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“Baa Baa
Black Sheep: The Complete Season One“
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Reviewed
by: |
Wayne A. Klein |
| Genre: |
War/action
|
| Video: |
1.33:1 |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
1.0 (mono) |
| Languages |
English |
| Subtitles |
English |
| Length |
584 minutes
|
| Rating |
NR |
| Release Date |
5/24/05 |
| Studio |
Universal
Home Video |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
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None |
| Featurettes:
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None |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
Interviews
with Major Gregory Boyington |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
None |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
None |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Robert Conrad,
Simon Oakland, Dana Eclar, Dirk Blocker, James Whitmore Jr.,
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| Written
By: |
Ken Pettus
|
| Produced
By: |
Philip DeGuere,
Stephen K. Cannell |
| Directed
By: |
Jeannot Szwarc
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| Music:
|
Mike Post
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| The
Review: |
Major “Pappy” Boyington (Robert
Conrad) commanded the Black Sheep Squadron during World War
II in the Pacific and fought the war his own way taking a
team of misfits and turning them into a stellar flying fighting
unit. While the TV series about Boyington had little to do
with the real heroes that fought in World War II, it made
for exciting TV in the 70’s. ---
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| Image
and Sound: |
There are
the expected analog artifacts visible particularly during the
sequences involving stock footage (which got used quite a bit
during the series). Also, some of the footage shot for the pilot
and early episodes were recycled to cut costs where possible
and, again, these bits of film betray the age of the series
much more so than the episodes shot for each individual episode.
Universal does a nice job with the picture there’s the expected
amount of grain for a vintage series. The flesh tones are solid
although a bit on the warm side (but that’s the way I remember
the series when I watched it originally and even in syndication).
Color is good throughout and the image is generally quite sharp
although there are bits where the images are a bit soft. Audio
is presented in the original mono without any embellishments.
The mono sound is a bit muddy at times but the dialog is clear
throughoutmost of the episodes. Compare the dirty footage from
the pilot episode (granted it’s an old videotape of the series
pilot) to the digitally cleaned up footage here and you’ll see
that Universal has done a pretty decent job of cleaning up the
show (even the stock footage looks better than I expected in
many cases). Color matching is off during some of the stock
footage but that was the case with the original series. |
| The
Extras: |
A 1976
interview from “The Today Show” featuring Boyington and Robert
Conrad is the only extras included here. It’s a fascinating
glimpse into the past and it’s also fun to hear Boyington
reminisce about his squad and see his reaction to the footage
from the pilot episode. The videotape this is drawn from is
in pretty poor shape with a blurry image and indistinct colors.
There’s also an interview from 1959 featuring Boyington after
the release of his book. Curiously, the 1976 segment is presented
before the 1959 segment. Together the interviews run about
8 minutes and the latter segment was filmed in black & white.
Each episode has the “highlights” trailer that preceded each
episode showing key dramatic scenes ---
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| Commentary:
|
No commentary
tracks which is a pity. Given that James Whitmore Jr. went on
to become a director, it would have been interesting to hear
his take on shooting the series. I never realized till much,
much later that John Larroquette was a member of the cast during
its two season run. Larroquette could also have provided an
interesting commentary track as well. A retrospective featurette
on the surviving cast members would also have been fun just
to catch up with them and have them reflect on the difficult
history of the series (it was cancelled and brought back retooled
with a new title “The Black Sheep Squardron” during 1977-78).
--- |
| Final
Words: |
Considering
the popularity of this series in syndication, I was rather surprised
to see that there were only 37 episodes produced. I never realized
there were so few done. Picture and sound quality are solid
while the extras are minimal they do include two vintage interviews
one featuring Robert Conrad and Boyington and the other done
just after Boyington’s original book was published in 1959.
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