List Price: $29.98Price:
$23.99You Save: $5.99 (20%)The White Shadow - Season 1
Actors: Ken Howard, Jason Bernard, Joan Pringle, Kevin Hooks, Timothy Van Patten
ASIN : B000AQ68SW
Sales Rank : 22017
Director : Victor Lobl, Bruce Paltrow, Michael Zinberg, Ernest Pintoff, Jackie Cooper
Brand : Team Marketing
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543190776
UPC : 024543190776
Release Date : December 08, 2005
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 719
Description
A timeless classic that fans are clamoring for! From the Creators of "COACH CARTER," "ST. ELSEWHERE," "NORTHERN EXPOSURE" AND "NYPD BLUE."
When professional basketball player Ken Reeves (Ken Howard) suffers a serious knee injury, his career comes to a grinding halt—and all his dreams of glory seem shattered. Fortunately an old friend, who is now the principal of a Los Angeles inner-city high school, offers him a job as a basketball coach. Although initially hesitant, Reeves' love of the game finally convinces him to accept the position. But he soon discovers the only thing worse than his team's lack of skill on the court is their lack of belief in themselves off the court. Yet the new coach feels certain that the right combination of guts, sweat, luck and attention will make his players winners in the end.
Amazon.com
The entertaining and sometimes powerful The White Shadow gets under one's skin very quickly. Ken Howard plays former NBA star Ken Reeves, whose career in the pro game is cut short by serious injuries. Along comes Ken's old college roomate, Jim Willis (Jason Bernard in the pilot episode, Ed Bernard after that), principal of an inner-city high school in Los Angeles with a high dropout rate and plenty of antagonism between thuggish students and an angry faculty. Jim makes Ken an offer any sensible man might refuse, but somehow Ken can't: becoming coach of the school's low-achieving basketball team.
Hardly a bleeding heart and prone to inopportune wisecracks, Ken nevertheless gets the team on its feet and slowly takes cautious interest in the personal lives of individual players. Over the course of 15 first-season episodes, Ken gets in the middle of his students' problems, including alcoholism, gang affiliations, early fatherhood, racism, and fighting. Ken is not without his own issues and biases, which have to be faced at critical times. In "Just One of the Boys," the addition of a new player, who might be gay, to the team makes him terribly anxious--and embarrassed that he feels that way. "Spare the Rod" finds Ken at his lowest moment after striking a student who punched him in the nose. What makes this story interesting is that every adult in the school rushes to Ken's defense, even praises him for taking a stand. Yet the attention deepens his shame, and makes Ken too ready to forgive his dangerous attacker. Actress Joan Pringle is excellent as vice-principal Sybil Buchanan, Ken's ally-adversary. Be on the lookout for a number of actors who would soon have starring roles on 1980s TV series, among them Michael Warren and Bruce Weitz (Hill Street Blues), Peter Horton (thirtysomething), and Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation). --Tom Keogh
List Price: $29.98Price:
$23.99You Save: $5.99 (20%)The White Shadow: The Complete Second Season
Actors: Ken Howard, Jason Bernard, Joan Pringle, Kevin Hooks, Timothy Van Patten
ASIN : B000CNE0SI
Sales Rank : 21343
Director : Victor Lobl, Bruce Paltrow, Michael Zinberg, Ernest Pintoff, Jackie Cooper
Brand : Team Marketing
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543227953
UPC : 024543227953
Release Date : December 21, 2006
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 1173
Description
When professional basketball player Ken Reeves sustains a career-ending injury, he accepts a job as basketball coach at a Los Angeles inner-city high school. Now, in his second year at Carver High, he realizes he's become more than just a basketball coach. He's the person his players can turn to when things go wrong at home, or when things get tough out on the street. Clashes still arise highlighting the differences between the world Coach Reeves knows and the tough neighborhoods where his players live, but ultimately the bond between coach and player is strengthened—and the daily hardships they face become a true learning experience for all.
Amazon.com
The White Shadow's sophomore year, its last with the series' original roster, is a winning season as the inner city Carver High School basketball team, led by former Chicago Bulls forward Ken Reeves (Ken Howard), further share "the unique joys and sorrows experienced in organized sport." To quote an aspiring sportswriter in the season opener, "On the Line," it's the "blending of friendship, teamwork, discipline, and trust that makes this unit what it is." The Carver team will be tested on and off the court in their run for the city championship. Several episodes take an authentically gritty look at such hot-button issues as sports betting ("On the Line"), race ("Albert Hodges," "Links"), child abuse ("The Hitter"), sexually transmitted diseases ("Me?"), inappropriate teacher-student extracurricular activities ("Salami's Affair"), and the scourge of drugs ("Gonna Fly Now"). But it is the hard-earned life lessons that put The White Shadow in a class by itself. In "Globetrotters," a good team goes astray with bad sportsmanship after a winning streak, prompting Reeves to recruit an incognito Harlem Globetrotters to give his players a much-needed comeuppance. Tragedy strikes in two of the season's most memorable episodes. In "Sudden Death," Reeves is guilt-stricken after a promising player he encouraged to join the team suffers a fatal aneurysm during practice ("I hope very much this burdens you for the rest of your life," the boy's unforgiving mother tells him). And in "The Death of Me Yet," jubilation over the team's Cinderella story is short-lived after one of the team's (and series') most valuable players is slain during a liquor store robbery.
The White Shadow was never a ratings slam-dunk, but, especially, if you were on a high school basketball team, it was must-see viewing. Some more prurient episodes find The White Shadow off its game (in "The Stripper," Reeves is stunned to discover his new girlfriend, a Carver chemistry teacher, moonlights as an exotic dancer), but overall, it still scores with its real-world tone that often leaves conflicts and crises unresolved by the final freeze frame. Now available for replay on DVD, The White Shadow should find a new generation of fans. --Donald Liebenson
