"Tonight, Buford Pusser - a legendary sheriff of his time - upholds the law against criminals who strike the innocent." - Voiceover at the start of each episode
Walking Tall: The Complete Series DVD Review
By Jude Clement
Teddy Roosevelt used the aphorism "Speak softly and carry a big stick" to describe his approach to foreign policy. Buford Pusser obviously took this philosophy to heart. Why use a gun when a giant club can work just as well? The real-life sheriff of a rural county in west Tennessee from 1964 to 1970, Pusser set his sights (and his stick) on moonshiners, gamblers, drug dealers, and other criminals in his jurisdiction. His devotion to law and order came with a heavy price, though - a botched attempt on his life killed his wife instead.
Sensing a compelling story (He carries a big stick!) that would appeal to large swaths of the rural population, Hollywood released Walking Tall starring Joe Don Baker in 1973. The film was a huge hit, leading to two sequels: Part 2, Walking Tall in 1975 and Final Chapter - Walking Tall in 1977. Both starred Bo Svenson (Here Come the Brides) as Pusser. The sequels were followed a few years later by "A Real American Hero," a TV movie starring Brian Dennehy.
Svenson returned to the role in 1981 for NBC's Walking Tall, a short-lived TV series set in fictional McNeal County, Tennessee. Pusser works hard to control crime in McNeal County while also struggling to raise his children - Michael (Rad Daly, The Bad News Bears) and Dwana (Heather McAdam, Sisters). Carl Pusser (Walter Barnes), Buford's father, lives the family and helps out. Down at the Sheriff's office, Pusser is aided by deputies Aaron Fairfax (Harold Sylvester), Grady Spooner (Jeff Lester), and Joan Litton (Courtney Pledger).not to mention a really big stick.
And what of that stick? It's a four foot long chunk of wood that one can easily imagine being used by Fred Flintstone as a baseball bat. As Pusser says, "It's one way of getting a message across without using a gun." When faced with the sheriff's special brand of justice, some of the criminals may actually prefer that he use a gun. He uses the stick to destroy the inventory of a chemical company that might have been supplying PCP dealers with the chemicals they need to make their dope. After running off the owners with his stick, Pusser blows up an illegal juke joint. He also uses the stick to destroy the car of a suspect in a hit-and-run case. Yes, Sheriff Pusser's stick is judge, jury, and executioner. (It is also, at times, cardboard. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that it sometimes crumples like a giant paper towel tube after he delivers an especially hard blow.)
McNeal County may be rural and sparsely populated, but there is plenty of crime for Sheriff Pusser and his stick to whup. A white supremacist group tries to divide the town by firebombing a new black-owned farm equipment retailer. Pusser has to suss out a hitman sent to kill him by organized crime bosses. A local company is dumping toxic waste into the river, and they're willing to kill to keep it secret. McNeal County is virtually a hotbed of criminal activity.
With its almost baroque plotlines and the presence of Pusser's stick (which really should have a name), Walking Tall could be mistaken for camp. This is especially true in an episode like "The Killing of McNeal County's Children" when a Justin Bateman look-alike smokes some bad PCP and - with the help of an Avery Schreiber-esque stunt driver - careens around town muttering that he's got to "get the devil." However, the series mostly takes itself and its characters seriously. Filled with action, rednecks, violence, and nasty bad guys, think of it as "Southploitation."
In real life, Buford Pusser did not live to see the TV series inspired by his life. He died in a suspicious 1974 car accident before the first movie sequel even made it to theatres. His legend lives on, though. In 2004 a new Walking Tall film was released, this one starring wrestler turned actor Duane "The Rock" Johnson as Pusser.
Familiar faces in Walking Tall: The Complete Series include Whit Bissell (The Time Tunnel), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Eric Stoltz (Out of Order), Charles Napier (The Critic), William Sanderson (Lonesome Dove), William Windom (My World and Welcome to It), Edward Albert (Falcon Crest), Chuck Connors (The Rifleman), Tim Scott (Lonesome Dove), Merlin Olsen (Little House on the Prairie), Art Hindle (Dallas), Ralph Bellamy (The Awful Truth), Richard Herd (T.J. Hooker), Ken Swofford (Fame), James Whitmore, Jr. (Hunter), Lance LeGault (The A-Team), and James MacArthur (Hawaii Five-O).
The seven episodes that make up Walking Tall: The Complete Series are divided onto two discs. The discs are housed in a standard-sized keepcase with an interior swinging arm to hold the second disc. An insert included inside the DVD case includes brief synopses of the series' episodes.
The menus are simple and functional. Viewers can play all of a disc's episodes or choose an individual one. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
