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Cannon (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Cannon is a CBS
detective
television
series produced by Quinn Martin
which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976.
The primary protagonist was the title character, Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad
.
In 1973, Cannon spawned a spinoff
series, Barnaby Jones
.
Cannon was the first Quinn Martin-produced series to be aired on a network other than ABC
. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 124 episodes.
police department. However, he resigned after the deaths of his wife and son in a car
accident and later became a private detective. The series begins at the point where Cannon is just beginning this new career. The cause of death of Cannon's wife and child was not clear through the first four seasons of the show. However, the first episode of the fifth and final season revolves totally around Cannon's investigation of the deaths, and he finally finds out the reason they were killed.
The noticeably overweight Frank Cannon had expensive tastes in the first two seasons of the show, especially in food and cars. (His primary vehicle was a silver '71 Lincoln Continental Mark III.) By the third season, however, the budget was markedly less, and the expensive-tastes angle was dropped. In fact, Cannon was reduced to wearing the same red-orange polo shirt and dark-blue zipper-up wind-breaker in virtually every episode for the remainder of the run (five seasons). The polo shirt was never tucked in and the wind-breaker was zippered up about one-quarter of the way.
Cannon's investigations were mostly for clients in the southern California area, although on occasion he was called in for investigations much farther away. In most cases, he was greeted with suspicion by the townsfolk, who often had a stake in Cannon not finding out what was going on.
(Buddy Ebsen
), an aging veteran private investigator who had retired and turned over his agency to his son, Hal. However, Hal is killed. With the aide of Cannon and Hal's widow, Betty Jones (Lee Meriwether
), they hunt down Hal's killer. Afterward, Jones decides to come out of retirement. "Requiem for a Son" was planned as a second-season Cannon episode, but when Barnaby Jones was sold as a separate series, the script was reworked into the premiere of that show. William Conrad appeared as Cannon in the guise of a special guest star.
There was additional "crossover" between the series. The first part of the two-part episode, "The Deadly Conspiracy", was aired during a fifth-season Cannon episode on September 17, 1975; the second part was aired two nights later as Barnaby Jones's fourth-season premiere.
-produced series, British
comedian
Benny Hill
parodied 1970s American
detective shows. In the skit, Hill played several staple characters of the genre: Frank Cannon, Robert Ironside
, Theo Kojak
, Sam McCloud and, although he was not a part of the genre, Agatha Christies'
Belgian
detective, Hercule Poirot
. A female cast member played the role of Pepper Anderson
.
The comedian Franklin Ajaye does a routine where he mentions that it takes Frank Cannon so long to get out of his car 2-3 times a show that there is hardly time for anything else.
" in his car, which was highly rare at the time. He would begin by asking the mobile operator to dial a call for him. Phones of this type were precursors to modern cell phones. The phone itself, in his car, actually looked like a standard handset of the day with a dangling wire.
William Conrad was nominated for an Emmy Award in both 1973 and 1974 (Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series), but Richard Thomas
won for The Waltons
and in 1974 Telly Savalas
won for Kojak
.
