Police Story 1973 (1 Viewer)

Has anyone heard anything about police story?

Police Story was created by former Los Angeles policeman Joseph Wambaugh. After retiring from the force, he wrote two highly successful novels about police operations, "The New Centurions" and "The Blue Knight". He served as consultant on this show to ensure its authenticity. The stories probed with the psychological problems and effects that police work had on the force. Three episodes of "Police Story" went on to become series of their own: "Police Woman", "The Return of Joe Forrester", and "David Cassidy - Man Undercover". Although Police Story was an anthology, several characters occasionally made return appearances. The most notable examples are Tony Lo Bianco (as Tony Calabrese) and Don Meredith (as Bert Jameson). The realism and exceptional story telling made this the cop show of its tim

It was another classic police drama from the 1970s.

I'd sure love to see this too from the cop drama decade, as well as The Blue Knight with William Holden and its later series with George Kennedy. Columbia never continued with Police Woman, a release I really enjoyed, they unfortunately seem very reluctant when it comes to their classic shows. Big mistake that position.

Maybe some of you can help; anybody who might have taped it off TV, I am trying to compile a list of the compsoer for each episode of the series. Here is what I got so far (not much):

http://tvscores.150m.com/PoliceStory.html

TVShowsOnDVD have posted a news article on their website today about the first season of Police Story. The link to the news article is below:



Police Story: Season 1 - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article



Very, very pleased about this.

I am really excited for Season 1, I really wish we could finish off POLICE WOMAN also. I think I watched Season 1 of P.W. 4 times over!

With Police Story and Kojak, can we maybe interest someone at Shout! about the rest of Hill Street Blues. The Police Story blurb mentions Hill Street and NYPD Blue. It sure would be great if both of those series could be restarted.


So glad to hear about Police Story. I have not thought about that show in years. Will be looking forward to picking this one up. Excellent series.


Doug

I have to admit, I'm surprised this one got started ahead of a resumption of "Police Woman". But I will check it out to be sure!

I would have bet on resumptions of Barney Miller, Maude, and Police Woman before Police Story. They were all bigger hits, both during their original runs, as well as in syndication. Perhaps Sony wanted too much to profitably license them. If Shout! are to continue mining Sony's vaults, I'd like to see Barney Miller completed. I'd also love to see the 39 unreleased Naked City episodes, the last season of Route 66 (if Mr. Hallam's option has expired), and Burns & Allen, though I know that they're not the sort of shows Shout! tend to release.

I'm still surprised there's been no pickup of "Fantasy Island" among stalled Sony titles.

Originally Posted by Jack P

I'm still surprised there's been no pickup of "Fantasy Island" among stalled Sony titles.

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I'd buy that, and LoveBoat too. Both are top of my wish list.

Originally Posted by ToddR2

I would have bet on resumptions of Barney Miller, Maude, and Police Woman before Police Story. They were all bigger hits, both during their original runs, as well as in syndication. Perhaps Sony wanted too much to profitably license them. If Shout! are to continue mining Sony's vaults, I'd like to see Barney Miller completed. I'd also love to see the 39 unreleased Naked City episodes, the last season of Route 66 (if Mr. Hallam's option has expired), and Burns & Allen, though I know that they're not the sort of shows Shout! tend to release.

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I agree. Its a good choice I would have expected one of the others you mentioned first. They also picked up Hazel although I don't know if they have officially announced it yet. Personally, my preference would be for them to do the last 3 seasons of Family. As for Naked City and Route 66, I don't believe Sony has rights on either of those any more. They were Herbert Leonard owned and were sold off to another party. Not sure what company would put those out. Shout is mostly comedies and mostly color while Timeless concentrates on westerns. Any other independents even still in business?

Luckily Shout!Factory is a lot more than just comedies, they're good with many genres from courtroom dramas to cops and private eyes, so in these hellishly dry times this is some really great classic DVD news for a change. Very much looking forward to this, it would be cool if they also let Police Woman roll on eventually and maybe other rare Columbia/Sony shows either stalled or not started yet. Good work S!F a most welcome surprise this is, 70s cop/genre shows always are - and if those for some unfortunate reason disappoint the majors they ought to be perfect pickings for the independents.

Was the total running time for the 90 minute episode "Big John Morrison" without ads? Checked EpGuides.com and among the 21 first season episodes (not including the feature length pilot "Slow Boy") there is the two-part story "Countdown" and this 90 minute episode.


Would there be any possible music replacement issues with the first season, or a change to the title sequence (I've never seen Police Story, so I don't know if there was a title sequence), like with I think Marcus Welby, MD?

Richard, it was 90 mins. inclusive of commercials. Shout! releases of vintage TV shows tend not to have music replacement issues, the more likely potential problem with this release is edited/syndication episodes being used, followed by a "Oops, we didn't check that first"-type response. The title sequence was a teaser followed by VERY brief opening titles. Not likely that this will be altered.

Originally Posted by ToddR2

Richard, it was 90 mins. inclusive of commercials. Shout! releases of vintage TV shows tend not to have music replacement issues, the more likely potential problem with this release is edited/syndication episodes being used, followed by a "Oops, we didn't check that first"-type response. The title sequence was a teaser followed by VERY brief opening titles. Not likely that this will be altered.

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Thanks Todd. Great stuff. When I saw that there's one episode in the first season which was a 90 minute episode I immediately thought of the Rockford Files episode "The Man Who Saw the Alligators". You got (I think) the longer version if you purchased the Region 1 Universal fifth season set (the Region 2 Universal Playback fifth season set had the shorter version). In the Rockford Files episode guide/reference book it said the episode was 90 minutes, but this was with ads, and the actual running time was around 75 minutes. So when I saw that the Police Story episode "Big John Morrison" had "(90 min)" beside it I thought that was with ads, and that the total running time is around 75 minutes.

We have re-transfered all of the Police Story episodes from the original film elements so they will be complete.

And there was no music issues with the show.


To answer some of the other questions, in a very general way, we are looking into many of the shows mentioned above, but alas, we can't release everything.

But I can say that MAUDE won't be happening because there is too much music to clear.

Originally Posted by WaveCrest

Was the total running time for the 90 minute episode "Big John Morrison" without ads? Checked EpGuides.com and among the 21 first season episodes (not including the feature length pilot "Slow Boy") there is the two-part story "Countdown" and this 90 minute episode.


Would there be any possible music replacement issues with the first season, or a change to the title sequence (I've never seen Police Story, so I don't know if there was a title sequence), like with I think Marcus Welby, MD?

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Hi, Cliff-- Thanks for all the info. Delighted by Police Story, Kojak and numerous other great Shout releases... A question about Maude, since you mentioned it. Was the music clearance a significant problem throughout the series? Or mostly concentrated in the four musical revue episodes they did over the years?

It was all seasons unfortunately.

Originally Posted by FanCollector

Hi, Cliff--
Thanks for all the info. Delighted by Police Story, Kojak and numerous other great Shout releases... A question about Maude, since you mentioned it. Was the music clearance a significant problem throughout the series? Or mostly concentrated in the four musical revue episodes they did over the years?

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Hope that more of Adam-12 and Ironside are on the horizon!

yes, we will finish Adam-12 because the sales are still strong.

Don't know about Ironside at this time.

Originally Posted by Jack P

Hope that more of Adam-12 and Ironside are on the horizon!

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