The 1972 Aaron Spelling/Leonard Goldberg series
The Rookies starred Michael Ontkean (
Twin Peaks) as Officer Willie Gillis, Georg Stanford Brown as Officer Terry Webster, and Sam Melville as Officer Mike Danko. While the original pilot telefilm co-starred Darren McGavin and Jennifer Billingsley in the roles of Sergeant Eddie Ryker and rookie-wife Jill Danko, the regular series instead starred Gerald S. O'Loughlin and future
Charlie's Angel Kate Jackson in the roles they made popular (ironic in Jackson's case: she and Melville played husband and wife in
The Rookies, and later on he would play her ex-husband in
The Scarecrow and Ms. King). The ABC hour-long drama about three police officers just starting out would give birth in '75 to another highly popular cop show,
S.W.A.T..
The first regular-season episode of
The Rookies has been on DVD since 2003, in Sony's
Greatest '70s Cop Shows release. Now fans of the show will be pleased to know that
The Complete 1st Season will be on DVD
July 17th. 23 episodes will be on board, including guest appearances by James Sikking, Bo Svenson, Vic Tayback, Lou Gossett Jr., Vincent Gardenia, Roddy McDowall, Cheryl Ladd (as Cheryl Stoppelmoor), Belinda Montgomery, Jared Martin, Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, Pat Hingle, Mark Lenard, Dick Van Patten, and Tyne Daly. Apparently the pilot telefilm is not included, but if we find out otherwise we'll let you know. The 5-DVD set (1058 minutes) will sell for $49.95 SRP. Stay tuned for cover art in a few weeks.
