Manimal: The Complete Series (DVD)

Oh man, that’s Dale Arden!!

Alright, so that’s probably not the first reaction Shout Factory wants viewers to have when watching their DVD offering of “Manimal” but I was surprised to see Melody Anderson from the 1980 Flash Gordon film and remake that connection after all these years. Here she stars as Detective McKenzie, a police officer who loses her partner and winds up hooking up with professor Jonathan Chase, a man who harbors a heck of a secret. Now you too can explore that secret in Manimal: The Complete Series

So it isn’t much of a spoiler to say Jonathan Chase can change his form into that of an animal. The show it titled “Manimal” after all. I vaguely remember the tagline of “Half man, half animal, all adventure” or something like that.

Alright, so the logic of the show’s writing isn’t necessarily the best. There are several MAJOR flaws in the pilot episode alone, such as why a police detective and her partner are uniform cops riding in a patrol car in the first few minutes. Thing is, it must be remembered “Manimal” was created in 1983 and audiences (along with technology) wasn’t as sophisticated.

This is one of those “long lost” cult classic series – it lasted 8 episodes before it was cancelled, partly due to its own limitations and partly because it was scheduled opposite the ratings juggernaut “Dallas”. Every once in a while you might find an episode late at night but this show just hasn’t been widely seen since it first aired. And you could argue it wasn’t widely seen then.

It is interesting how the series didn’t garner more attention during its initial broadcast. Sure, the leads were not major stars but there are a number of big guest stars and recognizable names and faces that show up during the series. Ursula Andress, Richard Lynch, Doug McClure, Anne Ramsey, Keenan Wynn, Robert Englund, and James Hong for example.

Plots are of the standard police drama fare, with gun runners, high stakes murder, gang activity and of course crimes involving animals. These always led into the ability of Jonathan Chase to change into his various animal forms. This of course was a major feature of the series, and this was a showcase for the special effects wizardry of the legendary Stan Winston.

Special features kick off with an interview with series executive producer Glen Larson which has plenty of great information for fans including the casting process which meant a change in the cast after the pilot, how the series was received overseas and more. Then there are concept/production notes, biographies and a few still galleries.

Shout Factory has put together a decent package for a series many will skip over, but those of us who remember it, do so fondly, and welcome it. Could “Manimal” have been a better television series? Sure, but for the time it wasn’t bad, it just never got a fair shake.