One of my favorite shows growing up was "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh." It was a 3-part mini-series produced by Disney, starring the recently-deceased Patrick McGoohan of "The Prisoner" fame. Originally produced in 1964 under the title "Dr. Syn", it's a kind of Robin Hood tale of a preacher in south-east England who, during the Napoleonic Wars, disguises himself as a scarecrow and runs a smuggling operation, the proceeds of which he gives to down-and-out locals.

You always have to be careful with shows you loved as kids, because frankly, few shows are able to stand the test of time. One of my favorite regular TV series as a kid was "Emergency", which I made the mistake of getting when it came out on DVD a few years ago. To preserve the memory, I've so far avoided getting "Land of the Lost" from Netflix.

I couldn't resist, though, when I saw that Disney had, at long last, release "Scarecrow" on DVD. I actually found it at Disneyland last weekend; I'm sure I could have hunted around and found it somewhere else, but I didn't want to wait.

When I saw it as a kid, I neither knew nor cared that it was already 20 years old. (I assume that I saw it on "Wonderful World of Disney"). I'm not sure precisely when I saw it, either, but I know that, when my family first went to Europe in 1983, one of the places I absolutely wanted to visit was Romney Marsh, where the show supposedly takes place.

We did in fact go to Romney Marsh (which, given the lack of smuggling scarecrows or even a marsh, was quite disappointing) and found in a little bookstore in some village in the area the books upon which the show was based. The seven book series, written by Russell Thorndike and published between 1915 and 1944, is really fairly bad. I've tried reading them several times, and like the Lord of the Rings, it's a series of books that I really want to like but that I just can't.

So back to the show. That series (which I remember being considerably longer than only 3 shows) that made such an impression on my ten, eleven or twelve year old mind is actually just as good today as I remember. I'm surprised, as I watch them now, how much of the show I actually do remember.

Unfortunately, Netflix doesn't appear to have this available: you can find it, but it says that the DVD release date in "unknown". The good news is that the DVD is available on Amazon, and it looks like the books have even been reprinted. If you enjoy action-adventure stories, you should definitely check these out.

The wait is almost over.

I'm not sure if Knight Rider technically counts here, seeing as how it sort of premiered last winter with its TV movie, but I guess it's still considered a "new show" and hey this is my blog and I get to make the rules ...

So I should begin with a disclaimer: I liked the original. I think most boys may age probably did. I mean, a cool dude (and yes, there really was a time with David Hasselhoff was cool) driving around in a fast, black car that freaking talked? That was the bomb. I can still conjure up the theme song, although I try not to since it will usually get lodged in my head for a few days when I do.

The new show is trying hard to stay true to the old, while of course updating things quite a bit. There's the now-required Grand Mythology of the show - something about Michael's past in Iraq and a government conspiracy and maybe the people he works for aren't quite as much on his side as he thinks. And there's a new stronger role for the female lead - in this case, Sarah, who is the daughter of KITT's creator and a once-and-possibly future love interest for Michael. (The first point - the conspiracy - I could do without. The second I have no problem with, just for the record.)

Otherwise, it really does feel a lot like the old show. Each episode will somehow involve Michael saving some lesser-fortunate person in such as way as to require the almost-constant use of his car. The new Michael Knight (who (SPOILER ALERT) is the son of Hasselhoff's character) is about as clueless as was the original.

So then why can't I find myself really liking the show? Well, for starters, there's one unfortunate instance of celebrity stunt casting: Val Kilmer is the voice of KITT. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that - Kilmer actually has just about the right voice and cadence for the job - the relative unknowedness of William Daniels, the original voice, helped bring me into the action. I can't help but picture Kilmer (usually dressed as Batman) whenever KITT talks, and that just kills the suspension of disbelief.

A bigger problem, though, is that the show is just a little too happy with its effects. Don't get me wrong: I'm all about cool special effects. But I prefer my effects to enhance the show, not be the show. So now KITT can, at will, transform from a normal Dodge Charger to some completely pimped-out Charger in "combat mode" to - get this - a Dodge pickup. (Dodge paid handsomely to be sure that KITT was one, or as it turns out, several of their cars.) So is this Knight Rider or Transformers? Then whenever KITT is in his hanger, he sits on a weird platform where several of those robot arms - the ones you see in documentaries that they use to assemble cars - shine bright green lasers all over him. Why? Well, it appears that they do it because it looks cool. And that's enough reason to do something in a show, right? Because it's cool? Never mind that I practically completely ignore the show whenever it happens because I can't help but sit there and wonder why in the hell KITT has these lasers shining on him. Just like every time he transforms, I expect Optimus Prime to come running into the scene.

So while the show does have some good elements, the overdone effects are just too much, and will keep it from becoming a must-see show on my list. I'll watch it if I happen to have the time, but no more than that, at least until the producers decide to spend as much time, energy, and budget on the writing staff as they do for the effects guys.