When it comes right down to it, The Mod Squad isn’t a show I should give a rat’s ass about.

Not only did the show end its run half a decade before I was born, but it never really did catch on in reruns to my knowledge. I was fortunate enough to watch the series (or more accurately, whatever episodes were rebroadcast) towards the tail end of the 1980’s. I honestly don’t even recall what network I should be thanking for this. But my bored gradeschooler obsession with The Mod Squad should have been something I outgrew rather quickly. It didn’t work out that way though, and while plot details turned into little more than fuzzy memories, the ideals of Linc, Julie and Pete stuck with me to this very day – even after the unfairly maligned 1999 big screen revival.

Years later, when the TV on DVD market actually started making waves, The Mod Squad was one of the first titles that came to mind as a great idea to release. Well, it’s been almost 10 years since that time, and finally as 2007 comes to a close; we get the first release, The Mod Squad – Season 1, Volume 1 amidst a bevy of huge holiday sellers which will surely limit sales. But that isn’t at all to say that it isn’t a release worth celebrating.

In case you don’t know what the whole The Mod Squad thing is all about (and you would be forgiven not to), it essentially was a detective drama from the late 60s. The counterculture youth movement is in full swing and due to any number of political highlights of the decade, the police and government were not heroes in the eyes of the era’s kids. This hampers police work noticeably. There are simply places cops just can’t get on the inside of and murders and drug deals are going sadly unpunished. Enter The Mod Squad, a creation by Captain Adam Greer (the late TV vet Tige Andrews). This team of undercover kids Linc (Clarence Williams III, Purple Rain, Twin Peaks), Pete (Michael Cole, Mr. Brooks) and Julie (Peggy Lipton, also Twin Peaks alumni) each week would do their best to rid the world of criminals, while examining the very blurred line of what separates the negative youth element from themselves.

Over the course of the series, the dynamics of the three become more apparent, and their characters more fleshed out. Linc was a poor black kid from Watts, Pete left his posh Beverly Hills lifestyle because he didn’t feel that he fit in with them, and Julie has a checkered past of possible sexual exploitation that bubbles to the surface every now and then but due to the limits of what public television could explore, the gory details of this aren’t revealed. Typically speaking, this trick of gathering three good looking young people together for more adult scenarios isn’t all that original, even for then and it’s a staple to Aaron Spelling television for years after the fact. Here though, it isn’t so obvious. It helps that the show is very self-contained. The story begins and ends in each episode, so while there is minor references to past adventures as you go on, they don’t get in the way of the enjoyment. It doesn’t have the same Soap Opera framework that later Spelling productions used, and is more akin to a counterculture Charlie’s Angels.

Each episode had a different problem that the kids either were assigned to, or voluntarily found themselves in. This helps keep the stories fresh, because it isn’t simply cop assignment shows each week. There’s a story where one of Pete’s high school friends is being extorted, there’s another where kids at a local high school are being manhandled by a potentially national reaching chain of car thieves, and there are the expected episodes dealing with drugs, counterfeiting and what not. The best episodes are the issues that deal with the political climate like the youth uprising, racism, the ending hippie era, etc. These stories feature events that are particularly close to the hearts of the young detectives, and they might not be so easy to disclose information to fellow squad mates, let alone their Captain. It’s these character driven stories that I find are the most engrossing, and still make fine television watching to this day.

While my memories of specific episodes from The Mod Squad were far too fuzzy to appropriately reflect upon, the thirteen episodes here hold up amazingly well and are just as relevant today as they ever were. The DVD release was a long time coming, and I certainly hope that the wait for Volume 2 will be a short one.

The DVD Presentation
The debut release of The Mod Squad on DVD starts with Season 1, Volume 1. I’ll refrain from being too angered by the “Volume” style releases. I’m sure the market would have been just as welcoming to a complete first season release. That aside though, what we have here is 13 episodes spread across four discs. The video presentation is a marvel, really. There are no words to describe how amazed I was to find that the colors are bold and hardly any print damage is evident. The Mod Squad certainly has never looked this good and it certainly helps sell the package easier. Audio is kind of odd although it still sounds good. My PC tells me that it’s presented in 2.0 Stereo, although there is little actual stereo effect to it. It sounds a lot more like a 2.0 Mono track. I didn’t notice any directional effect, and I doubt greatly that the show was originally recorded in Stereo either. That said, it still sounds really good and quite clear. The main problem that I do have with the presentation is that there are no subtitles and that’s not something I’ve noticed Paramount to be known for. That said, The Mod Squad looks better on DVD than I ever would have expected.

And the Extras Are?

Forming the Squad – (15:00)
It’s kind of funny, for all of the watching of The Mod Squad that I did when I was younger, I didn’t really know much about the show or its origins. The fifteen minutes I spent watching this sure changed that. Who knew that the show was created by a man who was an actual undercover cop as a kid? I never knew how the principle three was selected, but reasoning provided is interesting. The disappointment here is that Clarence Williams III is not around to provide any input although he and his character are largely discussed by all. Finally, this feature scores awesome points (+10) for dedicating part of the attention to The Woody.

Inside: “The Teeth of the Barracuda:” 1968 – (9:34)
Mostly concerning itself with the pilot episode, this featurette focuses on the themes of the era and how these were adopted into the making of the first attempt at mainstream and counterculture amalgamation. Direction seems to be given more towards the political climate though than the first episode of the show, so while this is worth watching, it is somewhat dubiously titled.

Friends of The Mod Squad – (16:10)
The only feature not on the first disc, this is essentially interviews with some of the guest stars of this set of episodes. Lou Gossett, Jr. (Iron Eagle), Lesley Ann Warren (Clue), Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) & Tyne Daly (Cagney & Lacey) are all interviewed here, although it’s interesting to note that Ed Asner and Tyne Daly weren’t actually in the first season of The Mod Squad at all, let alone the first half of it. Those who were unavailable to make an appearance on this set, like Tom Bosley (Happy Days), were talked about by the others. It’s a satisfying feature, no doubt, but I would have liked to see it more content specific and open ended to be continued in future volumes. There are certainly a lot more stars to talk about.

Overall, I’m impressed with the extras here. However, there are a few questionables, such as no participation with Clarence Williams III and that guest stars from other seasons are given highlights. The ideal feature would have been a commentary with the trio on the pilot episode, but I guess that’s just a fantasy at this point. Still, for this sort of release, the features here are admirable.

The Bottom Line
I went into revisiting The Mod Squad with the typical “rose colored glasses” fear. Here was a show I saw less than twenty years after it originally aired at an age where personal timeliness wasn’t as much of a concern. So watching it again in my twenties, I’m rather surprised at how well a show that wouldn’t exist if not for the 1960’s social politics holds up. The plots are still above norm for detective dramas and thanks to the era’s styles is never a bore to look at. Paramount’s DVD release of Season 1, Volume 1 is also pretty impressive with a great visual presentation and decent enough audio. For fans of the series, this is a set to pick up. As Linc himself would say, this DVD is solid.