The first thing you’ll notice about this collection is the crystal clarity of the transfer. It caught my eye in Captain Adam Greer’s (Tige Andrews) office when I could read the labels on his file cabinets and had I wanted to, I could have paused the picture and counted the hairs on his head. This DVD set is a perfect time machine, revealing an era when detectives actually had to think a puzzle through without the help of forensics or a bank of supercomputers.
The Mod Squad was so successful because the four main characters comprised a classic ensemble cast that became closer than family. Captain Adam Greer more often than not referred to the squad as his kids rather than officers, and protected them like a mother bear defends her cubs. Pete Cochran (Michael Cole),
Lincoln Hayes (Clarence Williams III), and Julie Barnes (Peggy Lipton) started out as three strangers and had to grow to know each other quickly because their lives depended on it. This on-screen interaction allowed us to know and care about them too, which is why the show was such a winner.
In that era the young generation considered the police the “fuzz,” the “man,” the “establishment,” and everything that the hippie counterculture generation was rebelling against. Then Aaron Spelling, Danny Thomas, and Harve Bennett threw everyone a curve and presented a squad of cops that were the younger generation instead of gun-wielding storm troopers. An excellent idea that worked… at the time. When you look back at it today though, you realize it was merely Messrs. Spelling, Thomas, and Bennett’s idea of the young counterculture instead of the real thing.
The three main characters wore beautiful clothes in the latest styles, and they drove beautiful cars and lived in beautiful apartments. Pete, Linc, and Julie were what every average teen wanted to be; they had lots of friends, had rich society connections, lots of opportunities, and lots of support when they got into trouble. However their on-screen personas were supposed to be young and troubled teens from the tough streets of Los Angeles. Julie (Peggy Lipton) was a teenage runaway who’d been arrested for vagrancy. Linc (Clarence Williams III) was as uneasy and angry as the streets of Watts that he came from, racially charged streets that were nearly destroyed in the name of “Black Power.” Pete (Michael Cole) was the penniless son of a rich businessman who’d been disowned only to become a streetwise car thief. Yet surprisingly levelheaded Linc quoted Shakespeare and listened to classical music, Julie had a striking and large apartment, and Pete owned a brand new Dodge Challenger convertible on what he earned as a probationary cop.
Article comments
1 - Jet Gardner
God I miss the good old days...