"McCloud" seemed like a fairly promising show from what I had read about it. Dennis Weaver did very well in that suspense television movie, "Duel." The studio behind that film,"Universal" studios, decided to produce a show about a New Mexico sheriff who is based in New York. Sadly, the above show failed to meet my expectations. The episodes that I have seen feel drawn out and quite boring in places. Dennis Weaver makes the whole thing watchable but I don't really like this series. I think the actors could have been given better material. What doesn't help "McCloud," is that the British DVD release has edited about the first 4 episodes, so as to pass them off as being 2 feature length pilot episodes. This is not the case and I have no idea why this editing was done.

This has to be one of the funnest detective shows in the history of television. Dennis Weaver went from being the country bumpkin deputy Chester on "Gunsmoke" to what became his defining role as Marshall Sam McCloud. I especially loved the fact that it never took itself seriously as most shows of this type did. I'm just sorry that it never was spun off onto its own separate series as this show was definitely a classic.

McCloud was one of my favorite detective series of the 70's. I guess the best thing about it was the way Sam McCloud not only caught the bad guys, but the way he usually was able to make fools of the uptight holier than thou New York cops who considered him a southern country bumpkin. The police chief, Peter Clifford, always looked like he was on the verge of having a stroke whenever McCloud was around. If only he had let McCloud do his job without making such a fuss, the bad guys would still have been caught, and with a lot less trouble.

McCloud is a good 70's police show. It is never really serious, and McCloud always drives chief Clifford crazy in almost every episode, JD Cannon (the Chief) adds some humor to the show. This is a great show to see famous old time TV and Movie stars make guest appearances. One can also see many stars when they were young and just starting out, example Terri Garr, and Weekend at Bernie's Terry Kizer. I rate this show a 9/10. See it for fun.