What's new

Any chance of The Felony Squad on DVD...? (1 Viewer)

Pathfiner

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 18, 2015
Messages
296
Location
Cornwall, England
Real Name
Jeff
'The Felony Squad' starring Howard Duff, Ben Alexander, and Dennis Cole was a fav cop show of mine years ago

I think it may have been in color, at least later seasons and ran from around 1966 to 1969 or so

the 25 minute episodes were like a later version of the original 'The Naked City' (first season) with little or no 'padding' in quite fast moving detective cases for experienced cop Sam Stone (Howard Duff) and his blonde young partner Jim Briggs (Dennis Cole) with Jim's veteran desk Officer father Dan Briggs (Ben Alexander - hence his absence from sixties 'Dragnet' being made then) - the color show probably duly influencing Quinn Martin's 'Streets of San Francisco' seventies cop show as late fifties 'The Naked City' clearly did with all three shows featuring the 'seasoned experienced cop / young fresh face cop' partnership...

Howard Duff made a guest comedy cameo in character 'as Sam Stone' opening a window and chatting to Adam West & Burt Ward in 'Batman' I recall....saying; 'Brave men Jim' as he looked back inside...!

both 'Felony Squad' and Jack Warden's 1966 25 minute color episode cop series 'N.Y.P.D.' (whose 'flashing cop car light' opening was lampooned later in 'Police Squad' opening credits) - which co-starred both Frank Converse and (in an early regular TV role for a black actor) Robert Hooks as Det. Jeff Ward - deserve a full DVD release

I hope someone picks up both of these great sixties cop shows in the future...
 
Last edited:

Bob Gu

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
1,840
Real Name
Bob Gudera
FELONY SQUAD was in color for all episodes. The show was cancelled, mid-season, in the third season, after 17 episodes,on January 31, 1969, (73 episodes total). The last episode, was part one of a cross-over with JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE, finishing part two, also on Jan. 31, 1969, that same night. Judd was in season two at that time. Both were FOX series.
 

Frank Soyke

Screenwriter
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
1,240
Location
PA
Real Name
Frank
Would love to see this released. There are still a handful of really good 60s color dramas that were on more than a single season out there unreleased. Felony Squad, Judd, NYPD, Run For Your Life, 12 0 Clock High (mostly color).

Of course, this is mostly Fox stuff so there's you answer.
 

jperez

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
304
Real Name
jorge perez
Well, 12 O'Clock High was in B / W its first two seasons and was in color only in its 3rd season, which was cancelled after 17 episodes. By then the series, which had been great drama with Robert Lansing as its protagonist in the first season, and good with Paul Burke in the second, had become a dumb and incredible action series in its final season.
 

Wvtvguy

Second Unit
Joined
Jul 12, 2010
Messages
311
Real Name
Marc
I've only seen clips of FELONY SQUAD & one episode of NYPD I'd love a DVD release. When I started buying series, I focused on crime dramas from the 70's & 80's. Then I worked my way back to shows I knew nothing about & have been pleasantly surprised by the cop shows of the 60's.
 

Pathfiner

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 18, 2015
Messages
296
Location
Cornwall, England
Real Name
Jeff
one episode of Felony Squad I partly remember involved Sam Stone and Jim Briggs chasing a killer, they split up to head the guy off but (unknown to Sam) he then goes down a manhole, Jim sees this and gives chase climbing down after him and gets shot at and wounded....the guy gets away by climbing back up (he knows the network of underground tunnels) but Jim gets lost....he later finds his way back to the manhole he went down but meanwhile a truck has parked over the cover...for the weekend !

Sam Stone's first duty is to go after the killer...but can he find his missing partner too ?

I'd love to get the show on DVD just to see what happened...!

both 'N.Y.P.D.' and 'Felony Squad' had the style of opening credt sequences that later 'Police Squad' (in color) was affectionately lampooning

'N.Y.P.D.' had the police car flashing light opening (also copied by Hawaii Five-O closing sequence in it's first season tho' speeded up somewhat)

Felony Squad had night time views of a large city with the credits
The Place - A City
The Time - Now
The Story of - The Felony Squad (as a Police car races towards the viewer)

you can't beat those old shows dynamic opening sequences...!
 
Last edited:

howard1908

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Dec 23, 2014
Messages
144
Real Name
howard hughes
felony squad was good show never saw it first run , but i was able to watch/ record a good portion of this show as well as its unoffical companion series judd for the defense back when it aired on tv land back in 98 and early 1999, if they ever release the show (insert sarcastic laugh here) i would definetly buy it up.
 

Bob Gu

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
1,840
Real Name
Bob Gudera
POLICE SQUAD used M-SQUAD as a comedy template. Here's a youtube clip with the Police Squad version and the original M-Squad starting about six minutes in.

 

Pathfiner

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 18, 2015
Messages
296
Location
Cornwall, England
Real Name
Jeff
Police Squad while using M Squad as it's template really paid an overall homage to a number of cop shows of that era, plus Quinn Martin shows, and the 'picture freeze' ending (that nobody told Peter Lupus about) was reminiscent of the first b/w season ending of The Man From UNCLE
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,710
Messages
5,121,096
Members
144,146
Latest member
SaladinNagasawa
Recent bookmarks
0
Top