Shazam!: The Complete Live Action Series Blu-ray Review

THE SERIES — 3.0/5

Series Synopsis: By uttering a single magic word, young Billy Batson (MICHAEL GRAY) transforms himself into the world’s mightiest mortal: Captain Marvel (JACKSON BOSTWICK – Season 1; JOHN DAVEY – Season 2 and 3). That word is created from the first letters of the names of the six elders who train Billy with their special gifts – Solomon, wisdom; Hercules, strength; Atlas, stamina; Zeus, power; Achilles, courage; and Mercury, speed: SHAZAM!

Quick Hit Review: With the release and modest theatrical success of the Shazam feature film, it was nice to see Warner Brothers, via their MOD Archive Collection, put out this cheesy series that ran for three seasons, from 1974 through 1976. Having never seen this before, though I have heard of it, I went in expecting something along the lines of the 1960s Batman series and what I got instead was, well, honestly pretty bad.

However, I would be lying if I didn’t say it was also quite hilarious and certainly in that so good it’s bad category, mostly because of how earnest especially when it came to the cast. I can only imagine how today’s audiences used to quality superhero movies would react, but if you can appreciate its 1970s goofiness, to go along with its hilariously cheap production values (even 1960s Batman looked better, and that is saying something).

SPECIAL FEATURES – 0/5

This four-disc release comes housed in an HD keep case. No features were included.

VIDEO – 4.0/5, AUDIO – 3.5/5

Warner Bros., through the Archive Collection, releases Shazam onto Blu-ray where it’s presented in its originally televised full frame 1.33 aspect ratio and although yes it certainly looks like a show straight out of the 1970s, the picture itself still looks quite good. Detail is relatively sharp and colors generally appear to be in keeping with the era. There is some minor flaws with some specs but otherwise this is an impressive looking picture from the Warner Archive Collection.

Each episode comes accompanied with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which does sound perfectly fine, especially when you consider this aired in the 70s when television audio wasn’t exactly top-of-the-line. Dialogue does come through with good clarity as does the cheap score and sound effects.

OVERALL – 3.0/5

Shazam: The Complete Live Action Series is everything that is so wrong and yet so right about 1970s television and the state of the superhero genre which at that juncture consisted of cheap production and campy humor before going bigger budget with 1978’s Superman: The Movie and a decade later with Batman in 1989. Still, this was a fun show to watch all things considered and nice to see it get the high-def treatment through the Warner Archive Collection.