Shazam!: The Complete Live-Action Series

When this came up for pre order, the description said ‘restored and uncut” I had a hard time believing this, as word was that when the Hallmark company owned the rights to Shazam they cut all the end cap “moral” lessons that captain Marvel would explain at the end of the episodes and that they were lost.On the dvd version of the disc , some of the end‘Morals” were provided by collector from on air recorded vhs tapes, that looked awful. While 90% were missing.Well, I have watched two discs already and the moral lessons are here!Now the best part, these look fantastic!! Being that this show was shot on 16mm film, I never thought It would ever look this good, but it does!! I never thought I would see the day when this show would get this loving treatment!!This Blu-Ray looks fantastic!! Hats off to the team at warner Archives! What a great job!!Yes this show was low budget and some consider it hokey, but that is part of its charm! If you are a fan of 70’s tv you will notice a lot of guest star that are familiar, even Lance Kerwin from “James at 15” turns up in a episode.Don’t waste your money on the dvd, when this Blu-Ray is head and shoulders above! There is really no comparison! if you are a fan of SHAZAM the ORIGINAL captain Marvel, and love this show and the era it was produced in, I heartedly recommend you get it!

Sure it is low budget, aimed at kids and designed to give life lessons rather than show Captain Marvel beating up arch supervillains but, somehow in doing so, it gives the illusion that Captain Marvel could exist in the real world.As a child I would watch this and imagion how exciting it would be to have Captain Marvel swoop down out of no where and save the day. It was as real and believable as Santa Claus and just as much a part of my life.Billy Batson and his mentor (conveniently named "Mentor" lol) drive around in their RV in search of anyone (mainly kids) who are in need of assistance. In times of dire need Billy yells the acronym, "SHAZAM!" to summon the awesome powers of Solomon (wisdom), Hercules, (strength) Atlas (stamina), Zeus (power), Achilles (courage) and Mercury (speed) and be transformed into the world's mightiest mortal: Captain Marvel!This series still stands up as a great way to teach life lessons on saftey, making smart decisions, how to handle bullies and to stay away from the wrong kind of people. Especially for younger viewers who take in the life lessons thinking that they are just watching a superhero show.As far as which actor was the better Captain Marvel... IMO Jackson Bostwick looked more like a Superhero. He was tall, in great shape and had a booming base voice but, lacked the charisma to make him likeable which often made his acting seem subpar. John Davey on the other hand was full of color, vibrance, charisma and flair. He was an actor through and through. Unfortunately he was a little pudgy and at only 5'7" he was a bit short for the role (working mostly with kids however, this was not all that noticeable). Also, despite his great delivery his voice was a bit high pitched sounding more like a sidekick than a superhero. Whichever Captain Marvel you prefer you are sure to find something that you like in this series.Special note: be sure to take notice of Batman himself Adam West doing his first ever voice over as the voice of Hecules in the pilot episode.

After releasing Shazam on DVD in 2012, the folks at Warner Archive remastered the series in High Definition from the original films, before airing it on DC Universe's streaming service. Now, all 28 episodes are available to enjoy on Blu-Ray, and from the Elders artwork in the opening credits, to the moral tags from the first and third season (the second season tags on the DVDs were of the same quality as the episodes), a "Marvel"-ous restoration job was done!If you're considering repurchasing the series on Blu-Ray, as I did, here's a few other details about this newer release:All of the moral tags are included right before the individual episodes' end credits; the DVD included them as a "Play All With Morals" feature. The commercial bumpers are still there, however, all of the voicing is the same. The later seasons used a different recording of the announcer's voice (Norm Prescott, I believe), which is what the DVDs used as well. There was also an audio glitch in the episode "Debbie" that's mostly been removed on the Blu-Ray.The 7 second season episodes now feature the "Shazam/Isis Hour" opening teasers; these were previously available as special features in the out-of-print Secrets of Isis DVD set from BCI Eclipse. One episode also includes a clip from Isis, which followed Shazam during season two, and, like the Shazam DVDs, the 6 third season episodes still include the "Part Two, Shazam!" teaser, when the show was aired after Isis.And this time, on the back cover description, Captain Marvel is referred to by his proper name!Shazam! The Complete Live-Action Series, with enhanced picture quality and some alternate edits, is worth buying or buying again on Blu-Ray if you're a fan of the show. Billy, Mentor and the Captain never looked so good!

I would expect with the imminent release of "Shazam!" that this DVD set might be of interest. If you're over 45 or so, you might remember this as a Saturday morning staple in mid-1970s. It's definitely worth picking up if for no other reason than a capsule of children's entertainment of the era. This is a DVD+R set manufactured by demand from Warner Archives. Usually I'm skeptical of releases like this, but this set is of high quality. There is a "play all" function, which is useful as after commercials each episode runs only 22+ish minutes. What is included in this set is the "moral"; 30 seconds or so of exposition by Captain Marvel himself, a segment which has been omitted from most syndicated packages."Captain Marvel" is actually this guy, and the set is of course, recommended.

