Street Hawk The Complete Series   Starring: Rex Smith and Joe Regalbuto Fabulous Films RRP: £39.99 FHED2669 Certificate: PG Available 22 March 2010

Jesse Mach (Rex Smith) is a police officer and former amateur dirt-bike racer, who is given the opportunity to test out a new generation of motorcycles. The high tech bike is fully computerised and able to reach speeds of three hundred mile per hour. With his new kit in hand Jesse is a police officer by day and a vigilante by night, man and machine they are Street Hawk...

Street Hawk (1985) came out of that period of American television where there was an explosion of shows about high tech vehicles, including Knight Rider, Airwolf and Blue Thunder. Ultimately, the show was never as successful as its cousins, so much so that only the pilot has ever seen light of day on VHS, so this is the first time the show has been available ever. The show was created, for ABC, by Paul M. Belous and Robert Wolterstoff.

The show only ran for thirteen episodes. Fabulous Films, who make it their business to get old but well loved show, dust them off and produce impressive box sets, have released the whole show in a four disc DVD set.

Apart for the pilot episode the shows ran at fifty minutes. This collection includes Street Hawk (1.5 hour pilot), A Second Self, The Adjuster, Vegas Run, Dog Eat Dog; Fire on the Wing, Chinatown Memories, The Unsinkable 453, Hot Target, Murder is a Novel Idea, The Arabian, Female of the Species (a.k.a. The Assassin) and Follow the Yellow Gold Road.

The show was eventually cancelled, you may make your own mind up about why. Personally I think that it missed the charm of having KITT or the sheer excitement of flying around blowing the hell out of things. Eventually the limitations of the premise, meant that the type of script that were made were likewise limited.

The shows are presented in their original aspect ratio with a 2.0 audio track. Given the age of the show the print is remarkably clear, though at points there is noticeable minor damage and dirt, nothing that will spoil your enjoyment. One would presume that with a limited fan base that restoration was commercially unviable.

For fans of the show Fabulous films have done their usual and included some interesting extras, all of which appear on disc four, including Street Hawk: The Making of a Legend (40 min, 39 sec) which has contributions from the cast, including Rex Smith, Joe Regalbuto and Jeannie Wilson. Whatever you may feel about the show those involved took it very seriously and remain proud of their show. It’s the usual affair which looks at the making of the series and discusses the main characters. If you’re a fan of the show then you’re going to be in pig heaven.

There are a whole plethora of images which cover every conceivable aspect of the show and three biographies for the main cast. The DVD wraps up with a text based synopsis of the show and finally the big prize on the disc is the never before aired original pilot episode (1 hr, 13 min, 48 sec), okay the quality is somewhat reduced, but this is the sort of thing which fans just drool over.

In the end its going to come down to how you remember the show, personally I was unimpressed then and remain unimpressed now, however for fans this set will be like striking gold.

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Charles Packer