Shark Bytes

Vegas was a good show when focused on the casino and the games, cheaters and things the public doesn't know about. We find it interesting to see how the Casino is run.

Since they are focusing on the characters ONLY, it is now just another Soap Opera SET in Vegas.

It would be good to have a bit of both.

If they don't change back soon, they are going to lose a lot of us. Sad!
I used to look forward to it.

Vega$ was a great show for the late 70's and early 80's It might not work today, but it worked back then. R.I.P. Robert Michael Urich. Like James Garner before him, he helped give young actresses and actors early starts to their careers. He was great in Spencer for Hire as well. My favorite episode was when he helped an alcoholic attorney get her act together and capture a hitman. Binzer on roller skates...that was rich!

I was a wee child when this show was on, but I must say that it definately did not jump the shark. I remember the promos for this show always showed Robert Urich in a hot tub with some smokin' hot babe...so it could not have been that bad......

Michael Mann is still a genius, Urich, was perfect for the role. A new series would be great. It could be called Neon Nights or Vega$ since it is still his creation. Binzer and Mitch are the only guys left so they could be in it with a Ricky Schroeder type as the nephew of Tanna taking over where Dan left off. Bea; Angie and Judy could still be in the series and with all that is new to Vegas, he could drive a vintage BMW or MB 190 2 seater. He could ride the tram; bus, run the strip or ride the roller coasters. He could cross paths with CSI Grissom and have an affair with CSI Willows or Sidel. It is a natural! I'll be waiting for the pilot.

This was one of the stupidest funny shows sold as a drama while trying to be "cool" ever made. The funniest part was when he parked his cool car in the house. Carbon monoxide anyone?

does anybody know where online I can buy the DVD boxset?
Email me here--> victimtog@yahoo.com

Does anybody know where I can buy the DVD BOXSET? Thanks.
Email me here--> victimtog@yahoo.com

Michael Mann ("Miami Vice") created this show, and his conception was brilliant. A private eye operating in Vegas, driving a red Thunderbird, with a stacked former show girl for a secretary. The detective's friend on the force is a middle-aged woman and he sometimes works with a casino owner named Philip Roth (who slightly recalls Blake Edwards' great "Mr. Lucky"). The detective's snitch is a Vegas comic. Everything was in place for greatness, but the execution was 1970's TV as usual. If Michael Mann had been hired to produce the series, the result might have revolutionized TV as much as "Miami Vice" did years later. The key to any private eye series of course is the lead actor. I know a lot of people love Robert Urich, but to me he just isn't in the same league as TV's greatest private eyes. TVs best private dicks were David Janssen, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Darren McGavin, and John Cassavetes. I think Michael Mann should try an update of "Vegas". All the pieces are there for a great show, and Mann has the creative juice and perfectionism to make a revived "Vegas" the greatest private eye series in the history of television.

This show was good from beginning to end, but was jumped a bit when Judy Landers left. Robert Urich was THE TV sex symbol of the 70s. Hot off his role of being murdered on ABC's hit show "Soap." By the way Bart Braverman who played Bobby "Binzer" Borso was also a well known child actor. He appeared in many 50s TV shows. He is best known for playing "Giuseppe" in episode: "Lucy Gets Homesick in Italy." He is the shoeshine boy who lies to Lucy about it being his birthday to get candy from her.

Vega$ never Jumped The Shark if for only one reason, that being our star was able to park his car in his living room! Way cool for any guy to be able to do that...

I have to agree with a previous poster that the best "Vega$" episodes were the ones with Dan, Phyllis Davis (the first hairdo was a lot better; made her look more mature), Judy, the woman head cop, Binzer, and Tony Curtis IS Roth (I don't think he appeared in more than 20 episodes, and I'm being generous about the total). Anyway, it's ironic that the show jumped in one of my favorite episodes, where a murder occurs during the Private Eye Convention. The scene that causes it to jump? Well, Heather Menzies (one of the visiting detectives) decides to take a steam bath in her bathroom, gets locked in and Dan has to shoot the door to get her out. First, I never heard of any hotel room where both the bathroom door lock and the steambath controls were located on the OUTSIDE. Common sense dictates that both would be on the INSIDE of the bathroom, so that the occupant would have control over how hot the steam was; as well as being able to get out easily. Second, after Dan shoots the door, we find Heather passed out on the floor. Just a split second before Dan shoots the door, he tells her to get on the floor. Yet when he opens it, he finds her out cold. Again, one's reaction would be to get up immediately after Dan opened the door. Besides, if you're in a smoke- or steam-filled room, don't you remember to get down on the floor because that's where the air is? Anyone else in the real world would have been OK had they been in a similar situation.

It jumped when they started two part episodes. I think there was 2 of them, but the worst was when Tana was shipped to Hawaii in a coffin or something. That was pretty stupid. I have watched every episode at least 3 times. I was even lucky enough to catch the pilot, when Tana drove a yellow Corvette, which was totaled during the episode. I love watching Dan cruise the strip with no traffic, something that can no longer be done. I like looking at those vast expanses of desert along the road, now totally covered with casinos and parking lots. Progress marches on. The old building where Dan had his house was on the lot of Circus Circus, and now is torn down. oh well.

The best shows were the ones with Dan; Binzer; Bea; Angie; the female head cop; and Roth. Greg Morris' arrival and Tony Curtis splitting made this show mostly dull. Heather Menzies' guest appearances were pretty decent. But the final nail in the coffin was when Bea changed her do and looked like she was wearing a helmet on her head. It was a shame; the show could have been a lot better.

Never jumped. Bart Braverman is the sexiest thing alive!

There were many contenders for when this show jumped (The episode where Marcia from The Brady Bunch played a teenage hooker and Mr. Brady was her pimp! The time some drug addict con kidnapped Dan Tanna and hooked him on heroin! The first episode one of the Lander's sisters showed up!), but for me the crowning moment of Vega$ was the episode with 70's footnote and prime example of the devolution of the species (his father was the famed concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein) John Rubinstein guesting as "Vance Phillroy". He was Dan's boyhood chum, who was so in the shadow of the great Tanna that he turned to crime in an effort to outshine him at something! In the end he is such a screw up he can't even shoot Tanna, so Dan has to kick his ass one last time. This is possibly the most hilarious episode of any cop show ever. Just trying to buy Rubinstein as a hit man was bad enough, but adding in the general doughy wussy-ness he brought to all his guest-star roles, "Phillroy" definitely pulled the tow rope and sent the show sailing over the tank.