Universal

Bravo had an idea. On the surface it was actually a pretty good idea. They realized that of all the well known and critically acclaimed show runners out there with their hugely successful shows, there must have been some flops along the way. After all, no one hits a home run all the time. They also correctly assumed that some of these shows might have been pretty fair efforts that for some reason or another just didn’t last long enough to catch on. Furthermore, it was a rather clever marketing decision that there were folks out there who would like to see some of this stuff again. Even the idea of DVD releases was a smart strategy. The fatal flaw is the way they released this material. The DVD contains but a single episode of four very different programs. For three of the entries, these aren’t even pilots to properly introduce us to the characters and circumstances surrounding each show. Touching Evil is the worst of the lot in this department. From the very beginning, it’s obvious that we’re in the middle of a huge story with rather complicated character interrelationships. We’re left feeling like outsiders. For me that made it almost impossible to fairly evaluate the series. The added “Previously On” was completely inadequate to catch me up. In fact, it actually left me with even more questions.

Johnny Staccato is the shorter of the presentations at about 25 minutes. The series starred the wonderful John Cassavetes as a night club piano player who does a little gumshoe work on the side. The style is very much a 1950’s Sam Spade atmosphere and works quite well. The episode “Tempted” is a pretty nice affair starring Bewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery as the apparent “damsel in distress”. Many plot twists in a short time move the story along pretty well. This is the only entry in black and white..

The Brilliant But Cancelled DVD series is the brainchild of the web site of the same name, run by the Bravo network. As of now, there are just two titles in the series, a set of four different crime dramas, and this show. EZ Streets was a show from the 1996/1997 television season that was something of a precursor to The Sopranos. Hardly the same quality, but a similar idea. This time, Joe Pantoliano plays the boss of a crime family simply called the EZ. Ken Olin plays an undercover police detect...ve who has infiltrated the organization, and is sometimes torn between his job and his loyalty to his new friends. Meanwhile, Jason Gedrick plays a gangster that is fresh out of prison, struggling between his desires to play it straight and his need to rejoin the high income lifestyle of his friends.

The show may have been Canceled because it was just a bit ahead of its time. It's possible that America wasn't ready for a sympathetic look at the lives of career criminals on network television in 1996. As a result, the show only got an eight episode run on the air, including a two-part pilot. That pilot is included on this disc, as are episodes 6 and 7 from the shows short broadcast run. It seems odd to only present the series' first episode and two mid-season episodes. The episodes don't flow together, so there is no overarching storyline.

Growing up, that twangy Mike Post music provided a part of the soundtrack of my life. I remember walking around school and everywhere you turned you heard kids saying, “That’ll be $200 a day plus expenses.” We all printed up fake business cards. I can tell you firsthand that it takes more than the props. I didn’t have Jim’s natural charm and finesse. Somehow fifth grade’s Sister Margaret wasn’t buying that my NSA credentials meant my homework assignments were classified and above her clearance level. As I sat in detention wondering what could have possibly gone wrong, one theme kept going through my mind. This is gonna cost her. You guessed it. $200 a day plus expenses.

James Rockford lived in a trailer on the beach. His lovable dad was a truck driver who never did understand how his “sonny” could be mixed up in the dirty world of private investigations. While Rockford always projected a tough guy exterior, it was his soft spot for a sad story that often got him deep in trouble. He could understand the world of injustice. He had spent 5 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Even after a full pardon, the cops considered him a lowlife ex-con. His one buddy, Lt. Becker, usually laid low among his fellow officers, often afraid to admit to being Rockford’s friend. Rockford was also king of the con. When normal tactics didn’t work, he could bring together a group of scam artists and con men to handle the largest of productions. He traveled with his own business card printing press. Afraid of guns, Rockford usually kept his in the cookie jar.