Author's note: As regular consumers of TV on DVD know, the marketing gimmick of splitting up complete seasons of vintage TV series into two separately released volumes has become, regrettably, an increasingly common practice. Having written an in-depth review of The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 1 back in December, and since stylistically and aesthetically, there is no difference between the first and second half of that particular 1968-1969 season, I've rewritten my original review of that season to cover this Volume 2 release - with additional commentary added at the end, discussing specific episodes from this set.

Heavy, baby. The Mod Squad. Prior to getting the four-disc, 13-episode set, The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 1 back in December, I'll bet I hadn't seen an episode of the iconic "counterculture" cop show since it went out of heavy syndication back in the mid-70s. A particular favorite of mine when I was in grade school (what kid didn't leap off a jungle gym at recess, imitating Linc bringing down a heavy?), I was psyched to revisit the series. So, imagine my surprise when I found both volumes of The Mod Squad...just...okay. The clothes were cool, the attitude amusing, the So-Cal location work evocative, and the A-B-C mysteries easy to take. I really wanted to have a major nostalgia overload. So why didn't it make a bigger impression on me?

The Mod Squad looked at three youthful punks busted by the cops, and subsequently recruited into the police force. Alienated, sensitive Pete Cochran (Michael Cole) was a Beverly Hills rich kid whose parents, fed up with his "anti-everything" attitude, kicked him out of his cocoon of luxury. Lincoln Hayes (Clarence Williams III), an African-American born and bred in the Watts ghetto, was pissed off, driven, distrustful - and sensitive as well - when he wasn't running from the cops. And former San Franciscan Julie Barnes, "the sparrow with the broken wing," was a beautiful, sensitive blonde "flower child" whose hard-scrabble past (her mother was a prostitute) created a tough inner core. When the three youthful criminals are busted by Captain Adam Greer (Tige Andrews), the hard-assed but sympathetic (and sensitive, too - they were all sensitive) cop offered a job working with the police, rather than jail time. The hook for the suspicious kids was Greer's belief that their involvement would actually help the other people involved in crimes; the "mod squad" could possibly bridge the "generation gap" and make the world a better place.

From a reviewer's standpoint, it's extremely difficult to gauge the success or failure of a series - particularly the critical first season - when one is only able to view the first half of that season. Would The Mod Squad improve during those last 13 episodes from the first season? I didn't know at that time, but I was certainly hoping it would. Watching the remaining 13 episodes of The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 2, I was still moderately entertained by the savvy, gorgeous-looking series, but combined with the earlier volume of episodes from Season One, The Mod Squad was hardly the heavy-weight hitter that I was anticipating.

What struck me immediately about The Mod Squad is that the actual mysteries and police stories are at best, marginal. This isn't Columbo by a long shot. Most viewers will have more difficulty figuring out a Scooby-Doo mystery than your average Mod Squad plot. But then again, The Mod Squad was never really about cops - or hippies and the counterculture, for that matter. The Mod Squad was always about style. As Tyne Daly (a guest star on the series) states on one of documentaries included on this set, "television loves young flesh, beautiful young people doing exciting things; running and jumping and leaping doesn't lose its appeal." It's obvious that good looking actors with a vast array of super-cool clothes, striking poses and breathing "heavy" thoughts, were the prime elements of The Mod Squad. Plotting and suspense took a backseat to the producers' (Aaron Spelling - the king of junk - and Danny Thomas) desire to bring the counterculture safely into Middle America's homes. And what better way to do that than use three young, attractive, charismatic leads, call them "punks," and then show them converted over to "the Establishment's" side?

