining its audience. After the two-parter "Snow
Queen" in episodes 14 & 15 the series took off. NBC
re-launched the series on a tough Saturday night at 10pm, where it
would become a top 10 sensation for the next seven seasons.
The series took a
slight downward trend when Stephanie Kramer left the show in 1990 to
pursue a singing career that never happened. Dryer took over the
executive producing duties and an effort was made to retool to show.
Hunter ended his run in 1991 after seven seasons and 153
episodes.
Rick Hunter ruled Los
Angeles like Sonny Crockett handled Miami. Television had created
its own Dirty Harry with a lighter side. Miami Vice was my favorite
cop show, but Hunter was such an opposite I liked it right from the
pilot premiere. It was an action packed one hour series with lots of
fighting, guns going off, pretty girls, and cars launching into the
air. what young man isn't going to get into that? I enjoyed the
series so much that, I had recorded all the two-part episodes to dvd-r
discs.
Most of the fan
favorite series have Stephen J. Cannell's touch to it. When you can
produce material like Magnum PI, Hunter, the Fugitive, Rockford
Files, Maverick and others a viewers gotta take a chance on it,
right? Hunter repeats are still among the highest rated in American
daytime television. Hunter, during its run, became the number one
series in China with over 800 million viewers. That's pretty
impressive.
Other series from
Cannell... The Commish, The A-Team, Wiseguy, Hard Castle &
McCormick, Baretta, Baa Baa Black Sheep (Black Sheep Squadron),
Cobra, Hat Squad, Street Justice, Them, Booker, Broken Badges,
Stingray, Sonny Spoon, Riptide, 21 Jump Street, Silk Stalkings,
Greatest American Hero, and Renegade.
PACKAGING
Anchor Bay went total basic on the
packaging for Hunter. The image on the cover looks excellent. But
the digipack slipcase is made of thin cardboard damages easily.
They've made use of the new thin clear dvd packs with insert. The
cover sheets used nice images with some cool historical information
printed on the inside. They are created to hold two discs.
VIDEO:
Wow! Let me say that again, wow. Hard to believe these discs were
done from tape masters created in 1984. Based on that these episodes
look outstanding. The do have a grainy appearance, but the images
are sharp and the colors look very nice. I expected the transfers to
be loaded with debris and dirt, but Anchor Bay has done a nice job
cleaning up the video. Man it's nice.
AUDIO:
The audio is remastered to in mono
2.0. The sound is clean, the voices clear. It sounds best in a basic
surrounds "Hall" setting. The dolby sound is mostly from
the center speaker, offering very little to the viewer. The
"HALL" surround mode moves the sounds equally through the
center and left and right speakers, creating a nice sound. You can
really hear the background noises which were barely noticeable
during the shows run - typewriters in the background, the sound of
the car running with people talking in a moving car. The only
problem I did have with the set is the volume is different from
episode to episode. I was forced to adjust the volume at the
beginning of each one.
BONUS FEATURES:
Anchor Bay hasn't loaded up the
season one set with many extra but who needs them really. Fans just
want the series as part of their collections.
SUMMARY:
Anchor Bay has done a very nice job with Hunter's first season. I
enjoyed being able to select the Play All mode allowing one episode
to run right after the other. Other than the volume problem with the
discs Hunter never looked so good. Mix a great picture and decent
sound, Rick Hunter and Dee Dee McCall are feeling young again.
Viewers will get a kick out of this series on DVD. Hey, works for
me.
What's on the
Discs?
Disc#
1
Pilot:
Part One
Pilot: Part Two
Hard Contact
The Hot Grounder
Disc#
2
A
Long Way From L.A..
Legacy
Flight on a Dead Pigeon
Pen Pals
Disc#
3
Dead
Or Alive
High Bleacher Man
The Shooter
The Garbage Man
Disc#
4
The
Avenging Angel
The Snow Queen Pt. 1
The Snow Queen Pt. 2
The Beach Boy
Disc#
5
Guilty
The Last Kill
Fireman
Sniper
Disc#
6
Bonus
Materials (32 minutes) : Brand New Interviews with:
* Stephen J. Cannell
* Stephanie Kramer
Hunter Season 1
Rating:
video/audio/overall: B/B/B
BACK TO THE
MAIN PAGE
|
