JohnHopper
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QM File: THE FBI (ABC/1965-1974)
THE FBI • SEASON 6 (1970-1971) (26 episodes • 50 mins • color)
This is the first Seventies era season and the most popular one featuring many new or one-shot guests and the second assignment for the second producer team led by Philip Saltzman. Anyway, it’s still shot like a late-Sixties era production (studio-bound, backlot and rear projection scenes) and plays like The Invaders but, as the season progresses, it hopefully looks more realistic. The series displays its highest ratings, peaking at number 10, and leading star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. signs a second five years contract to continue on the show. As a side note, Inspector Lewis Erskine goes thrice undercover this season: see “The Stalking Horse”, “Center of Peril” and “The Replacement”. Meanwhile, a brand new cop series by QM begins: Dan August, led by Burt Reynolds. The pool of writers supervised by story consultant Robert Heverly tackles many thematic cases (bank robbery, corruption, espionage, kidnapping, organized crime, terrorism, theft) and my favorite one remains bank money theft (“The Condemned”, “The Hitchhiker”, “Turnabout”, “Three-Way Split”). This season sees some interesting directors: William Hale, Jesse Hibbs, Bernard McEveety, Virgil W. Vogel—both Hale and Vogel will become prolific and gifted Streets of San Francisco craftsmen. For the record, co-star Philip Abbott manages two episodes: “The Replacement” and “Three-Way Split”. For the anecdote, the season 6 promo film consists of scenes from “The Condemned”, “The Architect”, “The Witness”.
THE CONCEPT AND THE ZEITGEIST
Considered as a television version of Mervyn LeRoy’s 1959 film The FBI Story (starring James Stewart), it’s a holistic character study or a study on ordinary evil disguised as a criminal-oriented series, in other words, the stern leads are abstract and idealistic figures because they are depicted as the hand of justice in the line of The Untouchables and the guest heavies are the main interest and, above all, are the untamed beasts betrayed by their passions of a well-ordered frame which gives the series the format of an anthology. Unlike Robert Stack, leading star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. acts in the manner of the quiet, smooth and fatherly John Forsythe in the Golden Age tradition. The rigid structure of this federal narrative is divided in three parts (the introduction of the criminal with its record that includes the full name and the charges during the prologue, the life and the fall of the criminal during the four acts, the criminal as a convict in Inspector Lewis Erskine’s office during the epilogue but, from episode #4, that third ritual comes and goes). This season treats the social themes of the time throughout the youth movement backdrop (see “Time Bomb” with Geoffrey Deuel and Diana Ewing, “Death Watch” with Glenn Corbett and Diane Keaton) as the fifth season of the plot-driven CBS series Mission: Impossible (led by Peter Graves). At the same time, a brand new Feds series from ABC pops-up: The Silent Force (led by Ed Nelson), but it never survives past the first year.
THE QUOTE
“I always thought the villains were the most interesting characters,” says Saltzman. “My villains weren’t just black-and-white evil people.There was always some driving force that turned them into that. I tried to do stories with interesting villains. I used women killers too. I liked the idea of having women be the killers. It made the shows more interesting.”
—Producer Philip Saltzman about The FBI, page 82 in Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-the-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder.
PRODUCTION TEAM
executive producer: Quinn Martin
producer: Philip Saltzman
associate producer: Mark Weingart
story consultant: Robert Heverly
directors of photography: William W. Spencer (13), Jack Swain (11), Fred Mandl (2)
Independant company man Quinn Martin started his career as a producer in the 1950’s and launched the first season (1959-1960) as an executive producer of the groundbreaking retro feds show The Untouchables (led by Robert Stack) for Desilu Productions. His first series under his company was the 1961 contemporary police drama The New Breed (led by Leslie Nielsen). The FBI was QM’s fourth series and the longest one. For the record, Quinn Martin was always credited first which made no sense because the producer is supposed to be the man in charge who set the tone.