The Mod Squad premiered in 1968. The so-called "hippie movement" had already been officially declared dead the year before; what remained of the "counterculture" movement quickly morphed into a series of increasingly ugly, violent social encounters, on virtually every level of American life, no doubt heightened and exacerbated by the political fallout of Vietnam. On American television, the "youth movement" had been catered to over the years in various acceptable forms (perhaps starting with the eminently safe Ricky Nelson on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet). But by 1968, it was clear that the stakes had to be upped if "The Big Three" networks were going to stay "relevant." And by "relevant," I mean capturing that coveted 18-34 viewer demographic that advertisers salivated over. Make no mistake about it; despite the claims to innovation that supposedly fueled the inception of The Mod Squad, ratings were, and always will be, the single motivating factor in anything being put on commercial TV. If The Mod Squad featured a racially diverse cast of young actors play-acting at cops, so be it. But don't isolate that artistic decision outside commercial considerations.

For Mom and Dad and the kids out in fly-over country (still the bulk of viewers back in the late 60s), the only way "hippies" on TV were going to be acceptable was to have them be, deep down, thoroughly conventional. And that's really the cleverest hook about The Mod Squad: not only did it make a case for viewers to like cops, it made it cool to be cops. Of course, this was preaching to the choir, though. All those nice kids and their families who watched The Mod Squad didn't really have a problem with the police or authority figures. After all: they were sitting home watching TV, not out rioting. 1968 Middle America was assured by The Mod Squad that despite the horrors they saw on their nightly news cast, the youth of America, deep down, were really just misunderstood kids who, with a little tough love from a kindly cop like Captain Greer, would not only blossom as responsible citizens, they'd also bust criminals who looked just like them. As Greer laments, "If only kids learned to run to cops, not away from them." The "Mod Squad," fully aware of their divided loyalties between Greer and the rest of their kind, side with Greer each and every week. The center holds, as cop and hippie punks join forces.

This being television, though, the "Mod Squad" didn't look like any hippies I remember from 1968. The hippies I remember (my brothers and their ridiculous friends) stunk to high heaven and dressed like war refugees. Pete, Julie and Linc, on the other hand, epitomized the very height of sartorial splendor in The Mod Squad. With carefully tousled coifs and expensive designer duds, all beautifully coordinated, the "Mod Squad" look like they just stepped off the pages of Esquire and Vogue, rather than Haight-Ashbury. Peter, frequently attired in a rakish turtleneck and tweed jacket (a tweed jacket on a hippie???), blended nicely with Julie's deceptively simple (read: expensive as hell), casual chic attire. And Linc, bold and almost soldierly in his high-buttoned windbreakers and perfectly tailored chinos and chukka boots, looked more like a future replacement for the Hathaway Man, rather than a fast-running, anti-establishment ghetto kid. If clothes like these went with being a cop (along with no paperwork, no police board reviews, no uniform duty, and basically no rules of conduct), no wonder so many kids thought it was cool to be in the "Mod Squad."

Playing into that fantasy world, the "Mod Squad" didn't seem to have to do too much as "cops" to earn whatever money they earned. Even that point is fuzzy in The Mod Squad. A salary is never discussed, but one must assume they're paid for their services? Greer calls them when needed, but it's assumed their time is their own in-between special assignments. One of the recurring jokes in this first season is that Julie's broke all the time - yet she has plenty of dough for all those cool clothes and that nice apartment; one might assume this refusal on the part of the producers to clearly define the "Mod Squad's" remuneration was perhaps based on the then-popular (and quaintly hilarious) notion among some young people that earning money was a sell-out. Going further with the producers' fuzzy spelling-out of the premise, are the "Mod Squad" even real cops? Their training, detailed in the first episode, consists of some shady undercover exercises by Greer in an abandoned factory (my favorite is Greer's "survival training," where he tries to run them over with a truck! Try finding that one on the police academy roster), but it's never explained if they're full-fledged cops. Can you imagine the field day lawyers would have, whenever a case was brought up by these amateur, part-time flatfoots?

