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| An Overview of the Walker Texas Ranger Television Series on DVDAction star Chuck Norris plays the rough 'n' tough but highly principled Cordell Walker in Walker, Texas Ranger. Walker's partners in law include Texas Ranger Jimmy Trivette, a former Dallas Cowboy, and Walker's love interest, Assistant D.A. Alexandra Cahill. Walker keeps himself busy rounding up drug dealers, helping children in trouble, and even dealing with supernatural disturbances. But whenever the bad guys try to get tough, Walker usually finishes them off with his trademark roundhouse kick.  An unofficial Chuck Norris fact: With apologies to Al Gore, global warming does not cause hurricanes. They are caused by the wind generated by Chuck Norris' flurry of roundhouse kicks to the head. Which is why this seven-disc set will blow you away. After Norris's movie career stalled, Walker:
Texas Ranger revived his career and catapulted him to international icon status of Hasselhoff proportions. He has since been transformed into an affectionate punch line for the likes of Conan O'Brien and the purveyors of the Official Chuck Norris facts website ("Those aren't credits that roll after Walker: Texas Ranger. It is actually a list of fatalities that occurred during the making of the episode."). Co-created by future Oscar-winner Paul Haggis (Crash), Walker: Texas Ranger is a tailor-made vehicle for Norris, whose eponymous character dispenses somewhat suspect justice. "You screwed up," one particularly nasty miscreant tells Walker. "You forgot to read us our rights. Walker obliges, but not before kicking him into submission, "You have the right to remain silent." Walker's methods may perturb Asst. D.A. Alex Cahill (Sheree J. Wilson), but they sure come in handy when she is menaced, Cape Fear-style, by the recently freed corrupt sheriff she sent to jail ("Borderline") or kidnapped by a cult leader ("In the Name of God").There are three crucial elements for a great Walker episode: A particularly vile villain (drug dealers, rapists, baby-stealing politicians), coolly delivered Chuck-isms ("When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you," reprised from the great Code of Silence), and, to quote Jimmy Trivette (Clarence Gilyard), Walker's new, more by-the-book partner, the "squinty-eyed make-my-day stuff" that Walker punishingly dispenses near the 40-minute mark of nearly every episode. When you've got Chuck Norris, you don't need A-list guest stars, but Walker's first season does feature some familiar faces, including the future Spider-Man Tobey Maguire ("The Prodigal Son"), Stuart Whitman ("The Reunion"), and a post-Wonder Years Danica "Winnie" McKellar ("Stolen Lullaby"). Norris may not be Oscar or Emmy material, but watching Walker unfailingly lay out the bad guys and making the guilty pay is the essence of comfort television. As Trivette says, "I hate to admit; the man is good." In short: don't mess with Texas! - Review by Donald Liebenson
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 In the second full season of Walker: Texas Ranger (this is, technically, season 3), a somewhat reigned-in Walker (Chuck Norris) is less Dirty Harry and more by-the-book, providing, of course, that the book has plenty of pictures of criminals being subdued with roundhouse kicks to the head. In one episode, Walker's partner, Jimmy Trivette (Clarence Gilyard), suggests serving a warrant his way, "nice and easy." There's just one thing: Walker never, ever, does anything nice and easy. He does it nice and rough, and when you're dealing with the likes of drug dealers, bank robbers, assassins, cattle rustlers, the Japanese mob, and vengeful escaped convicts, that's the only way to do it. "If you come back here," a bigoted sheriff warns Walker in the episode "Badge of Honor," "you'd better bring an army because you alone just ain't gonna cut it." Actually, that'll cut it just fine. What makes Walker so satisfying is that justice may be delayed, but it is never denied. In the episode, "Mean Streets," Walker goes undercover to protect the homeless from a band of rich kids who are preying on them and videotaping the attacks. If this were, say, Law & Order, the kids' parents would hire an elite defense team and the kids might get off scot-free. That's not the way they roll on Walker: Texas Ranger. With the kids in custody, viewers are promised an "easy" conviction.