Producer Philip Saltzman started his job from season 5 (1969-1970) and will end it at season 8 (1972-1973). His first commitment as a producer for QM—as an associate producer, by the way—was for the third season of 12 O’Clock High and will later work on Barnaby Jones along with cinematographer William W. Spencer. Prior to this, he was involved in the police series The Felony Squad (1966-1969) as an executive story consultant during season 1 and as a producer during season 2 and 3 along with writer Robert Heverly.
Associate producer Mark Weingart was a writer and started from season 4 (1968-1969) under the first regime of producer Charles Larson and will cease at the end of season 7 (1971-1972). He used to manage the WWII series The Rat Patrol as both writer and producer. For the anecdote, he was a story editor during the first season of The Wild Wild West under the guidance of the second producer: Collier Young.
Story consultant Robert Heverly worked from season 5 to 7 during the regime producer Philip Saltzman of but was first hired as a writer from season 4 to 8 and later replaced Mark Weingart as an associate producer during season 8. The majority of this season scripts was directed by Virgil W. Vogel.
Apart from the regular FBI cinematographer William W. Spencer who used to work on 12 O’Clock High and will later participate at Barnaby Jones, find two additional craftsmen: Jack Swain, known for his connection to two notorious CBS series (The Twilight Zone and Rawhide), and Fred Mandl (see “Escape to Terror” and “Incident in the Desert”).
CAST OF CHARACTERS
regular cast: Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Inspector Lewis Erskine), Philip Abbott (Assistant Director Arthur Ward aka the representative of J. Edgar Hoover), William Reynolds (Special Agent Tom Colby).
supporting cast: Dean Harens (Special Agent in Charge Bryan Durant), Anthony Eisley (Special Agent in Charge Chet Randolph), Lew Brown (Special Agent in Charge Allen Bennett), John Mayo (Document Examiner),
various cast: Marvin Miller (Narrator), James W. Gavin (Federal helicopter pilot).
The strength of season 6 is the colorful guest actors that add weight to the story: see Edward Andrews, Anne Archer, Carl Betz, Larry Blyden, Sorrell Booke, Antoinette Bower, Eric Braeden, Michael Burns, Ahna Capri, Darleen Carr, Dabney Coleman, Gary Collins, Glenn Corbett, Royal Dano, Ray Danton, Geoffrey Deuel, Charles Dierkop, Bradford Dillman, Ivan Dixon, Michael Douglas, Andrew Duggan, Marj Dusay, Dana Elcar, Diana Ewing, Steve Forrest, Arthur Franz, Harold Gould, Dabbs Greer, Harry Guardino, Murray Hamilton, Mariette Hartley, Peter Haskell, Susan Howard, Diana Hyland, Steve Ihnat, Richard Jaeckel, Diane Keaton, Richard Kiley, Larry Linville, Robert Loggia, Tim McIntire, David Macklin, Joe Mantell, Monte Markham, Scott Marlowe, Linda Marsh, Wayne Maunder, Donna Mills, Vic Morrow, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates, James Olson, Woodrow Parfrey, Roger Perry, Suzanne Pleshette, Ford Rainey, Hari Rhodes, Peter Mark Richman, Wayne Rogers, Albert Salmi, William Shatner, Martin Sheen, Tom Skerritt, Kent Smith, Don Stroud, Angel Tompkins, Joan Van Ark, Joyce Van Patten, Stuart Whitman, Billy Dee Williams.
THE DVD SETS
The prints are not restored and still look good enough. The chromatic calibration is the blatant weak spot because the colors are too saturated and the contrast is too high and they suffer from a dominant color (magenta or cyan or green) in the white tones and the skin tones. The DVDs are MOD (Manufactured On Demand) and this is the first season sold in one set. Unfortunately, there are no extras and no English subtitles.