This is a truly wonderful show--the kind they are incapable of making anymore: action without violence, morals without indoctrination, and humor without profanity. The '70s were a great time to grow up in--the first real "Super-Hero Explosion," when all our favorite heroes came bursting onto the screen (and toys and merchandise of all kinds were overflowing the store shelves!) We had the reruns of great shows like "The Adventures of Superman" (there will never be any other Man of Steel than George Reeves) and "Batman" (ditto for Adam West), and we had new television heroes in the form of the inimitable Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman, Joanna Cameron's Isis, Nicholas Hammond's Spider-Man, and Bill Bixby's and Lou Ferrigno's Incredible Hulk!Filmation put out so many great, quality animated shows ("The Adventures of Superboy," "Star Trek: The Animated Series," "Tarzan and the Super 7," and later "He-Man" and "She-Ra" to name a few), but "SHAZAM!" was their first foray into live-action. Shot at locations all over Southern California with 16mm film, the result is nothing less than an amazing achievement to what can be done on a shoestring budget with some talent and imagination. True, the premise of Fawcett Comic's original Captain Marvel was tweaked somewhat for the sake of budgetary limitations. As DC Comics held the character rights at the time, Filmation had to pay licencing fees to use them, so Billy and Cap was all the production could afford. There was no wizard Shazam, and no Rock of Eternity, but the five Greco-Roman gods and Solomon still appear, albeit in animated form, which was a cool effect actually (Hercules was voiced by Adam West, and producer Lou Scheimer voiced the rest, as well as being the narrator in the opening credits and commercial break interstitials).It would have been nice, though, to see Freddy Freeman or Mary Batson pop up in later seasons ... or if Mentor, Billy's guardian on their cross-country "vacation" in an Open Road motorhome, had been called Uncle Dudley. They adopt a cute orange kitten in one of the last episodes and name him "Polecat" (because Cap rescued him from the top of a telephone pole. How did he even get up there??) but would it have broke the bank to call him Mr. Tawny ... or even just Tawky? Probably, but it didn't matter, because the show was still one that made getting up on Saturday mornings a real pleasure! Despite the lack of seminal comic book baddies like Dr. Sivana, there was no shortage of dangerous situations for our heroes to get in and out of. And helping folks with their problems, and making friends along the way, was really what Captain Marvel from the original comic books was all about anyway. The stories were engaging, the social themes important, and Billy (Michael Gray) and Mentor (Les Tremayne) had brilliant chemistry together.Two actors portrayed Captain Marvel: first Jackson Bostwick, then John Davey. While I like them both, I much preferred John Davey because he was more like the character both physically (the original Cap was beefy, setting him apart from other heroes of the day) and in personality. You really could believe he was Billy transformed because he maintained a playful temperament and continued the lighthearted banter with Mentor. Not that he couldn't be tough when he wanted to, he excelled at conveying parental authority, but John played it real and natural ... a lot like George Reeves did for Superman, actually. He was the kind of hero who would fold his arms over his chest and lean up against a wall when he chatted with you. Jackson, on the other hand, was channelling more of Kirk Alyn's posy and overblown Superman portrayal. (Tom Tyler did a bit of that, too, in the Republic Captain Marvel serial--considered the best serial ever made, by the way, even if it plays it fast and loose with the origin and portrays Cap as uncharacteristically violent). With his scary eyes, evil grin, and creepy voice, Jackson would have made a better villain, like Black Adam, than a hero. Both Jackson and Davey were athletes, but Jackson was a martial artist whereas Davey was a professional boxer (who got in the ring with Joe Frazier), and its pretty obvious to comic book fans which fighting style "The Big Red Cheese" used ... POW!! I liked SHAZAM! when Bostwick did it, but I LOVED the show when Davey took over.To sum up this rather long review, SHAZAM! is a great show that will have you reveling in nostalgia if you grew up watching it. Seeing the Captain Marvel/Isis team-ups are truly thrilling and represent a first in the super-hero genre (Isis was created by Filmation but DC did publish a short-lived comic with her). If you can get a hold of BCI's complete "Secrets of Isis" set, do so. Not only is it a great show, but Captain Marvel makes a few crossover appearances in Isis's show (and vice-versa). By the way, the music on both shows, in fact many of Filmations shows, was composed by the great Ray Ellis, who did the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon!

well i just cant say enough good stuff about this show it brought back some good memory's i really really like shows that show honesty and justice winning there are only a few shows left out there that have not been put on D.V.D. yet but i am hopping they well come out soon and i really really like having this show

The picture and sound on this dvd complete series is amazing. So well preserved, enjoy the show emensly

Poor quality and wouldn’t purchase as a gift. Better as a book end to hold my quality DVDs. Was really hoping for great memories.

Awesome