I've been watching the first season hour-long episodes. It's pretty much my first time to see the series since the '70s. I'd always assumed the show as much weaker than Columbo or McMillan & Wife. But, in fact, it's every bit as good as both.
Are all seasons this good?
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I would say so. I'm watching the second season now and saw the final two seasons on TV a couple of years back. But I suspect all the ones in the middle to be equally as good. Where did you find the hour long versions of season one if I may ask? I've only got the cobbled together TV movies that attempt to link two episodes together by way of some new dubbed in dialogue.
"I think that Amish Robot was drunk"
They are out on DVD in Australia, and I was able to buy a set off iOffer.
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Ah of course, the Australian DVD's. I’ve recently watched the first season in it’s combined TV movie form on DVD. And while it’s fun trying to figure out which scene comes from which episode, it does leave me with a few questions that maybe you are able to answer? Of the three ‘movies’, the first one, ‘Man from Taos’ does the most elaborate job of merging the two stories ('Who says you can’t make Friends in New York' and 'Our Man in Paris') together.
It starts with the opening scenes from the pilot, but adds new narration by Chris Coughlin that contradicts her first meeting with McCloud in the pilot. Here she explains that she met him while she was on a visit to Taos, and then returned a year later to convince him to come to New York. We also see some familiar footage of McCloud on horseback to pad things out (is this in 'Who says you can’t make friends' as well?).
We then move to the hotel scenes from 'Who says you can’t', but the entire argument behind closed doors has been redubbed to included talk of a flight to Paris and the name of the contact ‘Rissient’. I wonder what the original argument was about?
After McCloud has a shootout with the killer Clifford sends him back to Taos. But as soon as he sits down on the plane he is called back off again to meet with Clifford who has already been captured by his kidnappers. I suspect there may be some scenes missing here from ‘Our Man in Paris’?
Now follows most of the Paris episode, but with some new voice over dialogue explaining that Anne Verdige took over this shift from the woman in McCloud’s hotel. McCloud also a flashback to the complete argument from that Hotel scene to connect things further.
After finishing up the Paris business, McCloud gets back on the plane and sees the newspaper article with Aldon Flanders (I suspect this was the original reason for him to get off the plane in the ‘Can’t make Friends’ episode). There is more new dialogue dubbed over a scene of McCloud and Chris walking the park in the evening. Still it makes me wonder why McCloud got off that plane in the original episode (Who says you can't Make Friends').
Then we get the remaining scenes from ‘Who Says You Can’t Make Friends’, but when Flanders finally admits the plot, it’s all new dialogue pertaining to Paris and M. Rissient. So what was the original scam all about and what was all that money for?
Finally Sam McCloud refers to Clifford’s line about not seeing another sunrise in New York from the beginning much earlier in the ‘Who Says’ episode. But with the entire Paris episode having happened in between, the line loses a lot of it’s impact.
I would very much appreciate it if you could clear some of these issues up, Rikerdonagal.
By the way, the other two combined movies, 'Manhattan Manhunt' and 'Murder Arena' are similarly edited, starting with one, then moving to another before finishing the first one. But in these the two plots hardly interconnect, making it seem more like McCloud is working two cases at the same time.
"I think that Amish Robot was drunk"
Holy Crap!
I skipped parts of that because I haven't finished the season yet, but that sounds like a mess. I had no idea. I assumed they ended one episode and began the next.
Yikes!
Bear with me for a few weeks, and I'll post something to answer your questions.
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Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you hadn't seen the sixth episode yet. I've noticed that some people on the internet didn't notice that those three 'movies' were really six unrelated episode, like the man who wrote all of these nice reviews: http://cmulrooney.tripod.com/mccloud.html
It's a bit strange though when you look at the original broadcast order and notice that none of the two parters were shown in 'the right order', but several episodes apart instead. On the other hand it does prove that the editors did a pretty convincing job, also thanks to to the actors recording some new dialogue for each part.
I'll be looking forward to your answers in the future. And by the way, I like your Facebook link!
