When Brett announced the DVD release of Scarecrow and Mrs. King, season one, commenter Ryan wondered how this show held up against the test of time, 27 years later. After I got over the fact that it was 27 years ago that I watched this show, albeit as a young-ish girl (but still — Julia? Not even born yet!) I popped that first DVD in and let the time warp commence.
If you’re, you know, young and you don’t know the premise of this show, Amanda King (Kate Jackson), housewife extraordinaire, gets sucked into the spy world when Lee Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner) hands off a package to her at a train station when the bag guys are hot on his trail. They become partners and the hijinks commence.
Did the reality stand up to my memories? In a nutshell, yes.
I remembered Scarecrow and Mrs. King as a fun, lighthearted adventure / romantic comedy. The fun is akin to Psych meets Warehouse 13, without the supernatural elements or the pop culture references … just the same levels of fun. It’s actually a little like Chuck, but backwards. Mrs. King is the original Chuck. Or, try White Collar, but Neal as a woman.
The stories are pretty solid and if you love the spy genre (albeit the Soviet Union is still our scariest foe) with a new adventure week-to-week but with a light story arc as well then you’ll enjoy this show. The dialogue and the situations stand up … here’s an example:
Amanda is coming from a Den meeting, in full Den mother garb, to save Lee from being killed. She fakes having a gun then flies a helicopter so they can escape. In the middle of all this action, Lee turns to Amanda and says, “What are you wearing?” and she retorts, “Why do you care?” There’s definitely some awesome banter as Lee the super-spy gets unwillingly partnered with a simple housewife.
If you’re looking for the nostalgia or you’re even just excited to discover a new ’80s show you somehow missed the first time around (like, if you weren’t born yet) then I highly recommend getting the first 21 episodes of Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
Remembering you’re watching a show for the ’80s though, is key to your viewing pleasure. They really didn’t do anything to clean this up … the sound is terrible and the video quality not far behind that. Me, I kinda like the authenticity and don’t really expect 21st century technology when I’m watching a show filmed in 1983.
And you’ll know early ’80s — the music really is hokey, but again, a perfect sign of the times. There’s nothing realistic about the way the actors are made up, either … they could have walked off the stage of my high school play for all the gobs of pancake makeup they are wearing. I’m sure they have real skin under there somewhere, this isn’t V after all. I rather enjoyed the huge shoulder pads and puffy sleeves of my middle school days in their full stylin’ glory.
You’ll be sorely disappointed if you’re hoping for some special features. Nuthin’ — no reunions, no commentary, just the episodes, ma’am. I could tease you with an exclusive clip though:
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Mar 18, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I still remember the theme song. (oops, dating myself!)
I loved this show when I was a kid. Definitely need to get my hands on the DVDs and relive my youth….
Thanks for posting this review; it’s good to hear that the show holds up. I came to Scarecrow and Mrs. King from Charlie’s Angels and TRON, so I was predisposed to consider it favorably, but loved all four of the regulars every week.
Like the shows you mentioned, the chemistry was always there, buoyed by standard 80’s action and humor. I was too young at the time to realize just how cool a name Lee Stetson was.