For folks that like to collect these kinds of compilations, they’re really cheap best of DVD’s from select Mill Creek series comprised of various subjects. “Cop Shows of the 70’s” is definitely one of the better sets from Mill Creek, featuring various episodes from some of the best cop shows of the decade. I would have loved to see some “Hill Street Blues,” but all things considered this is a fun mixed bag with nine hours of mostly Aaron Spelling led crime thrillers.
Featured within the DVD set is the two hour series premiere of “Charlie’s Angels” where the angels have to stage a caper to prove a missing vineyard owner has been murdered. The second episode featured is “Angels in Chains” where the angels deliberately get placed in prison to uncover a ring of corruption, and extortion within the local authorities. The two episodes of “Starsky and Hutch” feature the series pilot where the pair of detectives investigate a double homicide where they were the intended victims. The second episode “The Fix” was originally banned by the BBC, and features a plot by a local kingpin to kidnap Hutch and get him addicted to heroin in hopes of finding his long lost girlfriend.
Anxious for another fix, they goad Hutch in to telling them where the kingpin’s girlfriend is hiding. The Angie Dickenson led “Police Woman” features “The End Game,” in which Pepper and Sergeant Crowley go undercover as bank employees to bust a violent gang of bank robbers. Episode “Nothing Left to Lose” centers on a police informant (Patty Duke) whose cover is blown, prompting her to flee a slew of killers without a place to hide. The Aaron Spelling series “The Rookies” garners the pilot “Concrete Valley, Neon Sky” where the new group of rookies is tasked with garnering order and mediating a violent war among local street gangs.
The episode “The Good Die Young” sets down on the rookies posing as singles in an apartment complex where single women are being viciously murdered. When one of the undercover rookies are targeted, they have to decide to end the charade or see it through risking their partner’s life. Finally, the action packed series “S.W.A.T.” garners the pilot “The Killing Ground” where local officer Jim Street, still mourning the death of his partner after a violent ambush by gunmen, tries out for the new S.W.A.T. team headed by Lt. “Hondo” Harrelson. Incidentally enough their first assignment is to bust the gunmen that killed Street’s partner. “The Steel Plated Security Blanket” sees the SWAT team tracking thieves that have stolen an armored car for mysterious reasons. When a national beauty pageant offers up a prize for a million dollars, the SWAT unit is on the case.