If you look at most TV shows too closely, fantasy elements become readily apparent, so I don't detail them from The Mod Squad to denigrate the show, but just to illustrate that despite its reputation for being some kind of ground breaker, The Mod Squad is in reality a beautifully shot, moderately entertaining cop series that tweaked the standard cops-n-robbers formula - throwing in a lot of cool clothes, lingo and attitude - and came up with a winner in the ratings (28th for the year-end Nielsen's). And that's fine, actually. Always watchable, The Mod Squad is pure So-Cal TV fantasy, masquerading as "heavy drama," with beautiful people doing exciting things, just as Tyne Daly so aptly described. Cole, Lipton and Williams have a wonderful, instinctive quality together (even if they overdo "intense" on occasion), and while the dialogue they're given can be quite silly in that gauzy, dippy 60s manner ("I'll sell you Sunday. Real cheap." "Sorry, I've got a closet full of them."), when the directors let the cast loosen up and laugh a little bit at all the ridiculousness, a nice groove is produced. Watching The Mod Squad now, I wished the stories had been a little more involved, but the style always succeeded, episode after episode, so for what it was aiming to achieve, The Mod Squad regularly hit its target.

The remaining 13 episodes of The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 2 are, on the whole, not unlike the first volume of shows from the series' premiere season: mostly entertaining but essentially lightweight mystery fare. Standouts in this collection include Flight Five Doesn't Answer, an exciting, action-filled episode that plays like a combination of Skyjacked!, Con Air, and The Flight of the Phoenix. When Linc is left with no other choice than to perform surgery on Greer for a bullet wound, the episode goes into high (camp) gear. Hello Mother, My Name is Julie completes a storyline from earlier in the season, where Julie's troubled mother is finally shown. The producers are cagey about revealing her true occupation (it's strongly hinted that she was a prostitute, and that her johns may have routinely propositioned - or abused - Julie), but the episode gives Peggy Lipton the chance to really shine in a subtle, well-rendered piece (Lipton has a nice, quiet quality to her thesping which plays quite naturally). A Hint of Darkness, A Hint of Light has a touching performance by Clarence Williams III, falling in love with a blind woman (he's always good here).

A Seat By the Window, with a terrific turn by Bo Hopkins doing what he does best - go crazy - has a lot of energy to it, splitting up the team onto three buses as they look for a psycho killer. A Reign of Guns is a rather silly episode which plays like a junior-grade Avengers show, but it does have Linc sounding like the poster child for the NRA (that's right, baby!) when, after Julie states that she wishes all the guns in the world could be sunk in the ocean, Linc responds: "Wouldn't change anything. It's not the guns...it's the people that use 'em." Please postmark Linc's NRA membership card to Julie's groovy pad. Keep the Faith, Baby has an uncharacteristically broad performance by Sammy Davis, Jr. as a "militant" priest; it's a rather tame episode but wait till you see who pops up as the villain: Robert Duvall! But certainly the most entertaining episode in these final 13 shows has to be The Uptight Town, where the "Mod Squad" revisit the umpteenth TV reworking of Bad Day at Black Rock - right down, I swear, to the exact same hotel set from that classic film! The "unfriendly small town with a nasty secret" has always been my number one favorite TV cliché, and The Uptight Town didn't disappoint.

Here are the 13, one-hour episodes of the four-disc box set The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 2, as described on its insert. PLEASE NOTE: As with most vintage TV series released by CBS/Paramount, there is a small disclaimer at the back of the DVD slimcase that states, "Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions." There is no further explanation of what cuts, if any, were made. Most of the episodes time out at around 51 and a half minutes, which is about right or close for the original network run times. It's possible, though, that these are the syndicated versions, which may account for the minor cuts for time. Edited TV shows are one of the hottest topics concerning DVD releases, and as a reviewer, I've taken both sides of the issue, depending on what title I'm reviewing. It's usually a case-by-case basis, so it's up to you if you can live with the possibility that these shows might be edited. I've included run times and guest stars for all the episodes:

DISC ONE:

Hello Mother, My Name is Julie (January 14, 1969)
Julie's estranged mother visits with news of her engagement. But she doesn't realize she's marrying the high-stakes thief Pete and Linc are trying to nail.