PS I once read some interesting articles about VHS releases of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series which were made up out of combined/re-edited episodes just like these McCloud episodes. Unfortunately those links are dead now. And I see you also have the Six Million Dollar Man on DVD. The first three TV Movies that preceded that series were also padded out for syndication (this time to make them into two-parters). And in those cases they actually added footage from episodes that were filmed years later! You can read more about that here in the segment 'The Moon and the Desert' http://bionic.wikia.com/wiki/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man_%281973%29
Isn't it great finding out new stuff about old TV shows?
"I think that Amish Robot was drunk"
HUGE SMDM fan who was gutted with the UK DVDs having the wrong versions. I hate those botched re-edit with a passion. They are unwatchable. I wrote very irate letters to Universal about that DVD release. It accomplished nothing, but I felt a little better :)
Eventually I got a set from South America that had the correct versions. And, of course, I got the new full series boxset when it came out.
You are correct about Battlestar, also. There's a movie called Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack with uses the fire episode. And there may be more, I forget. Mission Galactica works okay, if I can remember.
The spider-man TV series has some episodes stitched together, also. But it's very much a case of him finishing one case and then starting another one, so - except for a short bridge scene - there's nothing changed.
I'm working my way thru McCloud slowly. Watching it, Rockford, Kojak and a few others on a semi-organized basis :) Usually on a Friday evening.
I'll give you a rough breakdown of the episode structures, since I think it might be of interest to you.
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Here's a rough breakdown of the structure of 'Who Says...'
Opens with a scene of a girl packing a suitcase. Someone knocks on her door, and she flees out the window and down the fire escape. The door is kicked in. But she's gone.
Opening credits.
Mccloud riding thru the park. Goes to meet Chris. They go on a date. He's back in his room and hears the argument in the other room, and he goes to sort it out.
Shooting range scene.
McCloud lured to dark alley and shot at. Shoots back :)
Clifford's office. Clifford yells :)
Joe and McCloud on the plane.
McCloud shows up a Chris' place. Phones the killer.
Elevator conversation.
Clifford and Joe show up at Chris' place to talk to McCloud. Phone call. Girl.
Party. Phone call. McCloud and killer in car.
Confrontation outside in darkness. Cops show up.
Clifford smiles at McCloud. He smiles back. Salutes (flashing lights behind him). Freeze frame.
Closing credits.
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Thanks a lot for this breakdown. Reads like a completely different story to what I saw. The opening scene and the stuff at Chris apartment was all missing. Can you tell me why McCloud got off the plane and what the girl had to do for the bad guy. What was he doing that was against the law? Because in the combined movie Man from Taos, he was all about working with the bad guy from the Man in Paris episode.
"I think that Amish Robot was drunk"
I saw most of the episdes in reruns on CBS Late Night, didn't see the originals of the shows you discuss (I have a DVD of the first two seasons but haven't watched it for some reason).
During the first 6-week season with 60-minute episodes, all six shows were rerun as one-hour programs on a rotating basis with the three less successful series that followed. My feeling is that NBC and Universal then stitched the shows together to rerun as part of the NBC Mystery Movie during the third or fourth seasons, where McCloud only aired five original shows apiece. For example, in Manhattan Manhunt, they show all of "The Stage Is All the World" but only about half of "Horse Stealing in New York City" as a subplot (a lot of the footage is of McCloud's horseback gallop through Manhattan, which provided the footage for opening and closing titles; there is also a long sequence with McCloud on a rooftop hunting for the drug thief he will later corral).
My opinion, based on watching all of the shows in some form, is that Season 1 is pretty good (although "The Stage Is All the World" is a worse than pretty bad show). Season 2 is pretty weak, with a new production team and a new head writer (Dean Hargrove and Peter Allen Fields produced; Hargrove went over to Columbo the next year and later did the Perry Mason revival with Fred Silverman -- those shows are far better). Fields wrote five of the seven shows, all of them pretty bad, one ("A Little Plot at Tranquil Valley"), jaw-droppingly bad. The shows Fields didn't write are quite good, but this is still a transitional year where nobody has a really firm grip on the characters and how to play them. (This is also the season where Joe Broadhurst, who would become the perfect partner for McCloud, is dropped from three of the seven shows in favor of other Universal contract players. He became a regular the next season and got a much-expanded role in the season after that, which helped the show a lot.)
