#1 Cheap Simon & Simon: Season Three Reviews
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There is something nearly magical about being 'on top of your game', and "Simon & Simon: Season Three" was truly at it's peak. Not only were stars Jameson Parker (as sweet-tempered, preppy A.J.) and Gerald McRaney (as gonzo Vietnam vet, Rick), superb, and Mary Carver, as their long-suffering but loving mom, Cecilia, given real opportunities to shine (and let's not forget Marlowe, Rick's scene-stealing big ol' mutt), but the arrival of Tim Reid, as funny, street-savvy Det. 'Downtown' Brown, provided the missing element the show needed; a likable authority figure to tell the boys their clients are guilty and their theories, crazy, then join in the adventures to catch the real villains ('deputizing' them, regularly!). While he doesn't arrive until the seventh episode, the chemistry is spontaneous, and by the end of the first appearance, he's 'family'!
For those who followed the series faithfully, some slight but noticeable 'tweaking' is evident; Rick's 'Nam backstory is beefed up, providing more dramatic opportunities (if making some of his first season silliness a bit out-of-character); the stakes are raised (with the brothers occasionally in REAL hot water with the police on both sides of the border); and the clients and fees are a bit higher-class (although the guys still have problems collecting!)
Some stand-out episodes: "Shadow of Sam Penny", a nifty Film Noir detective movie homage, with film legends Scott Brady, Dane Clark, Joan Leslie, Anne Francis, Elisha Cook, Jr., and TV's best 1960s leading man, Robert Lansing, as Penny; "The Bare Facts", with the brothers 'under cover' at a nudist colony (no easy feat on G-rated network TV!); "Betty Grable Flies Again", with Pat Hingle as a disgraced WWII AAF pilot trying to find his old plane (a beautiful, vintage bomber); "The Wrong Stuff", with Gary ("2001: A Space Odyssey") Lockwood again an astronaut, if an alcoholic, washed-up one; "Double Play", where the boys are framed, arrested in Mexico, and lose their license, with Mary Carver giving a moving speech on her unhappiness at their careers; and "The Dillinger Print", a potentially farfetched tale of gangster John Dillinger still being alive, lifted by one of Parker's finest porformances of the entire series, and cameos by veteran 'tough guys' Harold J. Stone and "The Untouchables" Bruce ('Frank Nitti') Gordon.
This is THE season, the real start of the best seasons of the series, and if you love "Simon & Simon" (or would like to see why the show was so popular and ran so long), this is a great place to find out!
Simon & Simon: Season Three Overview
Studio: Uni Dist Corp (music) Release Date: 08/18/2009
Simon & Simon, Season # 3 - Robert J. Paulmann - Springfield, Massachusetts
with the exception of 2 or 3 Microscopic Defects burned onto the DVD's, I thought that it is pretty good.
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