Well somehow I had no idea that there was ever a Shaft TV show. I believe it was really more like a series of 2 hr TV movies - about 7 of them in total. I'm no expert on the theatrical movies - but I'm a huge fan of 70s cop shows and this one fits right in. You've still got Richard Roundtree reprising his role along with variations of the iconic Isaac Hayes theme song peppered throughout the show. It seems to me like like somebody had some generic 70s private eye detective scripts and they simply shoehorned the John Shaft character into the script. That said, I still enjoy this as it's "new to me" so it's like discovering a lost tv series. Obviously the character is sanitized for TV but Richard Roundtree still brings the charisma - and it's got a lot of gritty NYC location shooting and I'm always primed to see 70s NYC street shots - and combine that with the Shaft theme song thrown in it does a great job of bringing that 70s vibe.
It's quite cool, actually - the blu ray of the movie has the first episode as a bonus feature. Highly entertaining 70s crime television in my book
The Shaft TV show was part of The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies. It rotated with Hawkins (Jimmy Stewart as a rural lawyer) and random made for TV movies in the same time slot. This is the "wheel" concept that was semi-popular in the 1970s. Different shows rotating in the same time slot. Most successful was the NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie (Columbo, McCloud, McMillian and Wife.) Most other attempts did not do nearly as well. The CBS attempt was a flop.
I was about to pull the trigger on the DVD set featuring all the TV movies. I then realized that the Blu-Ray of Shaft featured a couple of episodes so I watched those and was disappointed. The writing is bland and formulaic. Shaft was sanitized for Prime Time and got neutered in the process. No danger, no sex, and a 95% white cast. I can understand why Roundree may have hope for a long time secured gig, but in the end, it probably left a bad taste in his mouth. A three CD set containing the cues from all the TV movies and Shaft's Big Score was released a few years ago and has some great music in it plus detailed liner notes.
MGM released the full series a few years ago on factory pressed DVD-R's. I didn't mind the series even though it's nowhere near as good as the movies. The violence is played right down, but it still has a certain charm. I wish all 3 films were available on bluray. "Shaft In Africa" is my favourite of the three movies.
I loved the movies and lost interest in the series quickly. No cursing, no violence. We had enough of the 'white guy' detectives, from Holmes, through Hammett and Marlowe, etc. Shaft was a really different character/movie. Banacek was more interesting than a gutless Shaft.
The Shaft TV series was wayyyyyyy ahead of it's time ..[it should've been on cable]no way that show would last on regular TV.
I just discovered that this TV series existed as well. I’m very curious about the music cues. I will have to try and track this cd set down.
I remember the tv series being shown in the UK but don't remember the show being two hours long. Can't say it was that special or my memory bank would remember more about it. I think the first film was the best and that was more because of the music.
...It was 90 (US commercial, obviously) minutes long, not two hours. Some episodes were shown later on TV titled as movies, not as a series. I didn't watch it (or see any of the movies then) --- but I do have a memory of seeing a bit of the first episode, Shaft was fighting bad guys in a wooden building by the former, he pushed one or more into a trap door dumping them in the river where they would drown.
The US Region Free Blu-Ray of the first Shaft movie and the UK Blu-Ray both contain one of the TV movies (The Killing), the second of the series. For anyone interested in watching one of these films without having to buy the Warner Archive DVD box set, that's the way to go. That screen cap from The Killing shows you pretty quickly that this is not your father's Shaft. Here the info found on the Wiki page: Here's the link to the Warner Archive release page.