I wasn’t yet born during the time that The Mod Squad was on. The show, which ran from 1968 to 1973, had pretty much been put into reruns at that point. Later on in life when I got around to seeing the series, I was at first turned off by the rather goofy opening credit sequence. I kept thinking to myself what the hell are these people doing running down dark alleys?
Looking past the odd opening sequence, I found myself pleasantly drawn to the show.
This set includes 13 episodes from the second season of the series. I don't feel it's a requirement to go back to the beginning. You can start anywhere with The Mod Squad and feel like you know pretty much what's going on.
The show’s premise was unique at the time. Three people (Clarence Williams III, Peggy Lipton, and Michael Cole) who’ve had constant run-ins with the law find themselves in trouble again. A police captain (Tige Andrews) decides to use the troublemakers as a special undercover force against crime. These three, Linc (Williams), Julie (Lipton), and Pete (Cole), would be different from other undercover cops due to the fact that they are much younger and hipper to the culture of the show’s time period.
The concept of the series works to a funny extent. All three characters are part of the culture of the times. Linc is the silent, strong, black male of the group who looks like he could fit in at a Black Panther meeting, Julie is the hot, free-spirited blonde of the group while Pete is somewhere between a very high Bob Dylan and the more revolutionary-minded John Lennon.
Some of the crimes they deal with are handed to them by police captain Adam Greer (Andrews) while others are more a matter of being at the right place at the wrong time. Some of these would appear only do-able on the level of the average B-movie, but the show has an interesting way of making them watchable.
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