had a recurring role as ex-policeman Jerry Warton, but the character did not extend beyond the first year—in fact, in the third season, Sheen guest starred as a lawyer who murdered Cannon's client. Other notable guest stars include: a young Willie Aames
(the future star of both Eight is Enough
and Charles in Charge
), Sharon Acker
, Lou Antonio
(Emmy-nominated director), Anne Baxter
, future Dynasty
star Lloyd Bochner
, Brooke Bundy
, future That's Incredible host Cathy Lee Crosby
, future Screen Actors Guild president William Daniels
, Burr DeBenning
, former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, Andrew Duggan
, Shelley Duvall
, Dana Elcar
, Jason Evers
, future M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell
, Paul Fleming
, Joan Fontaine
, former Billy Jack
star Burt Freed, future Starsky and Hutch
star Paul Michael Glaser
, Clu Gulager
, Peter Haskell
, Robert Hays
, former Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
star David Hedison
, former The Fugitive
star David Janssen
(in a two-hour season-three opening episode which ended with one of the greatest plot twists in TV history), Claudia Jennings
, L.Q. Jones, future Chicago Psych Ward star Kate Keenan (Emmy nominee), Dan Kemp
, Sondra Locke
, Robert Loggia
, former Gilligan's Island
star Tina Louise
, Barbara Luna
, former Route 66
star George Maharis
, future Soap
star Robert Mandan
, Vera Miles
, future Knots Landing
star Donna Mills
, Leslie Nielsen
(Emmy nominee), Nick Nolte
, Sheree North
, the legendary Hollywood "Heavy" Lee Paul
(The Sting
, among others), John M. Pickard
, future Hart to Hart
star Stephanie Powers (Emmy nominee), Judson Pratt
, future Dukes of Hazzard
star Denver Pyle
, Dack Rambo
, Marc Reuss, Wayne Rogers
, future Crazy Like a Fox
star John Rubinstein
(Emmy nominee), future Picket Fences
star Tom Skerritt
(Emmy nominee), future Starsky and Hutch
star David Soul
, future Rich Man, Poor Man
star Peter Strauss
(Emmy nominee), future Alice
star Vic Tayback
, Joan Van Ark
, a young Vincent Van Patten
, John Vernon
, Jesse Vint, future Arrested Development star Jessica Walter
(Emmy nominee), future soap opera legend (The Young and the Restless
) Jess Walton
(multiple Daytime Emmy Award winner), future Laverne and Shirley star Cindy Williams
, William Windom
, Dana Wynter
, and future Harry O star Anthony Zerbe (Emmy Award winner in 1976 -- Best Supporting Actor).
To an underling of a crime boss: "Number one: I don't talk to pip-squeaks and Number two: I don't work for no $500."
To a suspect: "Fresh air?...When I get through with you, the only fresh air you're gonna get will be in an exercise yard."
To a client: "You have just asked the question that sends me right through the ceiling...I'd like to go one day without someone asking me: 'Can I trust you?'...Well, the answer is: 'No, no, you cannot trust me, why don't you try Lt. Hayes?'"
To a client: "Listen to me...When you withhold information from me, not only do you compromise my ability to investigate -- but you make me appear as a jack-ass."
To the proprietor of the club where a murder victim worked: "Well surely you have his W-2 form?....Or doesn't your establishment worry about things like taxes."
To the proprietor of the club where a murder victim worked (same): "Now tell me about Sam Gerritz...And not how he danced, but how he died."
Pressing a thug's head up against bubbling grease in a fry-o-lator basket: "OK...Now I wanna know who's behind the pressure to get me out of town, hmmm."
To a guy sticking his finger in his face: "Don't point your finger at me!!...I hate it when people point fingers at people!"
To an African-American couple over Cannon's apartment for dinner: "What makes you think a person like me wouldn't enjoy soul food?..Just remember, when it comes to the soul, we do not count the calories."
Over the phone to a crime boss who's thug Cannon beat up after being attacked: "I guess you didn't send one of your better boys...You'll find him on the hood of his car."
To a man ready to commit his 3rd murder: "You seem to have established your standard operating procedure fairly well."
To a sleazy bar-owner: "With what I could dig up on you in two days, I could put you away for 20 years...But lucky for you, I need to catch a murderer...So I'm going to ask you just one more time --- who was the man who ran outta here?"
To a teen-age punk who tells Cannon to mind his own business because his father is Chief-of-Police: "I'm sure he's really proud of you."
To a man about to reach into his pocket for a gun: "I suggest you don't do that, sonny."
In response to a man who answered that a murdered con-man seemed like a pretty nice guy: "Really?...Because "Nice Guy" is a Minority Report."
In response to a police detective who intimated that Cannon's client was a prime suspect because the murder victim owed her money and people get killed for owing money: "Well people get killed playing radios in bathtubs too."
On asked whether he would take a case written into a will (the dead man stipulated that his death was to be investigated before dispersion of his assets): "I'll have to think about it...You see, I've never been retained by a dead man before."
