Simon & Simon: Season Two

I used to live in San Diego when this series was being filmed. Loved it then & brought back fond memories.

"Simon & Simon: Season Two" on DVD is worth cheering about! Far better written than the first season, and opening with a very entertaining crossover with it's new lead-in show, Tom Selleck's "Magnum P.I.", the series, and it's wonderful stars, Jameson Parker and Gerald McRaney, provided an irresistable blend of action and humor, and is every bit as enjoyable today as it was in 1982!Viewing both seasons, besides being great fun, is an education on how a series is 'polished' and improved. Besides the bouncy new slide-guitar theme, the characters of Myron Fowler and his daughter Janet (Eddie Barth and Jeannie Wilson) are gradually phased out, as the role of the Simons' mother, Cecilia (Mary Carver), is enlarged (thankfully, Marlowe, Rick's big, lovable dog, is still a fixture!). The backstory of Rick being a 'Nam vet is introduced, as is the first of the brothers' Police Department 'buddies' (Robert Ginty, as a hip coroner), who would foreshadow the arrival of Tim Reid, as Detective 'Downtown' Brown, in Season Three. More episodes would be set in the San Diego area, fewer across the border in Mexico (with a two-part episode utilizing the unaired series pilot, set in the Florida Keys), and most episodes ended with a smile (it appears McRaney often ad-libbed; watch Parker's attempts to stay in character to his occasional asides!) The show definitely had the look, and feel, of a winner!While I wish the collection offered a 'Subtitles' option, and commentaries by Parker and McRaney (I'd LOVE to hear their recollections), and the picture quality is occasionally a bit grainy, I'm not complaining; Season Two was the first of the GREAT seasons of "Simon & Simon", and I'm thrilled that it is finally available on DVD!

Bought this DVD to go along with season one three and four

I was very pleased when I read on the web that Universal had sub-licenced the 80's detective series Simon & Simon to Shout! Factory. I was doubly pleased when I bought the boxset via Amazon.com and found the boxset was intact and not damaged and all six discs played perfectly fine (I'd bought the second season from another Region 1 website beforehand but kept having problems with the boxset and some of the discs - broken pieces of plastic in some of the three slipcases, creases and dents to the outer box and audio problems on some of the discs).The presentation of the Simon & Simon's second season by Shout! Factory is well done. Each disc has a different clip for it's menu screen, the Season 1 theme tune is used as well as the new theme tune for Season 2 on the menu screens, and the print quality of the episodes is very nice. If the 23 episodes in this boxset haven't been digitally remastered by Shout! Factory, then the print quality hasn't diminished much since the episodes' original airing back in the 1982-83 US TV season on CBS.It was likely common for most 1980's TV series but I was pleased that there was a 30 second teaser before each episode. You eithee love or hate them. Some people say they spoil the following episode and some say they don't. I personally like pre-episode teasers (main example being the Jack Lord episode promos in the Hawaii Five-O DVD boxsets).

