Checkmate: The Complete Series

I'd never heard of this show. it was one that Amazon suggested as I'd previously bought "The Invader". I'm pleasantly surprised even though the reviews I'd read were good. It does have some audio problems so a couple of the episodes on the 1st disc were not as easy to understand but I turned up the volumn. The reason I bought it was because I remember Sebastian Cabot from family affair and thought he would be worth watching. The plots are interesting and I like seeing street scenes of San Francisco from 62 years ago.I thought the price was fair even with shipping. What else can one do when stuck in the house in winter at night?

For years my dad told me about this great series, and now I can enjoy it myself any time I want. This team of 3 private detectives are not like any you will see again, and they do their job well (as many of you know my role model is a pretty good one at that). Their mission was to prevent major crimes BEFORE they happen. That is not something you see today. But from 1960 to 1962, it did happen for 70 hour long episodes. Hence the name of their organization, Checkmate. The stars: Anthony George as Don Corey, well experienced private detective, Doug McClure as Jed Sills, his junior partner who has a weak spot for the girls but still gets the job done to everyone's satisfaction. Along for the ride is Sebastian Cabot as Carl Hyatt, a former Oxford professor of criminology who now teaches at the local university (the series takes place in San Francisco I believe). I would not be surprised if the good doctor obtained some of his methods from Sherlock Holmes himself. The series as I said ran 2 seasons, and 70 episodes (not much time for reruns well considering it was the early 60s, reruns were still a new concept or maybe even non existing one at the time) with a guest star list that could fill their own personalized volume of Who's Who. Joining the team in Season 2 sporadically was Jack Betts as Chris Devlin, a "new recruit". This series has been previously video released in 2 12 episode, 3 disc spurts (1 from each season) in 2007 and 2008 (the latter containing at least 1 Devlin episode). The manufacturer also released a hard to find 2 disc 4 episode third set later on that year (2008) as well which did not duplicate the episodes in the above mentioned "Best of" sets (remember those words don't always mean the best episodes, but is advertising ploy to get you to buy) so if you could find it, at the time it was worth the purchase. Several episodes have also been released by the "el cheapos" who offer compilations of old cop/detective shows like Dragnet 50s, Ellery Queen 50s and others in a variety pack. Most likely, the episodes in these sets are now duplicates of Timeless Video's 3 previously mentioned sets. When I found the 3rd set, and I emailed the manufacturer about it's availability and they told me how selective it was, they also offered to put me on a waiting list as they working on this mega set for hopefully a soon release at the time. Now just in time for the show's 50th anniversary (although it took an extra month from the street date to get copies to other retailers including Amazon), HERE IT IS, all 70 shows, 5 each on 14 discs, uncut and uninterrupted which of course makes the other 3 sets worthless. This set is definitely a keeper, if nothing else for the array of guest stars. For those of you who only remember watching Tony George for the short time he was on Dark Shadows, Doug McClure for his westerns, the late 80s sci fi sit com, Out Of The World, and other stuff, and Sebastian Cabot for Family Affair and his work for Disney (and for whatever else is on Jack Betts' resume for that matter), you are in for a treat. This is a show that shares one thing with "24", "Wiseguy", "West Wing", "NCIS" and other "keepers". Once you are hooked, you won't give it up. And once you reach the end of disc 14, you will wanna start again. BUY IT BEFORE IT GETS AWAY!!!!

From 1960 to 1962, Checkmate was my favorite television show. During much of the 1980s and '90s, I collected as many episodes as I could on videotape. So I was quite excited when the dvd sets of Checkmate, the best of seasons 1 and 2 were released. However, as I said in my review of the season one set, the episodes on that set were far from the best of Checkmate. That has now been remedied with the upcoming release of Checkmate-The Complete Series. There were so many great episodes from season one that will now be released: the great pilot "Death Runs Wild" with Anne Baxter, "The Human Touch" with Peter Lorre and "The Murder Game," a greatly atmospheric episode featuring an old house, a stormy night and murder. (I love those type of plots.) As I stated previously, for some reason, the scripts for Checkmate's first season were far superior to Checkmate's second season. I noticed it when I originally watched and I can still easily tell a first season show from a second.While Checkmate got good ratings its first season, CBS still wanted to cancel it. However the show was produced by Jack Benny's production company and Benny used his clout with CBS to renew it for a second season. (Benny even guest starred on an episode of Checkmate. How many other dramatic series did you ever see Jack Benny guest on? I can't think of any.) However CBS changed its timeslot the second season and wound up cancelling it after that season. I guess not even the great Jack Benny could get them to renew it for a third.However, as I previously stated in my review of season one, Checkmate had some of the greatest guest stars I can ever remember appearing on a dramatic series. On top of the ones I just mentioned, there was Charles Laughton, Lee Marvin, Joseph Cotton, Joan Fontaine, Dana Andrews, David Janssen, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jack Lord, Patricia Neal, James Coburn, Nick Adams, Claire Bloom, Dorothy Malone, Dick Shawn, etc. etc.I look forward to purchasing the entire series. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with the Best of Seasons One and Two.

Great to see this series on DVD especially with all the guest stars. Pity about the packaging, not up to the standard of The Virginian.

Thank you Amazon - this came up as a link tied in with the Virginian - the link of course being the late, great Doug McClure. There's plenty about this series on Wiki, so I won't repeat that - but would recommend reading the Wiki entry.What I love most about this series is it's atmosphere - set mostly in and around a foggy mysterious San Francisco that's a far cry from the glam tourist destination.The 3 male stars are terrific (all sadly no longer in this world, but the strange immortality of film and tv makes them live again onscreen) - the interaction between them is what adds something special to an already good mix of varied storylines, punchy scripts and a glittering roster of guest stars.14 discs in the set - every single episode of Checkmate, offer great value to discerning tv viewers. I'm not sure why this was never shown here....apparently it was popular in the States and Canada, but probably fell foul of the obsession with ridding our screens of black and white tv and only showing anything filmed in glorious technicolour.Given the age of the archive material, there are only a few wobbles here and there - generally the odd "thready" picture grants more atmosphere. Sound quality is generally good. Remember, this is from the days when they knew how to craft tv - no need for Blu-ray and HD gimmickry to paper over the cracks of poor stories and appalling acting which dog so many modern programmes....switch over to your DVD channel and watch this - you're in for a treatAs Bogart fans will know only too well, there are no meaner streets than those filmed in black and white - the fabulous noir feeling of the best films in the genre translates well onto the small screen.Buy it. Treasure it. Above all, enjoy it.

I have many DVDs of the same time and the image is far better.

This is a first-rate detective show with an intellectual bent. Acting and scripts are superb, but there are periodic lapses in the audio/visual quality. For the price, you get exceptional value for your money!

Very good series.