Scarecrow & Mrs. King – The Complete First
Season (1983 – 1984/Warner DVD) + Death At Love House (1976/Cheezy Flicks
DVD)
Picture:
C+/C- Sound: C+/C Extras: D/C- Episodes: B-/Telefilm: C
When Hart To Hart was such a smash hit,
everyone wanted to have a show like it and none really worked until Moonlighting came along and was still
something else. One of the few
commercially successful imitators was Scarecrow
& Mrs. King, the fourth hit TV series for the ever underrated Kate
Jackson (Dark Shadows, The Rookies, Charlie’s Angels) and up and coming actor Bruce Boxleitner, whose
previous work in feature films (Tron)
and TV genre shows (Bring ‘Em Back Alive,
How The West Was Won) had not led to
commercial success. This Complete First Season changed that.
Boxleitner
plays Lee Stetson, whose codename is Scarecrow, is on a job when he is being
pursued while holding a very important package.
Enter Amanda King, a single mother who is at a train station when he
sees her and hands her the package. This
leads to them becoming associated and she unwittingly gets involved with the
case. Thus, the show was on its way.
Like Remington Steele, I was never a big
fan, but there was something slightly less phony and plastic about this series
thanks to its leads. However, it has too
much comedy for its own good and like Steele,
has not dated as well as Hart To Hart because these are Spy shows stuck in The
Cold War. KGB agents here in particular
seem cartoonish and supporting characters have limited weight, including
regulars Mel Stuart (All In The Family)
and screen legend Beverly Garland.
This set
has all 21 hour-long shows over five DVDs and Jackson was still a top name at the time
despite not making the transition to the big screen she almost pulled off. She was always in dramatic shows, but this
proved she could do outright comedy and that is likely why she signed on. Fans will be happy, but others will note how
dated it is and not very edgy.
Jackson had also worked with Robert
Wagner of Hart To Hart back in a
1976 TV movie called Death At Love House
for her great friend Aaron Spelling.
They play a married couple who are researching a book on Lorna Love, a
legendary Hollywood sex goddess, but when they
go to her house, it is haunted by her and she wants to claim the husband’s
soul! They work as a couple and have
support from a cast that includes Bill Macy (Maude) as a real estate agent, Dorothy Lamour, John Carradine, Joan
Blondell, Sylvia Sydney and Marianna Hill.
It is too short and only so suspenseful, plus we have seen this
before. Director E.W. Swackhamer had
helmed several Rookies shows with Jackson,
but cannot make the James Barnett teleplay work.
The 1.33
X 1 image in both cases were filmed in 35mm, but King looks better, more colorful and clean throughout, even from
show to show. Death has a transfer that looks too soft, has aliasing errors and
color is not so good despite what looks like solid cinematography from Director
of Photography Dennis Dalzell (The
Rookies, The New Original Wonder
Woman). King should not sound better
with Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono versus the PCM 16/48 2.0 Mono on Death, but the
episodes sound cleaner while the telefilm has pops, clicks and distortion even
TV movies of the time should not have.
Laurence Rosenthal (Coronet Blue,
Fantasy Island and yes, The Rookies) scores the telefilm effectively enough.
There are
sadly no extras on King, but
trailers for other films from Cheezy Flicks and some theater/drive-in
concession shorts are included on Death
which are a nice plus.
- Nicholas Sheffo