It's about time SHOUT released this 1982-83 Season of SIMON & SIMON on DVD, since they've already had SIMON & SIM0N's 1st Season out on DVD for the passed 2 years now along with the fact that SIMON & SIMON's 2nd Season was also quite an upgrade from this detective drama's First Season and when the Simon Bros. started hitting their stride since this was the season when this show started to walk, but the 1st Season was when this show was just starting to crawl, kind of like the ROCKFORD FILES did and like many other shows did.As a matter of fact, SIMON & SIMON's Second Season was also the season when I started watching this private detective drama more often, especially since it was more sophisticated with more action in it than the First Season was.Additionally, SIMON & SIMON was like a pioneer in many ways, because for one thing SIMON & SIMON was probably the first private detective show that took place here in San Diego instead of L.A., or New York, or even San Francisco. For another, SIMON & SIMON was definitely one of the first private detective shows about 2 brothers who ran a private dicks agency, which in this case was in Downtown San Diego.For another, SIMON & SIMON was one of the first private detective dramas about 2 private investigators working together to solve cases, unlike most other private detective shows like the ROCKFORD FILES, MAGNUM, P.I.; MATT HOUSTON, and MANNIX, since most other private investigators like Rockford(James Garner), Magnum(Tom Selleck), Houston(Lee Horsley),and Mannix(Mike Connors) all worked solo most of the time, since most private investigators like Rockford, Magnum, Houston, and Mannix ran their own private detective agency alone, unlike the short-tempered gonzo PI Rick Simon(Gerald McRaney)and the often fastidious A.J. Simon(Jameson Parker), but Rick & AJ who often butted heads with each other on cases still had their streetwise cop buddy Det. Marcel "Downtown" Brown(Tim Reid)and the spunky Lt. Marsh(Joan McMurtry)from San Diego P.D. just like the down-on-his-luck private detective Jim Rockford had his often irritated cop buddy Det. Dennis Becker(Joe Santos)from the LAPD on the ROCKFORD FILES to help them solve their investigations. Rick & AJ also lived an eccentric lifestyle like Rockford did since Rick was always tapped like Rockford was, plus Rick lived in AJ's backyard which was Venice in actuality and Rockford lived by himself in a small rusty trailer in a parking lot in Malibu Beach and always kept his gun in a cookie-jar.SIMON & SIMON was also like a spin-off of MAGNUM, PI too, since it was a tad similar to MAGNUM along with the fact that MAGNUM, P.I. even had a cast colliding episode in this season where Rick & AJ Simon end up teaming up with Magnum(Tom Selleck) in Honolulu to solve an investigation regarding a string of mysterious deaths plaguing Hawaii.In fact, this DVD contains both a bonus episode from MAGNUM, P.I., which is the "KI'Is Don't Lie" episode along with the fact that this was the season that has the "Emerald's Aren't A Girls Best Friend" episode of SIMON & SIMON when Rick & AJ Simon team up with the often disgruntled Higgins(John Hillerman)to go capture a prosperous jewelry thief(Morgan Fairchild) in Mexico, which by the way was the conclusion to the crossover episode "KI'Is Don't Lie".In addition, SIMON & SIMON made it's debut on CBS in the Fall of 1981, which was only a year later after MAGNUM, P.I. made it's debut on CBS in December of 1980. SIMON & SIMON is also the show that made Gerald McRaney(Rick Simon) famous too, so you could say that SIMON & SIMON pretty much launched McRaney's acting career, since he went on to doing other shows after SIMON & SIMON cancelled like MAJOR DAD and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL.In this season, it was also interesting seeing guest stars like*Anne Lockhart in the "What's In A Gnome" episode after her co-starring days as Lt. Sheba on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA*Monte Markham in the "Psyched Out" episode before his co-starring days as Capt. Thorpe on BAYWATCH*Judith Chapman in the "What's In A Gnome" episode during her co-starring days on ALL MY CHILDREN and before her co-starring days on YOUNG & THE RESTLESS and DAYS OF OUR LIVES*Bill Boyett in the "Design For Killing" episode after his co-starring days as Sgt. MacDonald on ADAM-12*Football celebrity(Dick Butkus)in the "Fowl Play" episodeThe one thing I don't understand is why wasn't this SIMON & SIMON DVD wasn't made or distributed by Universal, unlike all the other Universal classic television DVD box sets like the ROCKFORD FILES, MAGNUM, KNIGHT RIDER, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, and AIRWOLF for instance, because for some reason the makers and distributors who made and released this SIMON & SIMON-SEASON 2 DVD was done by the SHOUT! Factory instead even though SIMON & SIMON was evidently a Universal production classic TV show.Therefore, when I first heard that SIMON & SIMON-SEASON 2 was being released on DVD, I was under the impression that Universal was the one releasing it on DVD, not SHOUT or any other company, but at least we got to see these episodes complete & uncut like they were originally shown on CBS as well as commercial-free as opposed to how these episodes were shown in reruns on Cozi-TV, WGN and A&E which all deleted too many scenes & too many commercial interruptions. In addition to that, since this SIMON & SIMON-SEASON 2 DVD wasn't released by Universal, this DVD didn't have the convenient subtitles for Closed Captioning in DVD mode that all the Universal DVD box sets have.