RLJ Entertainment / Image Entertainment

Region 1 - NTSC

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 4.38 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

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Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Original Commercials (only on Season 4, disc 1) (12:05)

DVD Release Date:
4 thick keepcases in a boxed set

Chapters 6/8

There are eight million stories in the Naked City. Here are 138 of them in the Complete Series set of all 138 episodes that ran on ABC from 1958 until 1963 for four seasons. The series started on ABC in a 30-minute slot (each episode is 25 minutes) in 1958-1959 season as an update of Jules Dassin's 1948 classic noir The Naked City with John McIntire playing Lieutenant Dan Muldoon (Barry Fitzgerald in the film) and James Franciscus as Detective Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor in the film). Later in the season, McIntire quit the series and was replaced by Horace McMahon as Lieutenant Mike Parker. The series was cancelled by ABC in the end of the first season, but was revived as an hour-long show (45-minute episodes) in 1960 with McMahon and Paul Burke as Detective Adam Flint.

Image Entertainment has been releasing the series on DVD since 2003, starting with 4 episodes per volume, and continually adding more episodes per set, with two different sets released in February of 2013 - 20 Star-Filled Episodes and The Best of. Throughout the years they managed to release total of 69 episodes, leaving the other half unreleased until this complete collection. Season 1 fared the worst with only 2 30-minute episodes available on DVD until now. The series are highly recommended to any film noir fan with a very atmospheric location shooting in New York City and some of the best actors and directors in the industry. Some of the episodes were directed by John Brahm, Tay Garnett, Arthur Hiller, William Conrad, William Beaudine, George Sherman, Irvin Kershner and many more.

The set contains 29 dual-layered discs - 5 discs for the first season with 8 episodes per disc (disc 5 has 7 episodes) divided into 6 chapters and 8 discs for each consecutive season with 4-5 episodes per disc divided into 8 chapters. The quality of prints varies from one episode to another. Some episodes are in pretty dire condition, most likely sourced from a tape. I tried to provide captures of varied quality to see the difference. Thankfully, most episodes I sampled are in very good to excellent condition, but be warned about a few poorer quality transfers, like an episode named one of 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time by TV Guide - "Sweet Prince of Delancey Street" with Dustin Hoffman from Season 2 or the first episode of Season 3 with Lee J. Cobb "Take Off Your Hat When a Funeral Passes". Mono audio is acceptable - the original music by George Duning, Billy May and Nelson Riddle as well as narration by the producer Herbert B. Leonard (season 1) and Lawrence Dobkin (seasons 2-4) are always loud and clear. Some of the scenes filmed on the streets fare a little worse, but it never becomes a problem. The lone extra is a 12-minute clip of original commercials from the era on the fourth season, disc 1 (see Peter Lorre advertising a watch bracelet!!!) Episode titles are listed on the inside jacket, but a booklet would have been welcome. There is a book on the series by James Rosin that is currently out of print - Naked City: The Television Series.

This is still a very welcome release that we can recommend for the right price to any classic television and crime drama fan.

 - Gregory Meshman