Second Season of The Equalizer Finally Coming to DVD! (UPDATED)

As hoped for, apparently the upcoming big screen version of The Equalizer has spurred enough new interest in the original 1985-89 Edward Woodward TV series to at long last yield a DVD release of Season 2! Way back in 2008, Universal released The Equalizer: Season One on DVD. Fans hoped that release would be quickly followed by the other three seasons, but that never happened. All that time the feature version was in development (Russell Crowe was at one time attached when the film was set up at The Weinstein Company; now his American Gangster co-star Denzel Washington is starring for Warner Bros.), and word was Uni was waiting for the film to materialize. Now that's finally happening, but it's not Universal releasing the DVDs. Instead the title has been licensed out to VEI, distributed in the U.S. by Millennium. TV Shows On DVD reports that they've set a street date of August 26 for The Equalizer: Season Two, and an MSRP of just $29.99. (It's currently listed for pre-order on Amazon for a mere $20.99!) Additionally, on June 3 VEI will whet our appetites with a single-disc "Best Of" release. The Equalizer starred Woodward as former spy McCall, atoning for his past sins by helping those who found the odds against them. The extra-textual backstory was that Woodward had of course played a spy himself much earlier in his career in Callan. Guest stars on the show's second season include Kevin Spacey, Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy, John Goodman and Christian Slater. (UPDATED with artwork.)

In other Edward Woodward news, it's just come to my attention that Brian Clemens' 1998 revival of his hit Seventies action spy series, CI5: The New Professionals, starring Woodward as the tough leader of the updated team, was released on DVD in Australia back in 2012. The Region 4 release from the Madman label marks the first time that show has been available on DVD anywhere, so Woodward completists will want to take note.