DVD Review Father Dowling Mysteries: The Complete Series DVD Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

One of the real hard luck kids of network television was Father Dowling Mysteries, a middling crime series that never quite seemed to catch a break.



Father Dowling Mysteries (1989–1991)



Released: 20 Jan 1989
Rated: N/A
Runtime: 45 min




Director: N/A
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery



Cast: Tom Bosley, Tracy Nelson, Mary Wickes, James Stephens
Writer(s): Dean Hargrove, Joel Steiger



Plot: An amiable, inquisitive Chicago priest moonlights as a detective and is assisted by a rather worldly, lock-picking nun.



IMDB rating: 6.9
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: CBS
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 480I/MPEG-2



Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: English 2.0 DD...

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[Ron1973]

I don't see a review

 

[Steve...O]

Ron, the link to the review is at the top of Matt's post.

I agree with the review based on my having had the individual releases for some time. This is comfort food TV made enjoyable by the likable leads and the uderused and undrrrated Mary Wickes. In fairness, she was getting up in years durîng this series and may have wanted to keep her appearances low key.

I also appreciate that this series treated religion and faith with respect while not over or under emphasizing it.

 

[HonkyTonkMan]

Ron, the review only appears after clicking the Father Dowling Mysteries: The Complete Series DVD Review
link, which is highlighted in blue at the top of Matt's post.

Matt, are there any syndicated versions of Father Dowling Mysteries episodes included on this 10-disc DVD set?

 

[Matt Hough]

Ron, the link to the review is at the top of Matt's post.

I agree with the review based on my having had the individual releases for some time. This is comfort food TV made enjoyable by the likable leads and the uderused and undrrrated Mary Wickes. In fairness, she was getting up in years durîng this series and may have wanted to keep her appearances low key.

I also appreciate that this series treated religion and faith with respect while not over or under emphasizing it.

Thanks for mentioning the religious angle, Steve. I meant to do that in the review, but it was late when I was writing, and I never worked it into the text. The series is very gently religious but doesn't proselytize at all, and quite often characters involved with Frank and Steve mention they aren't religious or are lapsed Catholics without any kind of rebuke or censure. Everyone is treated with respect.

 

[Matt Hough]

Matt, are there any syndicated versions of Father Dowling Mysteries episodes included on this 10-disc DVD set?

I wish I could answer your question, but I'm not familiar enough with the show in its broadcast arenas to comment. I will say that all the episodes (apart from the movie) run around 47-48 minutes and the final two to three-minute scenes leading into the credits (which I could see being the easiest thing to cut in syndication) all seem to be there, but I may have missed some.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I wish I could answer your question, but I'm not familiar enough with the show in its broadcast arenas to comment. I will say that all the episodes (apart from the movie) run around 47-48 minutes and the final two to three-minute scenes leading into the credits (which I could see being the easiest thing to cut in syndication) all seem to be there, but I may have missed some.

47-48 minutes is proper for the era.

 

[Lord Dalek]

AFAIK, Father Dowling never produced enough episodes to make it into syndication.

 

[GMBurns]

Matt, thanks for the review of one of my all-time favorites. I had purchased the original season releases back in 2012-2013. My wife and I just finished watching them over the past year, and we both wanted to go back to season 1 and start all over again. The mysteries are fairly standard, but the interplay between Frank and Steve is what makes the show tons of fun, along with Marie's consternation over Father Prestwick. I love, too, that they don't use guns, but rely on ingenuity to solve the mystery. I think Tom Bosley was horribly miscast as poor Amos Tupper. Father Dowling was the role he was born to play (even over Richie Cunningham's dad). I wish the show had caught on and lasted for several more seasons.

 

[Jack P]

Tom Bosley said in an interview that the show's cancellation was due not so much to the ratings as that ABC had decided instead to give the time slot to the failed James Earl Jones show "Gabriel's Fire" which was getting a second chance in a retooled format with Richard Crenna added to the cast. If that hadn't happened, the show would have gotten another season. Which is unfortunate because to me "Father Dowling" stands out ahead of the shows of the late 80s it specifically derives from ("Matlock" and the Perry Mason movies) simply because it gives us a more novel type of format. "Murder She Wrote" only tops it in the area of having big all-star guest casts from week to week IMO.

The one thing I *wish* had happened was that given how James Stephens' Father Prestwick is always talking about wanting to please the Bishop, it would have been priceless if they'd had one episode where we see the Bishop and it's John Houseman. (He was still alive then)

My mother absolutely loved this show and I will never forget that the last time I ever brought her home from the nursing home she was living in for an afternoon I put on an episode of this for her. She was gone five days later.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

AFAIK, Father Dowling never produced enough episodes to make it into syndication.

Not traditional syndication, but I could swear it was on cable in the 90s. Possibly The Family Channel.

And my seemingly not yet faulty memory is supported by an article from 1995 about Tom Bosley, stating it was indeed on The Family Channel as of that year weekdays at 11 AM.

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-11/news/tv-11787_1_tom-bosley

 

[GMBurns]

Father Dowling also showed on PAX-TV, which is where I first saw it.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Father Dowling also showed on PAX-TV, which is where I first saw it.

Oh yeah, Pax, before it became Ion.

Father Dowling had a long history with religious/family entertainment affiliated channels.

 

[Matt Hough]

It's been on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel, too. When I was scouring the net looking for something suitable to illustrate the review, I saw some promo slates with Bosley and Nelson with the Hallmark logo.

 

[Ron1973]

I always loved the show, and I often watched it in first run episodes. As a matter of fact, I still have a VHS recording I did of both it and MacGyver. Certainly a show I'd love to revisit.

 

[albert_m2]

Yes the Hallmark Movie/Mystery channel has aired it. They tend to do marathons on weekends and each weekend is a different show.