The Master Complete TV Series

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

I can’t believe they finally released The Master and on Bluray no less. Blurays are sharp and clear and sound great. here is a little know fact in 1981 Lee Van Cleef had a pacemaker for his heart. Lee Van Cleef died in 1989 from a heart attack and throat cancer. If the series hadn’t been canceled I don’t know what they would have done, Great guess stars like Demi Moore making her acting debut and David McCallum aka Ducky on NCIS David is the bad guy! George Lazenby (James Bond) and many more every episode is full of guest stars you know and love. A great series! Sit back and enjoy.-Kindle Customer

The Master is what you get if you take any of the serialized 1980’s action series like A-Team, Greatest American Hero, Night Rider etc., and combine it with the Cannon ninja trilogy (which had a big cult following). It never gained traction as a show and was ultimately canceled after just 13 episodes. I was in the neighborhood of 7 or 8 when the series first aired, and loved martial arts and all things ninja and remember watching some of the episodes when they originally aired. It was easy to overlook the cheesy, and sometimes downright bad acting and writing back then, more than it is now, but if you were growing up back then and watched the show it will be a nostalgic blast from the past.

The series starred Lee Van Cleef and Timothy Van Patten, with recurring appearances by the star of the Cannon ninja trilogy (Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, and Ninja III: The Domination), Sho Kasugi. Van Cleef played John Peter McCallister, an aging Ninja Master returning to the United States to find his daughter. Kasugi played his former student, Okasa, from Japan who was out to kill him, and Van Patten plays Max Keller, who becomes his new student after the two meet in the mists of a bar fight. It is basically a story-of-the-week show where the with Keller and McCalister driving around the country looking for McCallister’s daughter, and eventually getting involved in some local dust-up between (usually) a damsel in distress against the local bad guy(s). It does take a lot of suspension of disbelief on many levels. Including buying that either Van Cleef or Van Patten had anything close to martial arts skill (which you could see during the extreme close-ups during the fight scenes they did not), or that the McCallister character, who would walk around as himself in broad daylight beating up the bad guys, would need to change into his ninja uniform at night to beat up the same bad guys, with his same apprentice in tow (who was not in a ninja uniform). And even when he was in uniform he was always pulling his mask down, so there was never any real disguising who he was. And of course, there was the carrying around tons of illegal weapons.

For those who get the blu rays, the transfer is about as good as it can be for an old 1980s tv show. For extras, there are trailers for a handful of the Westerns that Van Cleef was known for throughout his career, as well as trailers for Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja, the two movies Kasugi had been in at that point.

I think most people who will get this are those who were kids in the 1980s and remember watching it back then. It is definitely not something you will get because of great writing or acting. There were a number of very recognizable and good character actors and actresses in the show (including a young Demi Moore in the pilot), but it was overall a pretty hokey and cheesy show. That point was best summed up when one of the characters picks up a piece of uranium and sticks it in his pocket. If you watch it expecting it to just be a fun blast from the past, it is enjoyable and even pretty funny. If you are expecting award-winning TV, you will be sorely disappointed.

– Mike S.

If you have fond memories of this short-lived series, this Blu-Ray collection is a must. Thirty plus years hasn’t dulled this show’s wonderful cheese factor a bit – if anything, it’s only become more entertaining with age – and the transfers are impeccable. No extras but the show really does speak for itself. I had a ball reliving a much more innocent time with this set.

– Jeffrey

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Lee Van Cleef, Timothy Van Patten, Sho Kosugi, Demi Moore, George Lazenby
Directors: Michael Sloan, Robert Clouse, Gordon Hessler, Sidney Hayers
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1
Number of discs: 4
Rated: NR – Not Rated
Studio: Kino Classics
DVD Release Date: February 20, 2018
Run Time: 624 minutes
ASIN: B077ZCV7RB