Well over two years after Season One was released by Universal, Shout! Factory continues their much-welcomed pick-ups of Uni TV library titles with Simon & Simon - Season Two, a six-disc, 22-episode collection of the funky little So-Cal detective series that became a surprise Nielsen hit this 1982-1983 season. Gerald McRaney's Rick and Jameson Parker's A.J. are back, bickering over their bills and women, while solving some laid-back mysteries in and around the San Diego area. Fans of this representative '80s detective series will be disappointed that there aren't any extras included, but their cross-over season opener with Magnum, P.I. is included here, and just the fact that the series is continuing thanks to Shout! should be reason enough to celebrate.

For those not familiar with this light, entertaining actioner, Simon & Simon details the day-to-day struggles - as well as the unusually exciting cases - of the Simon & Simon detective agency, run by brothers Rick (Gerald McRaney) and A.J. (Jameson Parker) Simon. Polar opposites in almost every conceivable way, the brothers constantly chafe under the strains of their sibling rivalry, until of course, action is called for and they back each up to the hilt. Younger brother A.J. is the smooth, polished, college-educated driving force behind the agency (which he founded), a hard-core preppie whose idea of a ideal afternoon is sitting around his immaculate house, reading the latest Michener novel, before entertaining a beautiful girl at a fancy French restaurant. Rick, on the other hand, presents an entirely different profile. Scruffy in his jeans, boots, cowboy hat and fatigue jacket, ex-Vietnam vet Rick likes nothing better than taking a good-looking girl to a bar for some pizza and beer, with Eddie Rabbit on the jukebox - after he's spent the day goofing off on his boat, The Hole in the Water, that's parked on a trailer in A.J.'s yard.

Watching Simon & Simon's second season, I was trying to put my finger on what, exactly, the appeal was and is with this light, entertaining mystery romp, and it finally occurred to me: from the viewers' perspectives, these are "regular joes," playing at detective. Now, to any inveterate TV watcher who grew up with hours and hours of this kind of entertainment pumped into their skull from infancy onward, the private detective is probably the most desirous of all the escapist TV occupations. Representing a personal freedom only matched by the TV cowboy (without the smelly horses), the TV detective is the ultimate fantasy figure for viewers (mostly men) who, after coming home from jobs nowhere near as glamorous, or as exciting, or as well-paid, and without the perks of a constant stream of available, willing, beautiful women, sit back in their easy chairs and dream for just an hour of walking into their pokey little detective agency, seeing either a gorgeous dame in trouble, waiting eagerly for them...or three menacing thugs, waiting to be dispatched with flying fists and the burping of a well-aimed .38. And Simon & Simon provides that most basic wish-fulfillment, going even further in that the lead characters seem much more "in line" with the viewer watching the show.

Coming on after Magnum, P.I. on Thursday nights, the similarities between viewer and fictional character is more pronounced; after all - who the hell lives, or looks like, Thomas Magnum? Played by ridiculously handsome Tom Selleck, Magnum lives for free on an expansive Hawaiian estate, has the use of a Ferrari, and basically spends his time either paddling around in the waves, or making love to beautiful women in-between pitched gun battles. Rick and A.J., on the other hand, live in the far less glamorous (but still scenic) San Diego, driving either a beat-up Dodge Power Wagon (Rick's) or a convertible Z28 Camaro (nice, but let's face it: no Ferrari) - both cars that any viewer at home could own. Money troubles crop up time and again (just like they do with us), while the boys can't even escape the scrutiny of their mother, a rather alarming "maternal wet blanket" monkey wrench-element thrown into this supposedly men-only fantasy world. And while Parker and McRaney are handsome guys in their own right, they're nowhere near the mega-watt "Steve Stunning," matinee-idol looks of genuine Adonis, Tom Selleck (this categorizing courtesy of my wife). They're good-looking guys, but again, they look more or less like the people watching them at home. If you're sitting around, watching Simon & Simon, and you begin to fantasize about becoming a private investigator (guilty as charged), you may wish you were Magnum, but you'd probably wind up much closer to the Simon brothers.

