Arrest and Trial
Encyclopedia
Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American
Police procedural
/legal drama
that ran during the 1963-64 season
on ABC
, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern
.
The majority of episodes consisted of two segments. Set in Los Angeles
, the first part ("The Arrest") followed Detective Sergeants Nick Anderson (Ben Gazzara
) and Dan Kirby (Roger Perry
) of the LAPD
as they tracked down and captured a criminal. The apprehended suspect was then defended in the second part ("The Trial") by criminal attorney John Egan (Chuck Connors
), who was often up against Deputy District Attorney Jerry Miller (John Larch
) and his assistant, Barry Pine (John Kerr
, who later became an actual lawyer).
Gazzara agreed to play the role of Anderson only after extracting a promise from the producer that scripts would avoid stereotypical depictions of police officers
.
In a 1963 TV Guide
interview, Gazzara described his portrayal of Anderson: "I'm supposed to be a thinking man's cop. I'm a serious student of human behavior, more concerned with what creates the criminal than how to punish him. In other words, I'm not the kind of cop who asks, 'Where were you the night of April 13th?' It's my job to show that there is room for passion and intellectualism and personal display even within a policeman."
Guest stars on the series included Francis De Sales
, Peter Fonda
, Billy Gray
, Joey Heatherton
, Charlene Holt
, Kim Hunter
, Dayton Lummis
, James MacArthur
, Roddy McDowall
, Michael Parks
, Mickey Rooney
, William Shatner
, Everett Sloane
, Barbara Stuart
and Beverly Washburn
.
Arrest and Trial debuted on September 15, 1963. Its last telecast was on September 6, 1964. On Friday, April 24, 1964, it became the first American
import
to be broadcast on the UK's BBC2.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Police procedural
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
/legal drama
Legal drama
A legal drama is a work of dramatic fiction about crime and civil litigation. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom dramas and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Legal drama sometimes overlap with crime drama, most notably in the case of Law...
that ran during the 1963-64 season
1963-64 United States network television schedule
This was the television schedule on all three networks for the fall season beginning in September 1963.ABC began its new fall schedule a week early, beating CBS and NBC out of the starting gate. New series debuting this week included sci-fi anthology The Outer Limits, police/lawyer series Arrest...
on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern
North American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
.
The majority of episodes consisted of two segments. Set in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, the first part ("The Arrest") followed Detective Sergeants Nick Anderson (Ben Gazzara
Ben Gazzara
-Early life:Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E. 29th Street and participated in the drama program at...
) and Dan Kirby (Roger Perry
Roger Perry
Roger Perry is an American film and television actor whose career began in the late 1950s.In the 1960-1961 television season, Perry portrayed a handsome young attorney, Jim Harrigan, Jr., in the ABC and Desilu Studios sitcom Harrigan and Son, with co-stars Pat O'Brien, Helen Kleeb, and Georgine...
) of the LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
as they tracked down and captured a criminal. The apprehended suspect was then defended in the second part ("The Trial") by criminal attorney John Egan (Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
), who was often up against Deputy District Attorney Jerry Miller (John Larch
John Larch
John Larch was an American film and television actor.After his lead role in the radio serial Captain Starr of Space , John Larch entered films in 1954. He usually appeared in westerns and action films, including Miracle of the White Stallions as General George S. Patton Jr...
) and his assistant, Barry Pine (John Kerr
John Kerr (actor)
John Kerr is an American actor from a family rooted in British and Broadway stage, and a lawyer.- Early life :Kerr's parents, Geoffrey Kerr and June Walker, were both stage and film actors, and his grandfather was Frederick Kerr, a famed British trans-Atlantic character actor in the period...
, who later became an actual lawyer).
Gazzara agreed to play the role of Anderson only after extracting a promise from the producer that scripts would avoid stereotypical depictions of police officers
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
.
In a 1963 TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
interview, Gazzara described his portrayal of Anderson: "I'm supposed to be a thinking man's cop. I'm a serious student of human behavior, more concerned with what creates the criminal than how to punish him. In other words, I'm not the kind of cop who asks, 'Where were you the night of April 13th?' It's my job to show that there is room for passion and intellectualism and personal display even within a policeman."
