New Spy DVDs Out This Week: Scare-crow And Mrs. King

There's only one major spy DVD release this week, but it's an exciting one–and one that a lot of fans have been clamoring for for a long time. While the Sixties had loads of spy shows and the Seventies hosted a few stragglers, the Eighties was by and large bereft of hit spy series. (Instead, viewers had to get their spy kicks from action hours with espionage elements, like The Equalizer and MacGyver.) Scarecrow and Mrs. King was the big exception: a thoroughly Eighties take on The Avengers pairing of professional male secret agent with talented female amateur–in this case, a housewife (not totally dissimilar to the dozens of housewives who aided Napoleon Solo, realizing the wish fulfillment aspects of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.). Bruce Boxleitner plays the professional spy, codenamed "Scarecrow," and Kate Jackson is the titular housewife drawn into his fast-paced secret world.  Scarecrow and Mrs. King: The Complete First Season is available today from Warner Home Video with a suggested retail price of $39.98; it's obviously available much more cheaply from the usual online retailers, like Amazon.  It's a good day for Eighties television; the non-spy Magnum ripoff Matt Houston also makes its long-awaited DVD debut from Paramount.