What really kicks this season into high gear is the show's new theme song, "Eyes of a Ranger," performed by Norris himself. Jeff Foxworthy has joked, "If an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger has changed your life, you might be a redneck." Granted, Walker may not be life-changing TV à la Oprah, but there is considerable spiritual uplift in watching an incorruptible hero tossing Texas' scum of the earth into the back of his pickup truck and taking them to jail. We join Asst. D.A. Alex Cahill (Sheree J. Wilson) in raising a glass to Walker. "Here's to the Texas Rangers," she toasts in one episode, "the best there are." - Review by Donald Liebenson
 Three seasons of dispensing his own brand of roundhouse-kicking justice have not slowed Texas Ranger Cordell Walker (Chuck Norris). As an appreciative observer remarks at one point during season 3, "You still have all the moves, Walker." Whether going undercover as a cocaine dealer in Miami or "delivering a little pain" against white supremacists, Russian mobsters, street gangs, IRA terrorists, heroin smugglers, or vengeful ex-convicts, Walker is "a damn one-man army" who "walks the walk and talks the talk." No one delivers Chuck-isms such as, "The bigger they are, the harder they hit" like Norris. Walker, Texas Ranger's third season is a bit edgier than seasons past. The language is a tad cruder and the action more graphic. The episode "The Juggernaut," about a wife beater terrorizing a woman's support group, is particularly rough stuff. In the explosive season opener, "Blown Apart," a Bible-quoting mad bomber unleashes a holocaust of fiery destruction that even Walker cannot defuse in time. Among the season's most memorable episodes is "Final Justice," in which Walker discovers that the man who killed his parents when he was a boy is still alive, leading to a most dangerous game in which Walker becomes the prey of this hunt-happy racist (portrayed by John Vernon, best known as Dean Wormer in Animal House). In "Deep Cover," Walker partners up with a female cop played by world champion kickboxer Kathy Long, who, as an actress, makes a great world champion kickboxer. "Blackout" opens intriguingly with an amnesiac Walker waking up in a casino office clad in a tuxedo, holding a gun and lying next to a dead body. Chuck Norris commentary would have been a real kick, but then again, he is a man of action, and this season does deliver for Walker fans. - Review by Donald Liebenson
 Geographically, this series may be set in Texas, but when you watch Walker, you're firmly rooted in Chuck Norris Country, where even Buddhist monks can kick some butt ("Violence where there are alternatives is immoral, violence where there are none is survival"), and a heartwarming Christmas episode can end with the words "And no one died." At times, this season (actually the show's fifth) plays more like Little Chuck on the Prairie, as Norris channels Michael Landon with several uplifting spiritual episodes. In "The Neighborhood," the innocent young victim of a drive-by shooting miraculously heals after being bathed in blinding heavenly light in her hospital room. In the two-part "Sons of Thunder," a friend remarks to a newly established karate instructor, "There's a lot of people that really need the martial arts." The instructor holds up a Bible and replies, "That's not all they need." And Walker, who, remember, is part-Cherokee, shows his mystical side in "Ghost Rider," in which the spirit of a murdered Native-American boy, guides Walker to catch his killer. Not to worry; Chuck still dispenses some righteous punishment to a rash of loathsome and despicable evil-doers, including vicious white supremacists who take over a minority-owned TV station, a band of vigilante cops, a global assassin, and one monster who hijacks a busload of children and buries them alive. "You're going to have to kill me," he snarls at Walker. "Why don't I just make you wish you were dead," Walker coolly replies.
Throughout, Chuck uses the show as a bully pulpit for Walker to preach against drugs and gangs, and for brotherhood. "I have something to say," he addresses the camera after canceling the supremacists' on-air rants. "America is based on freedom and justice for everyone." And of course, when words fail, there's always the roundhouse kick to the face. This season, Walker and Asst. D.A. Alex Cahill (Sheree J. Wilson) are something of an item. In the episode "Redemption," she finds herself opposing her estranged and alcoholic father on a high-profile case. Tammy Lauren makes an indelible first impression as aspiring Ranger "Bobbie" Hunt in "99th Ranger." Also seen this season are some familiar TV Land faves, including Robert Vaughn as the corrupt head of an experimental dairy farm in "Plague," Brian Keith (Family Affair) as a powerful man with a skeleton in the family closet in "Ghost Rider," Scott Valentine (Family Ties) as an ill-fated gun-runner in "The Brotherhood," and Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) as a mob boss who wants to bring his 10-year-old son into the family business. Subtlety and finesse are not Chuck Norris' style, but Walker, Texas Ranger is undeniably crudely effective. And that's a Chuck Norris fact that's no joke. - Review by Donald Liebenson
 Texas Ranger Cordell Walker, one of the last old-fashioned heroes in the West, is a protective friend but a relentless foe who will stop at nothing to bring a criminal to justice.
 Texas Ranger Cordell Walker, one of the last old-fashioned heroes in the West, is a protective friend but a relentless foe who will stop at nothing to bring a criminal to justice.
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