Honey West – The Complete Series (1965 – 66/Detective-Spy/VCI Entertainment DVD)

Honey West – The Complete Series (1965 – 66/Detective-Spy/VCI Entertainment DVD)

Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B

Some great TV shows simply disappear because they did not get the syndication they deserved, did not have enough episodes or were pushed out by color TV when color productions were chosen over all but the biggest black & white hits. One such show was co-produced by an actor who decided to try his hand at producing: Aaron Spelling. Inspired by the early seasons of a then-unknown to the U.S. market British TV series called The Avengers and based on a book series by Skip & Gloria Flick, Honey West debuted for one season on ABC-TV and was not a big hit, yet left a indelible mark on women on TV, the Spy & Detective genres and remains influential to this day.

After an overseas-only DVD release, VCI Entertainment has finally issued The Complete Series to the U.S. market in this four-DVD set that shows what a great series this was, which holds up well and is as entertaining as ever. Anne Francis, best know to the current generation as “the girl” in the 1956 Sci-Fi classic Forbidden Planet (reviewed twice and counting elsewhere on this site) as the Judo-capable title character, who has inherited her late father’s detective agency after he was killed don’t he job. With her partner Sam Bolt (John Ericson) they take on whatever criminal case they can take on. The twist is that they use the latest technology and spy gadgets to get the job done. They never use computers, something left to Joe Mannix a few years later as a TV detective first.

As West, Francis combined beauty, wit, physicality and great line delivery throughout the thirty half-hour episodes here. Maybe the shows were too short or the male/female relationship between West and Bolt too mature for TV of the time, despite the comedy, but it works as well now as ever. While the take on West here was partly inspired by Honor Blackman’s Ms. Catherine Gale on Avengers episodes that did not make it here to the U.S. at the time (along with Blackman’s Pussy Galore portrayal in the Bond hit Goldfinger), Francis was groundbreaking in a way she and the show never got proper credit for.

Driving around in her AC Cobra with its car phone and doing what it takes to solve the case, the seeds were sown for some of the best TV shows the U.S. ever produced. While Diana Rigg replaced Blackman on The Avengers (also on ABC and a even bigger success), more liberated women would soon follow including April Dancer on The Man From U.N.C.L.E, spin-off The Girl From U.N.C.L.E, Barbara Bain’s Cinnamon Carter on Mission: Impossible, The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman (both debuting on ABC) and other heroines that changed the face of TV forever, while Spelling would have better success trying the same situation out with some twists in his megahit Hart To Hart (a huge hit for ABC) and Honey West would even more directly become the basis for the successor of the Hart To Hart throne in the Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd hit Moonlighting, yet another hit for ABC.

So if you get a chance to see this show and feel you have seen something like it before, though you know you have never seen it directly, you will find yourself surprisingly entertained. Some seriously good talent was involved in making the show and they remain groovy time capsules and fun detective/spy/action shows down to the theme song. The episodes include:

1) The Swingin’ Mrs. Jones (guest stars Ray Danton)

2) The Owl & The Eye (guest stars Herschel Bernardi & Lloyd Bochner)

3) The Abominable Snowman (guest stars Henry Jones)

4) A Matter Of Wife & Death (guest stars Henry Beckman & James Best)

5) Live A Little, Kill A Little (guest stars Warren Stevens & Herb Edelman)

6) Whatever Lola Wants…

7) The Princess & The Paupers (guest stars Michael J. Pollard, Stanley Adams & Bobby Sherman)

8) In The Bag (guest stars Everett Sloane & Maureen McCormick)

9) The Flame & The Pussycat

10) A Neat Little Package (guest stars J. Pat O’Malley & Val Avery)

11) A Stitch In Crime (guest stars James B. Sikking)

12) A Million Bucks In Anybody’s Language

13) The Grey Lady (guest stars Kevin McCarthy, Nancy Kovac, Cesare Danova & Bert Parks)

14) Invitation To Limbo (guest stars Wayne Rogers)

15) Rockabye The Hard Way (guest stars Joe Don Baker)

16) A Nice Little Till To Tap

17) How Brillig, O. Beamish Boy (guest stars John McGiver)

18) King Of The Mountain (guest stars Richard Kiel)

19) It’s Earlier Than You Think

20) The Perfect Un-Crime

21) Like Visions & Omens & All That Jazz (guest stars Nehemiah Persoff, Fred Beir & Benny Rubin)

22) Don’t Look Now, But Isn’t That Me? (guest stars Alan Reed)

23) Come To Me, My Litigation Baby (guest stars Ellen Corby & Army Archerd)

24) Slay, Gypsy, Slay (guest stars Michael Pate, Ralph Manza & Jack Perkins)

25) The Fun-Fun Killer (guest stars Marvin Kaplan, John Hoyt & Woodrow Parfrey)

26) Pop Goes The Easel (guest stars Larry D. Mann & Robert Strauss)

27) Little Green Robin Hood (guest stars Edd Byrnes & Severn Darden)

28) Just The Bear Facts Ma’am (guest stars Richard Carlyle)

29) There’s A Long, Long Fuse A’Burning (guest stars Dick Clark)

30) An Eerie, Airy Thing

Ida Lupino actually directed episode 17, George Clayton Johnson (the original Twilight Zone) penned episode 9 and Columbo creators William Link & Richard Levinson wrote episodes 13, 14 & 30. Irene Harvey played Aunt Meg throughout the show and the comedy was never slapstick. If this is your kind of storytelling, Honey West – The Complete Series is a must-own set.

The 1.33 X 1 image is from very good film materials, with consistent black & white image quality throughout, only suffering from minor detail issues and image noise, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is about as clean as you could expect from a show of this time period. Extras include stills from the show on the first 2 DVDs and TV ads tied into the show on all four DVDs, though nothing on the popular and now very valuable Honey West action figure doll that is a huge prize for collectors of the show and memorabilia of the time and in the genre. Too bad we don’t get a documentary on the books and character, but it is great to see the show looking so good.

For more on the legacy of Honey West and great TV like it, try these links:

Moonlighting – Seasons One & Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2664/Moonlighting

Season Three

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3386/Moonlighting+-+Season+Three

The Avengers

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16/Avengers+Mrs.+Peel+MegaSet

James Bond (with links to all DVDs)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7716/James+Bond+Blu-ray+Wave+One:+Dr

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. – The Complete Series

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6407/The+Man+From+U.N.C.L.E

Hart To Hart (First Two Seasons on DVD)