Without embarrassment, I can tell you that I am an unabashed Chuck Norris fan. I went to the theatre to see all of his original movies, and after seeing him play the hero so often was even shocked to learn that he played a ‘bad guy’ in “Slaughter in San Francisco” and “Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon.” (Now these facts are common knowledge, but I was still really young at the time.) One of the most exciting times in my young life was having the opportunity to be an extra in a Chuck Norris film that was being shot in El Paso, Texas. The film was “Lone Wolf McQuade” and I spent several days on the set.

During that time I had a chance to meet Chuck, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, David Carradine, Robert Beltran and Barbara Carrera. I also had the opportunity to hang out with Chuck’s stunt double, Dar Benjamin over the course of a weekend and had my first ever helicopter ride. It was a great time!!

So when I heard that Chuck was coming to Dallas to shoot a new TV series I was totally psyched. I thought about auditioning, but family life just kept me too busy to I passed. But I made sure to watch the series, “Walker, Texas Ranger” whenever time allowed. I didn’t see it as much as I would have liked, but liked what I saw. The series was a little on the sappy side at times, but I still really enjoyed seeing Chuck kick the butts of bad guys. The series had to have something going for it because it lasted a total of nine seasons, which was a surprise to a lot of people. The man had found his audience.

The series focused on Cordell Walker, a Texas Ranger with an Old West sensibility when it came to justice. He was partnered up with Jimmy Trivette (Clarence Gilyard Jr.), who was originally out of his element as he had grown up in the slums of Baltimore. The two became a strong team however, and even better friends. Cordell’s sometime girlfriend Alex Cahill (Sheree Wilson) also happened to be the Assistant District Attorney and usually frowned on his methods. During the first 8 seasons, the series also starred the great Noble Willingham as Cordell’s good friend C.D. Parker.

Last year, Paramount did something kind of weird when they began releasing “Walker, Texas Ranger” on DVD. Instead of releasing the first season, as is the case with most ‘TV on DVD’ sets, they started with the 9th (and final) season. I’m not really sure what the reasoning was for this, other than the idea that they want to see if it will be a popular enough set to warrant releasing the rest of the series. By starting with the final season, fans will at least get the series finale even if nothing else is ever released. Time flew by and I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to release any more of the series. Then I saw the announcement that after just a day short of a year, they were finally releasing the 1st season.

This new DVD set is a three disc affair which includes all 23 episodes of the freshman season where we get to meet Walker and his trusted team for the first time. In this season alone Walker faces the death of his partner, terrorists and every form of bad guy that Texas could throw at him. As a whole the series could be a little on the campy side, but it was always great to see Chuck kick butt.

For me, watching the series had the added fun of picking out all the locations they would shoot around town. But it was strange to see that they would often say that locations actually shot in Fort Worth were in Dallas. Occasionally I would even catch familiar streets that were renamed. So much for movie… I mean… TV… magic.

My only disappointment with the set is the lack of extra features. Paramount has been releasing a lot of different series without any extra features, and while I can’t fault them for trying to keep the costs down for consumers, there are a lot of fans that would love at least a little interview or something. Hopefully, there will not only be more releases of this fun action series (so we don’t just have the 1st and last seasons in our collections), but perhaps they’ll throw us a couple of extra features to boot. (Get it? To ‘Boot’… It’s a western style series… to ‘boot’… oh never mind…)

Episodes:
One Riot, One Ranger
Borderline
A Shadow in the Night
Bounty
Storm Warning
In The Name Of God
Crime Wave Dave
End Run
Family Matters
She'll Do The Ride the River With
Unfinished Business
An Innocent Man
Night of the Gladiator
Legend of the Running Bear
Something in the Shadows (Part 1 of 2)
Something in the Shadows (Part 2 of 2)
On Deadly Ground
Right Man, Wrong Time
The Prodigal Son
The Committee
Deadly Vision
Skyjacked
The Long Haul
Rampage 4/30/94
Deadly Reunion (Part 1 of 2) and (Part 2 of 2)
A Stolen Lullaby Season Finale

Starring: Chuck Norris, Clarence Gilyard, Jr., Sheree Wilson,
Extras: None
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital Stereo
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 6/13/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Walker, Texas Ranger: Season 1 a B.