Naked City - Fan Favorites

10 of the episodes in this 20 episode set were released by Image Entertainment between 2003-2006. The same 10 are included in the 40 episode set being released in January. The other 10 are new to dvd-Sweet Prince of Delancy Street, Down the Long Night, To Walk in Silence, Tombstone for a Derelict, Bullets Cost Too Much, Prime of Life, Lady Bug Lady Bug, One of the Most Important Men in the Whole World, Line of Duty, The Pedigree Sheet. I don't understand why Image isn't releasing complete season sets of Naked City but, I'll probably purchase this release in order to see 10 more episodes I've never seen. Love this show!

Seven years ago I fell in love with Naked City reruns on TV. So I bought the three Series of Naked City releases by Image Entertainment. The good news was that they chose some great episodes. The bad news was that, rather than releasing full seasons, they put together compilations. My bad for not reading the description more carefully. On the other hand, you take what you can get when you love a classic TV show. Naked City - Set 1 [TV-Series 1958-1963], Naked City - Set 2 and Naked City - Set 3. In addition to the collections they also released a plethora of single episode DVDs.

OK, so we fast-forward five to seven years and, lo and behold, Image Entertainment is releasing not one but two "new" Naked City compilations: "Best of Naked City" and "Naked City: 20 Star-Filled Episodes." But are they new? No, not really. At least not completely. Many, if not most, of the episodes were already released in the sets that I already have. I say "appears" because they make it something of a challenge to see just what they've already released and what is newly released. As best I can tell about half of this set has already been released in the three compilations I already have. But there do appear to be about ten new episodes.

Well, I'm that much of a fan of Naked City that I'll re-buy what I already have just to get the new episodes, especially since the "network" that re-ran them on cable here in San Francisco was bought by a Christian network that now shows religious programming almost exclusively. So there's little chance I'll get to see Naked City on TV anymore.

My question to Image Entertainment is, Why, oh why don't you release full seasons of Naked City? It's fun to track a show from beginning to end. Even if you limit your release to the hour programs (after the success of the movie the first season of Naked City on TV was only a half-hour show - it went off the air for a year of re-tooling and came back as a highly superior hour-long show) you need to get with the industry standard and start releasing this great show in full-season format, even if your release the seasons as two-volume sets. The quality of the episodes merits this treatment.

In the meantime milking the same shows by releasing them over and over, almost taunting us to buy the newly released episodes included in these sets, is pure greed. Your release strategy is a mess. Come on, tighten it up, get in step, and release full seasons with a complete series box set as a final goal. (Calling the three compilations you released from 2005-2007 "box sets" is a joke. They are compilations, not box sets. Just another example of misleading customers into thinking they are getting something more than they are getting.)

If you have a good reason or reasons for releasing these episodes in the manner you've chosen feel free to respond to this review. I'm an open-minded guy. I may be missing something. Here's your chance to explain yourselves. Until then we'll just accept that you are milking this show for the maximum amount of profit possible by re-releasing episodes over and over again mixed with a few new titles to get suckers like me to pay for the same episodes repeatedly.

I've given this product a four-star rating strictly on the quality of the episodes, which by themselves deserve five stars. I'd easily give it five stars but for your release strategy. For that I penalized you one star (and that penalty is for you - not the show, for which I do feel guilty since many people will feel like I am penalizing a great show that merits a higher rating. I assure you all that the one star penalty is strictly for the shoddy release treatment this show has received). You should consider yourselves very lucky that I only penalized you one star. Your treatment of this gem of a show is atrocious. Please straighten up and fly right. This program, which features some of the greatest actors ever as guest stars and some great writing, deserves much better treatment than you've given it.

The later seasons of NAKED CITY are celebrated, and rightly so, but the original, one-season incarnation (actually called THE NAKED CITY) with James Franciscus and John McIntire is a gem in its own right, thanks in part to those two actors. Stirling Silliphant, later of ROUTE 66 and the film IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (among much else), wrote both episodes featured here. I believe he wrote all or most of the first season. These two episodes (one features Peter Falk, the other Diane Ladd) have a poetic if dated feel, but they are a snapshot of both New York in the late '50s and the artistic aspirations of the best TV creative talent of the day. I would hope the entire season would finally be released (the previous releases all focus on the later verison).