THE QM BOOK
See Chapter 5 (p. 62-87) - The FBI
Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-the-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder
by Jonathan Etter
(North Carolina, McFarland & Company, 2003, 232 pages, ISBN 0-7864-1501-0)
THE FBI • SEASON 6 (1970-1971) (26 episodes • 50 mins • color)
This is the first Seventies era season and the most popular one featuring many new or one-shot guests and the second assignment for the second producer team led by Philip Saltzman. Anyway, it’s still shot like a late-Sixties era production (studio-bound, backlot and rear projection scenes) and plays like The Invaders but, as the season progresses, it hopefully looks more realistic. The series displays its highest ratings, peaking at number 10, and leading star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. signs a second five years contract to continue on the show. As a side note, Inspector Lewis Erskine goes thrice undercover this season: see “The Stalking Horse”, “Center of Peril” and “The Replacement”. Meanwhile, a brand new cop series by QM begins: Dan August, led by Burt Reynolds. The pool of writers supervised by story consultant Robert Heverly tackles many thematic cases (bank robbery, corruption, espionage, kidnapping, organized crime, terrorism, theft) and my favorite one remains bank money theft (“The Condemned”, “The Hitchhiker”, “Turnabout”, “Three-Way Split”). This season sees some interesting directors: William Hale, Jesse Hibbs, Bernard McEveety, Virgil W. Vogel—both Hale and Vogel will become prolific and gifted Streets of San Francisco craftsmen. For the record, co-star Philip Abbott manages two episodes: “The Replacement” and “Three-Way Split”. For the anecdote, the season 6 promo film consists of scenes from “The Condemned”, “The Architect”, “The Witness”.
THE CONCEPT AND THE ZEITGEIST
Considered as a television version of Mervyn LeRoy’s 1959 film The FBI Story (starring James Stewart), it’s a holistic character study or a study on ordinary evil disguised as a criminal-oriented series, in other words, the stern leads are abstract and idealistic figures because they are depicted as the hand of justice in the line of The Untouchables and the guest heavies are the main interest and, above all, are the untamed beasts betrayed by their passions of a well-ordered frame which gives the series the format of an anthology. Unlike Robert Stack, leading star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. acts in the manner of the quiet, smooth and fatherly John Forsythe in the Golden Age tradition. The rigid structure of this federal narrative is divided in three parts (the introduction of the criminal with its record that includes the full name and the charges during the prologue, the life and the fall of the criminal during the four acts, the criminal as a convict in Inspector Lewis Erskine’s office during the epilogue but, from episode #4, that third ritual comes and goes). This season treats the social themes of the time throughout the youth movement backdrop (see “Time Bomb” with Geoffrey Deuel and Diana Ewing, “Death Watch” with Glenn Corbett and Diane Keaton) as the fifth season of the plot-driven CBS series Mission: Impossible (led by Peter Graves). At the same time, a brand new Feds series from ABC pops-up: The Silent Force (led by Ed Nelson), but it never survives past the first year.
THE QUOTE
“I always thought the villains were the most interesting characters,” says Saltzman. “My villains weren’t just black-and-white evil people.There was always some driving force that turned them into that. I tried to do stories with interesting villains. I used women killers too. I liked the idea of having women be the killers. It made the shows more interesting.”
—Producer Philip Saltzman about The FBI, page 82 in Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-the-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder.
PRODUCTION TEAM
executive producer: Quinn Martin
producer: Philip Saltzman
associate producer: Mark Weingart
story consultant: Robert Heverly
directors of photography: William W. Spencer (13), Jack Swain (11), Fred Mandl (2)
Independant company man Quinn Martin started his career as a producer in the 1950’s and launched the first season (1959-1960) as an executive producer of the groundbreaking retro feds show The Untouchables (led by Robert Stack) for Desilu Productions. His first series under his company was the 1961 contemporary police drama The New Breed (led by Leslie Nielsen). The FBI was QM’s fourth series and the longest one. For the record, Quinn Martin was always credited first which made no sense because the producer is supposed to be the man in charge who set the tone.