This "regular joes playing detective" theory doesn't trump the mystery plots themselves, nor more importantly, the skills of the lead actors who play so well off each other. Those aspects are quite nicely exploited here, as well, in Simon & Simon, only adding to the breezy, accessible nature of the show. It's a comfortable series, for lack of a better word, which doesn't place an inordinate number of demands on the viewer; one can just sit back and go along with it, pleasantly entertained by the casual atmosphere created by the writers, directors, producers and actors. Watching the Pirate's Key episode, which incorporated quite a bit of material from the unaired original pilot of the series from 1978, you get a feeling that had the series stayed within that pilot's trajectory, Simon & Simon might have been a darker, more strictly mystery-oriented show (all the nighttime Florida shooting is nicely evocative of other south Florida mystery films, such as Night Moves or 92 in the Shade). The sibling rivalry seems more pitched (Rick even makes a serious play for A.J.'s girl, Janet), and the inter-brother banter is considerably lessened. Fortunately, two years later when the series finally went before the cameras, the show evolved into a funkier, funnier version of this original conception.

If Simon & Simon premiered today, I would imagine the media (meaning, primarily, most of the blogger goons who now seemingly pass judgment on all pop culture matters today) would dismiss it out of hand precisely because it doesn't have anything truly serious on its mind. Yes, a few episodes do, at this point, have a few lines where Rick and A.J. decry big government or big business, but they're isolated and not at all pivotal plot or character motivations. Simon & Simon just wouldn't be considered "important" enough to champion, because it isn't overtly cynical, or mean-spirited, or "meaningfully ironic," or any of the other numerous determiners that now demand that shows consume themselves in an orgy of self-reflexive pop culture cannibalism. That's probably why certain '80s TV programming niches - particularly comedy actioners like Simon & Simon - are so fondly remembered today by the people who grew up with them: they just wanted to entertain us, in a stylish, yet straight-ahead manner, without lecturing us on either the problems of the world at large, or wallowing in navel-gazing personal angst, or worse, talking down to us in a hipper-than-thou, figure-me-out-if-you-can deliberate obtuseness.

Of course, not everything in this second season of Simon & Simon is perfect. Some of the mysteries are admittedly thin, while some of the boys' detective methods leave a little bit to be desired (no one's worried about fingerprints on that key piece of evidence - a quarter - in Guessing Game; and the boys didn't really realize an ancient Chinese treasure map, drawn by a famous explorer, would actually be worth more money than the hidden gold, in The Secret of the Chrome Eagle?). And unfortunately, the writers and producers found nothing for Jeannie Wilson to do here (it looked like she might have had a more prominent role in the unaired pilot); almost all of her scenes consist of telling the boys she'll get the information they need on a case (she and her father's character will be eliminated next season). The Jerry Reiner character, played by Robert Ginty, seems half-hearted, as well (he was quickly dropped after three episodes here), an obvious attempt to cook up a dodgy sidekick like Angel on The Rockford Files. But the chemistry between Parker and McRaney more than makes up for any plot deficiencies, along with some agreeably wise-assed banter that approximates brotherly love/hatred fairly well, further lightening the load of this affable mystery series. In Art for Arthur's Sake, there's a great bit where the boys make coffee (Rick uses a dirty cup and hot tap water to make instant, while A.J. obsesses over grinding his own fresh) that perfectly sums up the characters - particularly when they both smile at each other. There's a lot of laughing between the two in this series, as they both romance the same girl, or find obvious "bugs" in their office, or when Rick frequently gets stomped by a bigger opponent; again, all of that only helps let the viewer ease into the series, welcoming it back with each new episode.

Overall, the mysteries are more than acceptable, as well, with a few of them genuinely intriguing. The opening cross-over two-part season opener with Magnum P.I. is well done, conferring on the newcomer show a bit of cache as they successfully match wits with old pro Thomas Magnum (Selleck seems to genuinely enjoy acting with the pair). Art for Arthur's Sake has a nicely twisty double-and triple cross plot, with a spiffy resolution involving a stolen naval painting, a seemingly complex code to break, and a hidden room. The Rough Rider Rides Again gathers together a terrific cast of seasoned vets (Stuart Whitman, Pat Buttram, Broderick Crawford, Don Stroud, and Alan Hale among others) for a take-off on the then-topical situation involving The Lone Ranger's Clayton Moore's dispute with the makers of the film version, The Legend of the Lone Ranger - with a great bar fight thrown in for good measure). Psyched Out features the always-good Monte Markham in a fun Coma-like sci-fi story with the boys back in college. Pirate's Key reworks the original unaired pilot episode quite well into a flashback structure, while The List features the always interesting Cristina Raines in a good turn as a model threatened by an unseen killer (and with a very funny bit by Murphy Dunne as sleazy photographer Nick Fiesta). What's in a Gnome? has legend Ed Lauter making a brief appearance (along with perhaps Rick's funniest line this year: "I love mechanized death," as he nervously ascends a rollercoaster). And The Skeleton Who Came Out of the Closet has some acceptably creepy moments as A.J. and Rick find themselves committed to an asylum (presided over by the supremely creepy Dean Stockwell), while Richard Kiel makes a good showing as an unwilling patient.

