Matt Houston: The Complete Collection

Although Matt Houston may have started out as a way for Aaron Spelling to capitalize on the success of Magnum, P.I., I think that the series can stand on its own. But Tom Selleck was able to do Magnum, P.I. after he was seen playing detective Lance White on the Rockford Files.Matt Houston is a Texas-born millionaire who runs Houston, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. He lives near Hollywood on a “ranch” and fly’s a helicopter to his 20-story building. The top 2 floors are where he runs his business empire with the 2nd from the top story (only accessible from the top floor) would be the ultimate guys’ man-cave. In fact the top floor is as well as it has a hot tub in the middle of the room. At one end is a bar and near the deck where his helicopter is at is a sofa that he & his visitors just climb over to get to & from the flip out console that has an Apple III computer affectionately known as “Baby” that seems to have an incredible database on everyone living and dead. The view screen is on shutters that close when the console is activated and although we see no screen, the picture shows up on the closed blinds.Matt Houston is a private eye that solves crimes in his spare time. In season one, Matt is seen without a gun, but towards the end of the season he is shown using one. Matt Houston is played by Lee Horsley, and from what I could find is a guy that never let Hollywood get to him. He fell in love several years earlier but could not support a wife and a family and one day he called up his girlfriend and asked her to marry him as he was finally able to support her & start a family. Shortly after that Lee got the role to play Matt Houston.Pamela Hensley (Princess Ardala from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) played C.J. Parsons, Matt’s longtime assistant and friend. George Wyner played the role of Murray Chase (the accountant who all but ran Houston, Inc.) was seen fairly regularly in the first season and occasionally in Seasons 2 & 3. John Aprea played Matt’s friend on the police force, Lt. Vincent Novelli & the two would be seen frequently at the Novelli family restaurant where Penny Santon played Vince’s mom and was known as Moma Rosa Novelli. The top floor of Houston, Inc had an office for C.J. Parsons and 3 secretaries near the elevator. Cis Rundle played one of the secretaries and would appear in all 3 seasons for brief parts.According to IMDB there were 657 guests on the 3 years that Matt Houston was on TV. From Gilligan’s island there were Tina Louise (Ginger), Alan Hale (Skipper) and Natalie Schafer (Mrs. Howell). The first year of the shows had plenty of guests and some other famous stars included Heather Locklear, Jill St. John, Barbara Carrera, Caesar Romero (Batman), Richard Anderson (Six Million Dollar Man), James Luisi (Lt. Chapman on the Rockford Files) appeared in two different episodes, one as a Policeman in San Francisco, the other as a crook in Season 3. Lou Ferrigno (Incredible Hulk), Chuck Connors (The Rifleman), Bo Hopkins (Rockford Files), David Cassidy (Partridge Family), Kay Lenz, Robert Goulet, Sid Casear, Norman Fell (Three’s Company) and many more.Matt had a southern drawl that at times reminded me of Jim Rockford. Matt got into a lot of fights and as the series progressed he seemed to get better at both fighting and using a gun. It was only when C.J. was kidnapped did we begin to see Matt with a gun. I often wondered if C.J. and Matt were ever going to get married, but the two were more friends who cared for each other deeply and because of that friendship did not push their relationship.The first season Matt had different cars but by Season 2 he had the car he’d have for the rest of the series. Season 1 ended with C.J. Parsons being kidnapped and Season 2 began with Matt learning who his real father was. Interestingly, the shows opening credits had yellow characters with an orange shadow followed by the same font and color for the sequences introducing the guest stars. Starting with Season 2, Episode 2, and the color scheme for the guest starts changed to yellow characters with a black shadow. Also of note is the length of the title sequences (1:33 in Season 1, 1:02 in Season 2 and 1:22 in Season 3).Season 2 began with an all new cast asides from Lee Horsley (Matt Houston), Pamela Hensley (C.J. Parsons), and the occasional appearances by George Wyner (Murray Chase). At the end of Season 2, Episode 1 we learn that Matt is separating himself from his financial empire leaving it go Murray to run while formerly establishes Houston, Inc. I can’t help but thinking this had more to do with Matt learning the identity of his real father.Gone was Lt. Vince Novelli who would later show up in an episode that would let us know what happened to him. Season 2 introduced us to Lincoln Kiplatrick who played Lt. Michael Hoyt.Season 3 introduced us to Matt’s uncle Roy Houston (played by Buddy Ebson). As the season wore on the chemistry between the two improved and they played well off each other. The show was different but in many ways it shows the progression of a millionaire turned private eye. Matt almost got married in the last episode. That would have been a great way to end the series. I wish that producers/writers would write 2 episodes at the end of each season, show one of them as if the show was continuing, and have the other available for release when the series is released to DVD, etc …I never watched the show when it originally aired (too busy working) and I did not have a VCR at the time. I am glad the series was released on DVD and I had a chance to watch it. Again the series may have started out as a Magnum, P.I. knockoff but can easily stand on its own. It’s one that I will keep on the shelf to watch again down the road.