Waking up groggy at sunrise after a nighttime car crash: "Where's my Egg McMuffin?...I want my Egg McMuffin!...Oh, my head"
To a mentally ill client who tells Cannon he feels like he's in a movie doing horrible things to people, but can't stop: "Maybe it's time you walked out on that movie."
To a guy (Dale) about to be beaten up by a loanshark: "I said HOLD IT!...Who's the paper tiger, Dale?...Does he always maul his clients like that?"
To mentally-ill teen-ager with a Manson-like following who was threatening to throw himself off a cliff to commit suicide: "I won't let you do it Larry...No way...So that all the kids in this town can yell 'Martyr' every time the sun goes down."
Approaching vandals who trashed a client's restaurant: "Why, you animals!"
After being knocked down a flight of stairs by a baby carriage, a client standing nearby says that the kid upstairs collect bottles: "Well, maybe he thinks I give refunds."
To a murderer who tries to buy Cannon off with a tempting, 'how about I mention some figures?': "Figures?...How about 10 to 40 for Murder One?"
To a suspect who caught Cannon's arm with a fish-hook (causing Cannon great pain), but then said he was actually only trying to help: "You're about as helpful as a case of the plague!"
In response to an allegation that he was responsible for a senator committing suicide (Cannon had exposed the senator ordering murders): "No....He did it all himself."
To a supper club owner: "It's Friday night, there are maybe a dozen people out there, at 2 bucks a head...You must be a financial wizard -- you don't take in enough to wax your dance floors, yet you manage to meet a payroll and contribute large chucks of money to the Eckworth Foundation."
To the Eckworth Foundation president: "Mr. Eckworth...I came to Woodfield 24 hours ago without a care in the world...Since that time, I've been roughed up by the police, threatened by one of Webber's boys, and linked you to a murdered con-man you never met --- not to mention that Ernie Webber contributes large amonts of money to your foundation when he doesn't even take in enough to pay his light bill."
) has released the first two seasons of Cannon on DVD in Region 1.
In Region 4, Shock Entertainment
has released the first two seasons on DVD in Australia.
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
detective
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series produced by Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin
Quinn Martin was one of the most successful American television producers. He had at least one television series running in prime time for 21 straight years , an industry record.-Early life:...
which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976.
The primary protagonist was the title character, Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad
William Conrad
William Conrad was an American actor, producer and director whose career spanned five decades in radio, film and television....
.
In 1973, Cannon spawned a spinoff
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series, Barnaby Jones
Barnaby Jones
Barnaby Jones is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as father- and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles. A spin-off from Cannon, the show ran on CBS from January 28, 1973 to April 3, 1980, beginning as a midseason replacement...
.
Cannon was the first Quinn Martin-produced series to be aired on a network other than 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...
. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 124 episodes.
Synopsis
Frank Cannon was a detective with the Los AngelesLos 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...
police department. However, he resigned after the deaths of his wife and son in a car
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
accident and later became a private detective. The series begins at the point where Cannon is just beginning this new career. The cause of death of Cannon's wife and child was not clear through the first four seasons of the show. However, the first episode of the fifth and final season revolves totally around Cannon's investigation of the deaths, and he finally finds out the reason they were killed.
The noticeably overweight Frank Cannon had expensive tastes in the first two seasons of the show, especially in food and cars. (His primary vehicle was a silver '71 Lincoln Continental Mark III.) By the third season, however, the budget was markedly less, and the expensive-tastes angle was dropped. In fact, Cannon was reduced to wearing the same red-orange polo shirt and dark-blue zipper-up wind-breaker in virtually every episode for the remainder of the run (five seasons). The polo shirt was never tucked in and the wind-breaker was zippered up about one-quarter of the way.
Cannon's investigations were mostly for clients in the southern California area, although on occasion he was called in for investigations much farther away. In most cases, he was greeted with suspicion by the townsfolk, who often had a stake in Cannon not finding out what was going on.
