Fight! Dragon (1974) + Tenspeed & Brown
Shoe: The Complete Series + Wiseguy
– The Collector’s Edition (Mill Creek DVD Sets)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: C+/C+/C-
Mill
Creek continues their release of Stephen J. Cannell Productions TV shows with
the complete Wiseguy series, but are
also debuting cult favorite Tenspeed
& Brown Shoe, plus a 1974 Japanese series aimed at children and teens
called Fight! Dragon turns out to be
more interesting than you’d think for a show no one ever hear of before.
But
first, Wiseguy. Never a fan of the show, I already covered
Mill Creek’s First Season set, which
you can read about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8935/Booker+%E2%80%93+Collector%E2%
I have
nothing major to add to my comments on the show except that it never got better
for me in later seasons and is for fans only.
The show ran from 1987 to 1990.
Tenspeed & Brown Shoe only lasted one season, or really
half of a season, as it was a mid-season replacement in 1980 over at ABC before
they started to tumble in the ratings.
Never a fan of the show, I have to admit it does play better than when I
first saw it, but even Ben Vereen and Jeff Goldblum (both enjoying great early
success) can’t make it work despite having some chemistry. All 13 hour-long shows are here on three
DVDs.
That
leaves Fight! Dragon, a 1974
Japanese action series shot on 16mm film and involving a man named Dragon
(Yasuaki Kurata) who runs an orphanage, suddenly finding himself battling an
evil gang simply named Shadow, so there is plenty of karate/kung-fu sequences
throughout. 26 half hours were made and
they are all here over 3 DVDs. If you
like Ultraman, you will find some
similarities in style and the legendary Bolo Yeung also shows up in his young
prime.
The child
in jeopardy factor is not too bad, but it is interesting to see any show that
never or barely played in the U.S. to get a DVD release anywhere, because
several such shows (including Department
S and Adam Adamant Lives!) would
surely find an audience if introduced correctly to a new generation and
audience. Tetsu Sumi, Yang Sze and Bruce
Liang are other major martial arts figures who show up.
The 1.33
X 1 image in all cases are soft and have aliasing errors and though Dragon looks a little older, it also
tends to have less softness in the overall look of the image. Wiseguy
looks just like the previous transfers and Tenspeed
only looks very slightly better despite being a few years older. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in all cases is
compressed and not too clean or clear.
Of course, Dragon is dubbed
and has its older English dubbing, while the Cannell shows are simply down a
few generations. There are no extras in
any of the sets, though Dragon could
have used some and they would have been interesting.
- Nicholas Sheffo