Flight Five Doesn't Answer (January 21, 1969)
Things go horribly wrong when a dying mob boss, who's ready to confess to the governor, is transported via commercial airline by Linc, Pete and Captain Greer.

Shell Game (January 29, 1969)
As Linc and Pete quietly infiltrate a gang of young thieves responsible for a cop's death, Julie poses as the nurse for one of their members who was shot.

Fear is the Bucking Horse (February 4, 1969)
The team goes undercover at a Wild West show - with Linc as a rodeo clown - in order to find out who might be trying to kill a former cowboy star.

DISC TWO:

A Hint of Darkness, A Hint of Light (February 17, 1969)
Linc develops feelings for a blind African-American woman who was attacked on the beach by a man she claims tried to kill her.

The Uptight Town (February 18, 1969)
When the three detectives head north to find Captain Greer, who disappeared during a fishing trip, they are confronted by a small town full of big secrets.

A Reign of Guns (February 25, 1969)
Pete and Linc gain the confidence of a wealthy shipping magnate, who is stealing guns in order to form his own private army of "patriots."

DISC THREE:

A Run for the Money (March 11, 1969)
Pete volunteers to help his girlfriend's father, who is up for parole. But when Pete's double-crossed, the girl turns against him and Pete winds up in jail.

Child of Sorrow, Child of Light (March 18, 1969)
After a young woman is killed, Julie poses as an expectant mother in order to infiltrate an extortion racket that blackmails the parents of adopted babies.

Keep the Faith, Baby (March 25, 1969)
A famous black militant priest, whom Linc has come to admire, has been ignoring death threats from a murderer who is afraid he'll break the seal of confession.

DISC FOUR:

Captain Greer, Call Surgery (April 1, 1969)
Captain Greer has the team stake out a hospital being targeted by a narcotics ring, where a strong-willed head nurse is being blackmailed into stealing drugs.

Peace Now - Arly Blau! (April 8, 1969)
Pete and Linc get sent behind bars in order to protect a famous draft dodger serving five years, whose life is in danger due to his pacifist beliefs.

A Seat by the Window (April 15, 1969)
Captain Greer puts Pete, Linc, and Julie on three separate tour buses in order to track down a killer who stabbed a man at the bus station and then escaped.

The DVD:

The Video:
The full-screen, 1.33:1 video images for The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 2 are absolutely beautiful, with deep, rich, candy-coated color and an admirable sharpness and clarity (these episodes were shot by pros who made them look better than most feature films from that period). There are no compression issues to speak of. Still, there are isolated scratches and dirt anomalies on some of the prints, but overall: beautiful.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English sound mix is big, fat mono - which perfectly recreates the original broadcast presentation. Close-captioning is available.

The Extras:
Unlike The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 1 set, The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 2 sports only one bonus feature, and it's a bit of lightweight: Hello. My Name is Julie: The Mod Look runs 10:23 and features Peggy Lipton discussing her wardrobe choices for the series.

Final Thoughts:
Too pseudo-serious at times for its own good, with mysteries that frequently fail to mystify, The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 2 still has plenty of soul and style for the nostalgically minded fans who want a solid trip back in time. The episodes look gorgeous; the stars look gorgeous; the cars and clothes look gorgeous. Does it really matter the show is only just okay? Not at all: style trumps content every time on 1960s TV - a lesson that Mod Squad producer Aaron Spelling followed religiously throughout his career. I recommend The Mod Squad: Season 1, Volume 2 for committed fans, newcomers may rent first, and anyone who's had enough of split-season DVD releases (and I'm rapidly approaching that frame of mind), skip it, and call Paramount and complain. That's just what The Mod Squad would want you to do, man. You dig? You do? Then solid, baby.