Here are the 22, one hour episodes of the six-disc set, Simon & Simon - Season Two, as described on the DVD slimcases:

DISC ONE

Emeralds Are Not a Girl's Best Friend
Rick and A.J. out-con a con artist in South America. Part 2 of a two-parter begun on the season-opening Magnum P.I. episode Ki'is Don't Lie, which aired just prior to this.

Mike & Pat
The brother must find a kidnapped dolphin and return it to its mate.

Guessing Game
When the police won't take a psychic seriously during a murder investigation, she hires Rick and A.J. to follow up on her "visions."

DISC TWO

Art For Arthur's Sake
The brothers have just 24 hours to recover a painting stolen from a San Diego naval museum.

The Ten Thousand Dollar Deductible
When A.J. is robbed of half a million dollars' worth of diamonds during a delivery, he becomes the FBI's prime suspect.

The Rough Rider Rides Again
The Simons ride to the rescue when their childhood hero, a Saturday-morning television cowboy, is accused of murdering his producer.

Sometimes a Dream Comes True
A woman hires Rick and A.J. to find her missing twin sister.

DISC THREE

The Last Time I Saw Michael
Cecilia Simon asks her sons to help a friend who insists she has just seen her dead husband - ALIVE!

Fowl Play
A pro football player trying to get out of a game-fixing conspiracy needs help when the people he works for won't let him quit.

Thin Air
Rick's ex-girlfriend asks him to help find her missing husband. When she is arrested for his murder, the Simons put themselves in jeopardy to uncover the truth.

Murder Between The Lines
A crime novelist hires Simon & Simon to find her long-lost cousin. During their investigation, several crimes are committed that are right out of the author's latest book.

DISC FOUR

Psyched Out
When a track star dies in a fall from his fraternity house, Rick and A.J. go undercover to investigate.

Pirate's Key
In this special two-hour episode, Rick and A.J. find themselves before the State Licensing Board over irregularities involving an old case (includes flashbacks from the original unaired pilot episode of the series, set in the Florida Keys).

The Club Murder Vacation
When Cecilia and her sons take a vacation together, A.J. witnesses a murder, but no body is found and on one believes him.

DISC FIVE

It's Only a Game
The brothers are asked by a friend to deliver a new video game to Las Vegas and are beset by thieves.

Design for Killing
The Simon brothers are hired to protect a fashion house's designs from being stolen by a rival designer.

The List
A.J. falls for a client accused of murdering a publisher who put her on San Diego's Top 10 Sexiest Women list - against her wishes.

What's In a Gnome?
A.J. and Rick go undercover at an amusement park that is being repeatedly vandalized.

DISC SIX

The Secret of the Chrome Eagle
The seemingly simple job of transporting a rare 1935 Cadillac Chrome Eagle Sports Phaeton to San Francisco turns into something much more complicated along the way.

Room 3502
A panic-stricken husband seeks out the Simons when he discovers his wife has vanished from their hotel room overnight.

Red Dog Blues
Rick and A.J. find themselves working on the side opposing Janet when she lands her first murder case.

The Skeleton Who Came Out of the Closet
Rick and A.J. accept a job transporting a huge man who was placed in a mental institution by his brother, only to find he never belonged there.

The DVD:

The Video:
The full-screen, 1.33:1 video transfers for Simon & Simon: Season Two: look quite good, although I did notice from time to time scratches and dirt on the prints, as well as occasional faded colors. Overall, the image is sharpish, and compression issues were largely undetected (occasionally, some edge enhancement was noticeable, and some zagging was prominent from interlacing).

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono English soundtrack is adequate, with all dialogue clearly heard (loudness levels do vary, though, from episode to episode). Close-captioning is available.

The Extras:
There are no extras for Simon & Simon: Season Two: (unless you count the first part of the Magnum cross-over season opener...which I don't).

Final Thoughts:
Simon & Simon hit the big time this sophomore go-around when it teamed up with established winner Magnum, P.I., propelling them both into the Nielsen Top Ten (with Magnum hitting its series' highest year-end rating). The pairing made sense, offering Thursday night viewers, primed for the coming weekend, a chance to unwind and relax with some colorful, action-oriented mysteries. Jamison Parker and Gerald McRaney have a laid-back, easy-going chemistry together that fits right in with the series' atmosphere. Not at all demanding...and all the better for that breezy attitude. I recommend Simon & Simon: Season Two:.