Guest stars on the series included Francis De Sales
Francis De Sales (actor)
Francis A. De Sales was an American actor. He was known for his roles on two early television series: as police Lieutenant Bill Weigand on the CBS and then NBC drama Mr. and Mrs. North and as Sheriff Maddox in the syndicated western Two Faces West...
, Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda
Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...
, Billy Gray
Billy Gray (actor)
William Thomas "Billy" Gray , is a former American actor known primarily for his role as James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., in 193 episodes of the NBC and CBS situation comedy, Father Knows Best, which aired between 1954 and 1960. Gray's fellow cast members were Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue,...
, Joey Heatherton
Joey Heatherton
Joey Heatherton is an American actress, dancer, and singer.-Early life:Christened Davenie Johanna Heatherton and nicknamed "Joey," she was raised in Rockville Centre, New York, a suburb of New York City. There she attended St. Agnes Cathedral School, a Catholic grade and high school...
, Charlene Holt
Charlene Holt
Verna Charlene Stavely, professionally known as Charlene Holt, was an American actress, known for her supporting roles in TV and film.-Early life:...
, Kim Hunter
Kim Hunter
Kim Hunter was an American film, theatre, and television actress. She won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, each as Best Supporting Actress, for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire...
, Dayton Lummis
Dayton Lummis
Dayton Lummis. Sr. , was an American actor of film and television who specialized in the genre of anthology and western series, often playing authority figures. From 1959-1960, he appeared as Marshal Andy Morrison in nine episodes of NBC's Law of the Plainsman western, with Michael Ansara and...
, James MacArthur
James MacArthur
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...
, Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
, Michael Parks
Michael Parks
Michael Parks is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in almost fifty films and has made frequent TV appearances, but is probably best known for his work in recent years with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith as well as the 1969 television series Then Came...
, Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
, William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
, Everett Sloane
Everett Sloane
Everett Sloane was an American stage, film and television actor, songwriter, and theatre director.-Early life:...
, Barbara Stuart
Barbara Stuart
Barbara Ann Stuart was an American actress.-Major roles:Stuart portrayed "Miss Bunny", the girlfriend of Sergeant Vincent Carter, played by Frank Sutton, on three seasons of CBS's Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C....
and Beverly Washburn
Beverly Washburn
Beverly Washburn is an American actress who appeared as a young girl in NBC's The Loretta Young Show and as an older teenager in Loretta Young's 1962-1963 CBS family drama, The New Loretta Young Show...
.
Arrest and Trial debuted on September 15, 1963. Its last telecast was on September 6, 1964. On Friday, April 24, 1964, it became the first American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
import
Import
The term import is derived from the conceptual meaning as to bring in the goods and services into the port of a country. The buyer of such goods and services is referred to an "importer" who is based in the country of import whereas the overseas based seller is referred to as an "exporter". Thus...
to be broadcast on the UK's BBC2.
DVD release
On November 22, 2011, Timeless Media Group will release Arrest and Trial- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. The 10-disc set will feature all 30 episodes of the series.See also
- DragnetDragnet (series)Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
(1951–59) NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
drama series (produced by Jack WebbJack WebbJohn Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
) that followed the Arrest and Trial format. - The D.A. (1971–72)- short-lived NBC drama series (produced by Jack WebbJack WebbJohn Randolph "Jack" Webb , also known by the pseudonym John Randolph, was an American actor, television producer, director and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet...
) that followed the Arrest and Trial format, and is also owned by NBC UniversalNBC UniversalNBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
. - Law & OrderLaw & OrderLaw & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
(1990–2010)- NBC drama series (produced by Dick WolfDick WolfRichard Anthony "Dick" Wolf is an American producer, specializing in crime dramas such as Miami Vice and the Law & Order franchise. Throughout his career he has won several awards including an Emmy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Early life:Wolf was born in New York City, the son...
) that also followed the Arrest and Trial format, and is also owned by NBC Universal.- Arrest & TrialArrest & TrialArrest & Trial is a syndicated American nonfiction television program which follows individual criminal cases via a combination of reenactments and real trial footage. Episodes run for 30 minutes, and the program aired during the 2000 television season...
(2000) - syndicated docudrama series also produced by Wolf
- Arrest & Trial