Naked City graced the airwaves of America from its debut in September of 1958 until it was cancelled in June of 1963. Every week for those five years, the series would place hardboiled Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) on the streets of New York City, fighting crime and solving mysteries. Under the command of his boss, Lt. Mike Parker (Horace McMahon), Burke often dealt with a seedier element than cop shows had before on network television, which made Naked City a grittier, dirtier, and all around tougher show than anything that had been seen before.

In addition to pushing the envelope content-wise, the series also had a cast of great writers working on it and it wasn't long before the public and the critics started taking notice. Once the show had proven itself, it was able to line up some serious star power to appear on the show and throughout the run of the series there are some interesting appearances by such notables as Roddy McDowall, Eli Wallach, Robert Loggia, Mickey Rooney, and even Jack Warden.

Mixed in amongst the hard edged moments of police work were subplots that ran the gamut from the humorous to the romantic and all walks in between. The show was very realistic not only in its portrayal of detective work but in its portrayal of day to day life. Firmly grounded in reality, the series also made use of some very stylish direction and more often than not the episodes played off more like shot crime noir films than your average TV cop show.

Prior to this box set release, Image let loose six single disc compilations of shows which included the following episodes: Death Of Princess, Debt Of Honor, The Man Who Bit A Diamond In Half, Murder Is A Face I Know, A Hole In The City, Button In The Haystack, Shoes For Vinnie Winford, Vengeance Is A Wheel, Prime Of Life, The One Marked Hot Gives Cold, Hold For Gloria Christmas, A Horse Has A Big Head -- Let Him Worry, New York To L.A., The Hot Minerva, The Night The Saints Lost Their Halos, Case Study Of Two Savages, Specter Of The Rose Street Gang, Goodbye Mama Hello Auntie Maud, Torment Him Much And Hold Him Long, Five Cranks for Winter... Ten Cranks for Spring, Portrait Of A Painter, Alive And Still A Second Lieutenant, Don't Knock It Till You've Tried It and The Tragic Success Of Alfred Tiloff. Image has not included any of those previously released episodes in this set.

This three disc collection is not a compilation of any of those episodes released on the six single discs, instead it contains twelve episodes that are new to DVD and being presented here for the first time in digital format.

The twelve new episodes (all of which are from 1961 and 1962) that are presented in this set are as follows:

The Fault In Our Stars (Roddy McDowall is a down on his luck actor who goes on a killing spree but doesn't do a very good job of covering his tracks); A Memory Of Crying (An older man named Willard Manson finally finds love with a lovely younger woman but when she leaves him he goes nuts and starts shooting at people); Make-Believe Man (a South American political radical has high hopes of overthrowing the government and to add some clout to his cause, he kidnaps someone he plans to pawn off as a local hero but who is in fact just a wino); Take And Put (An older couple appear to be well off but are in fact quite strapped for cash so in order to keep up appearances begin pilfering gold and jewelry from their wealthy friends).

The Finger Of Henri Tourelle (Henri is a cut throat Wall Street man who winds up dead – all of his business partners are on the suspect list – one of whom is played really well by Robert Loggia); Which Is Joseph Creely? (Creely is a convicted murderer sitting it out on death row who somehow manages to convince the Feds to let him have a fatal tumor removed from his brain. When he does, he convinces some defense attorney's that the operation has made him a new man and that he should be sprung despite his past); Requiem For A Sunday Afternoon (Anthony Scalzi is stuck in a dead end marriage, his gorgeous wife is having an affair and his life sucks. When he snaps and almost kills his wife's lover, she claims he tried to kill her too); Ooftus Gooftus (George Bick, played by Mickey Rooney, really wants to make something of his life and so far hasn't done much to work towards that at all. He's no too sure how to do this, until his horrible nag of a wife gives him the inspiration he needs).

The Face Of The Enemy (Jack Warden plays a down on his luck WWII veteran with a drinking problem who just wants to get his daughter some jewelry for her birthday. When he tries to steal it for her he gets caught and decides that rather than give himself up he'll shoot his way out); The Contract (A middle aged bank executive falls in love with his younger foster daughter but is shunned when she falls in love with a younger man working as a dishwasher. Each man makes his love known, and things start to get ugly); Let Me Die Before I Wake (Joe Calageras is shocked one day when his wife's lover tries to murder him by running him over but succeeds only in killing an innocent girl. Rather than go to the cops, Joe tries to cover it all up so that no one will find out that his wife was cheating on him); To Walk Like A Lion (Arnold Platt is broke because his sick mother is incurring an insane amount of medical expenses. In order to pay for it all, he starts stealing from the company he works for until she finally dies at which point, before he does the right thing and turns himself in, he decides to live it up a little… on the company dime of course).

Video:

Each of the twelve episodes on the set is presented in its original 1.33.1 fullframe aspect ratio, which is how the episodes were broadcast and the format that they were composed and photographed for. While there is some mild print damage evident in a few spots throughout the episodes, for the most part the image is consistently clean and clear and free of dirt and debris. The contrast levels are properly balanced and the blacks are strong and deep. Some mild edge enhancement is present throughout but it's not overly distracting and there aren't any issues to report in regards to mpeg compression artifacts.