We get to the really watchable shows starting in Season Three with Glen A. Larson's "The New Mexico Connection", by far the best show of the first 22. The four shows following aren't as good and include one real turkey ("The Barefoot Stewardess Caper", from Larson and Michael Gleason). The two best of the lot feature an incredible chase with McCloud dangling from a helicopter (also used extensively in the opening credits) and the highly energetic "The Million Dollar Roundup."
Season four is overall the best. This includes two scripts from Larson ("The Gang that Stole Manhattan" and "This Must Be the Alamo," both excellent and setting a pattern for "Alamo" shows each season from here on out), two from Gleason ("The Colorado Cattle Caper" is the best show to date, indeed the best of all outside the "Alamo" scripts)-- and one from Jimmy Sangster ("A Cowboy In Paradise", which will bore you to tears no matter how much it's cut down). This was the period where the show's ratings were at their highest -- audiences liked the approach.
Seasons five and six are pretty hit-and-miss, depending on whether head writer Lou Shaw (replacing Gleason) was on or off. When Shaw was good, he was very, very good: I recommend "The Concrete Jungle Caper" and "The Man in the Golden Hat" from season five and "Showdown at Times Square" and "Our Man in the Harem" from season six (all adapted by Shaw from stories by Larson or Sangster). His other scripts are so-so or just plain awful ("Sharks" and "Park Avenue Pirates" are the worst). Glen Larson improved on his "Alamo" success with "Return to the Alamo" and "The Day New York Turned Blue," only to turn around and write the worst show of the whole series, "Night of the Shark." Think of a show jumping the shark and getting EATEN by it, and you have "Night of the Shark." Shows by outside writers (including Gleason, finishing off his assignment with the appalling "42nd Street Cavalry") are hit-and-miss but mostly miss.
McCloud was barely renewed for the seventh season, and any chances of it continuing were snuffed out by new head writer Michael Sloan, who led off with "Bonnie and McCloud" (considered "the sappiest episode in the series history" according to Variety newspaper -- they were right) and "The Great Taxicab Stampede." "The Moscow Connection," by future Hill Street creator Michael Kozoll, and "McCloud Meets Dracula" (Larson, the last telecast) are fair but strangely restrained, as if budget problems severely hampered both shows. Sloan turns in a surprisingly good script with "London Bridges" and an outstanding one with "Twas the Fight Before Christmas," directed by series star Dennis Weaver (I suspect Weaver and Larson heavily rewrote the script between them). I've never seen the original pilot or the 12-years-later follow-up ("The Return of Sam McCloud," for Michael Sloan Productions).
Wow, very insightful, Midnight Raider2001. I agree that A Little Plot at Tranquil Valley was the least of season two, but on the whole i really enjoyed that season. You say you haven't seen the pilot but you do have the DVD set of season one and two? In that case I think you should go and watch the first disc as soon as possible!
"I think that Amish Robot was drunk"
There was a HORRIBLE, sick perversion in the 70's where 2-parters were yanked out of syndication packages to be run separately as "movies". When the full series went back into syndication, the 2-parters were missing. This happened with the Ron Ely TARZAN series. Believe it or not, it also happened with STAR TREK. At the time I taped both shows, the 2-parters were not shown. At least, with STAR TREK, I was able to get the "movie" version of "The Menagerie" separately. I still don't have all the TARZAN 2-parters.
This was also done with THE UNTOUCHABLES and THE SAINT. In both cases I was able to get the 2-parters as "movies", but separately.