I love Matt Houston. I remember watching it when I was younger. I was so happy when I found it on Amazon. My son ordered me the DVD's.

I was glad to see this show from my childhood completed on DVD. I was not terribly surprised that the picture quality was not on par with the major studios but it is very viewable overall. There was one particularly bad episode on Season 2 for about 15 mins (it had crossed fine lines that looked as if you were looking at the picture through a screen). Overall I would give the picture quality a solid B to B+ at times except the Season 2 opener which looked like what was released by Paramount/CBS and looked great. Appears as if they used 2nd or 3rd generation degraded masters as with Barnaby Jones and Cannon but these look a little better as the footage was not as old. Others have claimed that they also used syndication versions but I can't confirm that as most episodes ran for at least 45+ minutes and I didn't notice any obvious breaks in the scenes or feel like part of the story was missing. The price I paid ($59.99) was fair for 3 Seasons (although I already owned Season 1 from 2010) and now it is even cheaper from Amazon.com. I am perplexed at the pricing structure of the individual Seasons however which are currently priced at basically the same price as the complete series. If VEI thinks a single Season of this show with this quality is worth almost $50 they must be joking. They will surely have plenty of disappointed customers. But as a complete set it makes a lot more sense and it was fun to finally get to see these again as I hadn't seen it since the late '90s when it was on TNN and had forgotten 90% of the episodes.

I enjoy well written shows like Barnaby Jones (for example). On a show like that the writers were better or put in more effort.Matt Houston is more about action and personal drama. Whereas Barnaby Jones had actual paying clients Matt Houston just has friends has A LOT more friends that need his help or other personal situations than he does paying clients. In nearly every episode either Houston or his police friends or his associate (C.J. Parsons) gets shot or otherwise seriously wounded. It seems Barnaby Jones has better professional judgment because he does not end up getting himself or other shot anywhere nearly as often.In spite of my complaints on the quality of the stories (which I knew at the time of my purchase) I was very happy with the product. I enjoyed this show back in my teens and wanted to see it again. There is absolutely nothing wrong that I could see with the quality of the picture or the sound or anything else that I could detect. The original show was not HD or in 16:9 format. It is SD in 4:3. But this show was made in the 1980s for the old televisions. But I would expect those buying this product to understand that.So I was pleased with this product. My expectations were met. Excellent.

Ok I grabbed this on the 1 click buy because I have been waiting YEARS for this on DVD. So let me fill anyone interested in getting this on how to play it on your computer which took me an hour to figure out how. DVD is formatted in VOB files which will not play on Windows Media. This is for WIN 7 Pro have not tested on any other current WIN OS1. You MUST DL the VLC Media Player for Windows that is the easiest to use and works great get the one for your Windows version.2. When the above is DL and installed insert your DVD and when its loaded click play using VLC media player3. You will have to click Playback in the upper left hand corner and click on Title 3 then it will start playing like its supposed to

I have not finished watching all 67 episodes however i think that some cuts have been made in a few of the episodes. It is mentioned at the introduction that because of the age of the original episodes reproduction is not quite up to standard. I disagree for I have other series that are just as old and they are the same as I watched when they were first screened.It is still great fun to watch.

Love it !! I was in my late teens when this show came out.. I was telling my (now) teenage son about it .. but couldn't find this show anywhere.I'm glad that it was finally released.. Lee Horsley nailed it .. Made all of us just a little bit Texan !!! Great show of the 80's !!Toronto, Canada

well i used to watch this show back in the 1980s but i did not get to watch it all now i like that i finally get to do that if you like the good old days when shows were good then you would like this show you get good story lines nice looking women lots of action and a charming guy that likes to make sure justice always wins

So pleased they've released the whole series on DVD. The first season is a bit more jokey and silly at times whereas the next two seasons are much more serious with much better plots. All in all, it takes me back to memory lane and I just love it!

You should be aware that Season 2 and Season 3 are of way worse quality than Season 1. Season 1 was obviously grabbed from the recent CBS release. However, i'm rating it a 4 as I FINALLY have season 2 and 3, and it's a blast. I was not expecting quality in Season 2 and 3, so i'm not disappointed. 30 years later, and I still love this show. Now I can watch any show, from any season, whenever I want.