Will "Cobra" (1993) ever see the light of the BD day?

[UniSol GR77]

Well:

Stephen J. Cannell.
Michael Dudikoff in his prime.
The Cobra car.
Knight Rider plots.
Terrific car chases.


The distributor was 20th Century Fox, so I'm worried. Mill Creek released the DVD set in 2009. Hopefully, there will be a transfer on HD soon.

Was it a hit back in the day?

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

Well:

Stephen J. Cannell.
Michael Dudikoff in his prime.
The Cobra car.
Knight Rider plots.
Terrific car chases.


The distributor was 20th Century Fox, so I'm worried. Mill Creek released the DVD set in 2009. Hopefully, there will be a transfer on HD soon.

Was it a hit back in the day?

It was canceled after one season, so I'm guessing it wasn't a hit.

[drb999]

I don’t even remember this one.

[Michael24]

The show aired in first-run syndication, so I don't know how the ratings were. (I don't recall 20th Century Fox being involved, either.) But being a Dudikoff fan, I loved it and have the out-of-print Mill Creek DVD. I'd buy a Blu-ray day one, but I doubt it will ever happen given its obscurity. Although Shout Factory did recently announce a big deal for a lot of Stephen J. Cannell series, and I wonder if this was one of the shows in it.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by Michael24

The show aired in first-run syndication, so I don't know how the ratings were. (I don't recall 20th Century Fox being involved, either.) But being a Dudikoff fan, I loved it and have the out-of-print Mill Creek DVD. I'd buy a Blu-ray day one, but I doubt it will ever happen given its obscurity. Although Shout Factory did recently announce a big deal for a lot of Stephen J. Cannell series, and I wonder if this was one of the shows in it.

Will ask Shout about it.

What about the picture quality of the DVD set?

[Michael24]

Quality's not the greatest but it's certainly watchable. It's better than the VEG release that came out in Canada in 2007, which I also had and is a little funny considering it had the show on five discs compared to Mill Creek's four.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by Michael24

Quality's not the greatest but it's certainly watchable. It's better than the VEG release that came out in Canada in 2007, which I also had and is a little funny considering it had the show on five discs compared to Mill Creek's four.

Yeah. Glad to know that.

Well, I dropped a message to Shout. Who knows... maybe they will give me some feedback.

My minor complaint about the series is that Scandal is given a new face and a new identity, and a new job as COBRA agent... but not a new name LMAO.

[L.J.]

This sounds a lot like a show called Viper.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by L.J.

This sounds a lot like a show called Viper.

That's funny. "Cobra" was supposed to be called "Viper". They even filmed the first 3 episodes with that name in mind. Then the producers of "Viper" warned Cannell about their own show, and he changed the title to "Cobra". Not a big deal, since the lead character, Scandal Jackson, was driving a Cobra.

[Michael24]

Originally Posted by L.J.

This sounds a lot like a show called Viper.

I liked the first season of Viper on NBC. When it came back a year or so later in syndication they had made all kinds of changes that ruined it for me.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by Michael24

I liked the first season of Viper on NBC. When it came back a year or so later in syndication they had made all kinds of changes that ruined it for me.

The first season of Viper began filming in early 1993. It was slated to premier on CBS as part of Fall 1993 season. However, it was first deferred due to Stephen J. Cannell naming his new TV series "Viper". Due to a lawsuit by Chrysler Corporation, Cannell renamed his series to "Cobra". Secondly, CBS deemed Viper to be too violent and decided to bury it.

"Viper" never arrived in Italy. "Cobra" was aired on primetime by popular channel Italia Uno, under the title: "Cobra Investigazioni".

[L.J.]

Originally Posted by Michael24

I liked the first season of Viper on NBC. When it came back a year or so later in syndication they had made all kinds of changes that ruined it for me.

Remember liking Viper a lot. It reminded me a lot of Knight Rider, use to love Knight Rider back in the day. Its hard to find Viper on physical media, have yet to see it pop up on demand.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by L.J.

Remember liking Viper a lot. It reminded me a lot of Knight Rider, use to love Knight Rider back in the day. Its hard to find Viper on physical media, have yet to see it pop up on demand.

Knight Rider was a super-huge phenomenon.

Shows like Cobra, Viper and even Riptide, Street Hawk, Blue Thunder and Airwolf were riding on KITT's coattails.

[L.J.]

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

Knight Rider was a super-huge phenomenon.

Shows like Cobra, Viper and even Riptide, Street Hawk, Blue Thunder and Airwolf were riding on KITT's coattails.

Cobra and Riptide are the only two am not familiar with, use to watch all the others.

[Michael24]

Funny enough, despite being an '80s kid, I never watched Knight Rider growing up. I knew about it, of course, and years later I'd see bits and pieces of reruns in syndication but for whatever reason it was just a show that kind of passed me by as a kid. Airwolf, on the other hand, I loved back then. I didn't even know there had been a Blue Thunder series until I read about it sometime in the early-2000s, but I love the film.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by L.J.

Cobra and Riptide are the only two am not familiar with, use to watch all the others.

Cobra was a hit in Italy, but Riptide was very big.

[LexInHD]

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

Will ask Shout about it.

What about the picture quality of the DVD set?

What we really need to know is whether or not Shout is gonna give us the never before seen series finale of Renegade. Outside of the show's cast and crew, nobody ever knew it existed until Lorenzo Lamas recently broke the news that it was made after the last season finale was completed, because Cannell had no idea if another season was going to be picked up and he wanted a complete offering to give fans down the line. The reason nobody ever saw it was because the networks that bought the packages always aired episodes out of order or only aired the same blocks over and over, so the finale would have no context without the logical progression from earlier episodes. That means it was never part of the broadcast package, so it has been unseen all these years, and MC used those ancient tapes with high compression on the discs to have several episodes per disc, which is one reason why their set looks like total garbage.

[LexInHD]

Originally Posted by L.J.

Remember liking Viper a lot. It reminded me a lot of Knight Rider, use to love Knight Rider back in the day. Its hard to find Viper on physical media, have yet to see it pop up on demand.

VEI released Viper. It's available cheaply, but the quality is poor because of the ancient broadcast video tapes, which are the masters of the show.