But it got worse, when some brain-damaged imbecile came up with the idea of slapping 2 unrelated episodes together to form "movies". Now, when they did with with some shows, like THUNDERBIRDS, or THE PERSUEDERS, the 2 unrelated stories would be spliced together back-to-back like a double-feature. But when they did it with McCLOUD-- or THE NIGHT STALKER-- they did those monstrous "inter-cutting" jobs, trying to make 2 stories look like 1. There were 4 NIGHT STALKER episodes missing from THE CBS LATE MOVIE, and they turned up separately as a pair of "movies", which are-- as someone above said-- "unwatchable".
While I'm on the subject, I'm also sick of the way PILOT movies are often syndicated separately. Why not have entire series put out as a single package?
To this day, nobody has ever syndicated THE AVENGERS as a single, complete show. The 2nd & 3rd seasons (with Cathy Gale, Venus Smith & Dr. King) turned up on A&E in the early 90's. The 4th-6th seasons, with Emma Peel & Tara King, turned up on PBS in the 80's. THE NEW AVENGERS, with Purdey & Gambit, were run 3 times (with 3 different edits) on the CBS LATE MOVIES, but never seen since.
By the way, McCLOUD's 2nd season has a different feel to the rest, because it's the only one Glen Larson was not involved with. Peter Allan Fields, who later did RETURN OF THE SAINT and the PERRY MASON movies, produced, and the show had a more laid-back, relaxed, "MYSTERY MOVIE" feel to it. One episode, "Encounter With Aries", seems to mistakenly think it's a COLUMBO episode. (I'm not kidding!!) I do like the 2nd season, but was happy to see the more "action-comedy" feel return when Larson came back for Seasons 3-up.
Excellent run-down on the seriesd' 7 seasons, Midnight Raider. Although some episodes are better or worse than others, I tend to think there weren;t any "REALLY BAD" episodes. Except one. The pilot. I never saw it until after the series was cancelled, and when I did, I cold not believe how bad it was.
This had nothing to do with Mark Richman playing Clifford (instead of J.D. Cannon-- I was amuzed when I saw the rerun of Richman's later episode about the mounted division, where Clifford sends him a note, "I've had him long enough, now he's your problem!").
The story is just almost impossible to follow. In an absurd reversal of "COOGAN'S BLUFF" (indeed, the film was the subject of a successful lawsuit brought aganbst it by writer Herman Miller, which is why his name was attached to every episode afterwards), McCloud is given the job of returning an escaped criminal to NYC, who is then kidnapped, and he sticks around to find the guy, and generally makes a complete nuisance of himself.
The finale was one of the worst-written, worst-directed "action" climaxes I have ever seen in any cop show in my entire life. And the Christmas carollers singing louder and louder as it goes on only made it more unwatchable. I gave the film a chance the first time, but on repeated viewings (I think I've seen it at least 3 times now), it kept GETTING WORSE.
It brought to mind, HOW in the heck did something this BAD (and which was the target of a deserved lawsuit) ever get picked up as a series??? And how did something this BAD turn into my FAVORITE tv series of the 1970's???
Recently, I noticed a real odd thing. The McCloud pilot (alternately known either as "McCLOUD", "McCLOUD: WHO KILLED MISS USA", or its syndiaction title, "PORTRAIT OF A DEAD GIRL"-- yuch) was directed by Richard A. Colla. This was the only McCLOUD he ever directed. 7 years later, he directed the pilot for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I recently watched that entire series from start to finish, and was quite surprised to find I enjoyed it more than I did when it was first-run-- EVEN the "stupid" episodes!! But the pilot-- or, more specifically, the 2nd & 3rd hours of the pilot-- I found to be the WORST episodes of the entire run.
Colla, it seems, had a long career doing ONE episode of a lot of different shows. Which makes me think nobody ever wanted to hire him to do more. But somehow, Glen Larson did hire him-- twice-- 7 years apart-- both times to do terrible pilots for shows that got much better afterwards.
season 7 is my favorite. it has my favorite episode "McCloud Meets Dracula"
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