Producer Philip Saltzman started his job from season 5 (1969-1970) and will end it at season 8 (1972-1973). His first commitment as a producer for QM—as an associate producer, by the way—was for the third season of 12 O’Clock High and will later work on Barnaby Jones along with cinematographer William W. Spencer. Prior to this, he was involved in the police series The Felony Squad (1966-1969) as an executive story consultant during season 1 and as a producer during season 2 and 3 along with writer Robert Heverly.
Associate producer Mark Weingart was a writer and started from season 4 (1968-1969) under the first regime of producer Charles Larson and will cease at the end of season 7 (1971-1972). He used to manage the WWII series The Rat Patrol as both writer and producer. For the anecdote, he was a story editor during the first season of The Wild Wild West under the guidance of the second producer: Collier Young.
Story consultant Robert Heverly worked from season 5 to 7 during the regime producer Philip Saltzman of but was first hired as a writer from season 4 to 8 and later replaced Mark Weingart as an associate producer during season 8. The majority of this season scripts was directed by Virgil W. Vogel.
Apart from the regular FBI cinematographer William W. Spencer who used to work on 12 O’Clock High and will later participate at Barnaby Jones, find two additional craftsmen: Jack Swain, known for his connection to two notorious CBS series (The Twilight Zone and Rawhide), and Fred Mandl (see “Escape to Terror” and “Incident in the Desert”).
CAST OF CHARACTERS
regular cast: Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Inspector Lewis Erskine), Philip Abbott (Assistant Director Arthur Ward aka the representative of J. Edgar Hoover), William Reynolds (Special Agent Tom Colby).
supporting cast: Dean Harens (Special Agent in Charge Bryan Durant), Anthony Eisley (Special Agent in Charge Chet Randolph), Lew Brown (Special Agent in Charge Allen Bennett), John Mayo (Document Examiner),
various cast: Marvin Miller (Narrator), James W. Gavin (Federal helicopter pilot).
The strength of season 6 is the colorful guest actors that add weight to the story: see Edward Andrews, Anne Archer, Carl Betz, Larry Blyden, Sorrell Booke, Antoinette Bower, Eric Braeden, Michael Burns, Ahna Capri, Darleen Carr, Dabney Coleman, Gary Collins, Glenn Corbett, Royal Dano, Ray Danton, Geoffrey Deuel, Charles Dierkop, Bradford Dillman, Ivan Dixon, Michael Douglas, Andrew Duggan, Marj Dusay, Dana Elcar, Diana Ewing, Steve Forrest, Arthur Franz, Harold Gould, Dabbs Greer, Harry Guardino, Murray Hamilton, Mariette Hartley, Peter Haskell, Susan Howard, Diana Hyland, Steve Ihnat, Richard Jaeckel, Diane Keaton, Richard Kiley, Larry Linville, Robert Loggia, Tim McIntire, David Macklin, Joe Mantell, Monte Markham, Scott Marlowe, Linda Marsh, Wayne Maunder, Donna Mills, Vic Morrow, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates, James Olson, Woodrow Parfrey, Roger Perry, Suzanne Pleshette, Ford Rainey, Hari Rhodes, Peter Mark Richman, Wayne Rogers, Albert Salmi, William Shatner, Martin Sheen, Tom Skerritt, Kent Smith, Don Stroud, Angel Tompkins, Joan Van Ark, Joyce Van Patten, Stuart Whitman, Billy Dee Williams.
THE DVD SETS
The prints are not restored and still look good enough. The chromatic calibration is the blatant weak spot because the colors are too saturated and the contrast is too high and they suffer from a dominant color (magenta or cyan or green) in the white tones and the skin tones. The DVDs are MOD (Manufactured On Demand) and this is the first season sold in one set. Unfortunately, there are no extras and no English subtitles.
THE QM BOOK
See Chapter 5 (p. 62-87) - The FBI
Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-the-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder
by Jonathan Etter
(North Carolina, McFarland & Company, 2003, 232 pages, ISBN 0-7864-1501-0)