Barnaby Jones
The second-season episode "Requiem for a Son" introduced the character of Barnaby JonesBarnaby Jones
Barnaby Jones is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as father- and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles. A spin-off from Cannon, the show ran on CBS from January 28, 1973 to April 3, 1980, beginning as a midseason replacement...
(Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
), an aging veteran private investigator who had retired and turned over his agency to his son, Hal. However, Hal is killed. With the aide of Cannon and Hal's widow, Betty Jones (Lee Meriwether
Lee Meriwether
Lee Ann Meriwether is an American actress, former model, and the winner of the 1955 Miss America pageant. She is perhaps best known for her role as Betty Jones, the crime-solving partner in the long-running 1970s crime drama, Barnaby Jones. The role earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations in...
), they hunt down Hal's killer. Afterward, Jones decides to come out of retirement. "Requiem for a Son" was planned as a second-season Cannon episode, but when Barnaby Jones was sold as a separate series, the script was reworked into the premiere of that show. William Conrad appeared as Cannon in the guise of a special guest star.
There was additional "crossover" between the series. The first part of the two-part episode, "The Deadly Conspiracy", was aired during a fifth-season Cannon episode on September 17, 1975; the second part was aired two nights later as Barnaby Jones's fourth-season premiere.
Parodies
In an episode of his Thames TelevisionThames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
-produced series, British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
comedian
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
parodied 1970s American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
detective shows. In the skit, Hill played several staple characters of the genre: Frank Cannon, Robert Ironside
Ironside (TV series)
Ironside is a Universal television series which ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as the wheelchair-using Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character's debut was in a TV-movie on March 28, 1967. The original title of the show in the...
, Theo Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
, Sam McCloud and, although he was not a part of the genre, Agatha Christies'
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
detective, Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
. A female cast member played the role of Pepper Anderson
Police Woman (TV series)
Police Woman is an American television police drama starring Angie Dickinson that ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to March 29, 1978.-Synopsis:...
.
The comedian Franklin Ajaye does a routine where he mentions that it takes Frank Cannon so long to get out of his car 2-3 times a show that there is hardly time for anything else.
Props
In an era decades before cell phone use, Cannon was using a "mobile phoneMobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
" in his car, which was highly rare at the time. He would begin by asking the mobile operator to dial a call for him. Phones of this type were precursors to modern cell phones. The phone itself, in his car, actually looked like a standard handset of the day with a dangling wire.
Cast
- William ConradWilliam ConradWilliam Conrad was an American actor, producer and director whose career spanned five decades in radio, film and television....
as Frank Cannon - Blaine H. McKee as Bobby Kester
William Conrad was nominated for an Emmy Award in both 1973 and 1974 (Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series), but Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas (actor)
Richard Earl Thomas is an American actor, best known for his role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama The Waltons.- Early life :Thomas was born Richard Earl Thomas in New York,...
won for The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
and in 1974 Telly Savalas
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas was an American film and television actor and singer, whose career spanned four decades. Best known for playing the title role in the 1970s crime drama Kojak, Savalas was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz...
won for Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
.
Guest stars
In the first season, a young Martin SheenMartin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
had a recurring role as ex-policeman Jerry Warton, but the character did not extend beyond the first year—in fact, in the third season, Sheen guest starred as a lawyer who murdered Cannon's client. Other notable guest stars include: a young Willie Aames
Willie Aames
Willie Aames is an American actor, film and television director, television producer, and screenwriter. He played Tommy Bradford on the 1970s’ Eight Is Enough and Buddy Lembeck on the 1980s’ Charles in Charge.-Early life:...
(the future star of both Eight is Enough
Eight Is Enough
Eight Is Enough is an American television comedy-drama series which ran on ABC from March 15, 1977 until August 29, 1981. The show was modeled after syndicated newspaper columnist Thomas Braden, a real-life parent with eight children, who wrote a book with the same name...
and Charles in Charge
Charles in Charge
Charles in Charge is an American sitcom series which starred Scott Baio as Charles, a 19-year-old student at the fictional Copeland College in New Jersey, who worked as a live-in babysitter in exchange for room and board...
), Sharon Acker
Sharon Acker
Sharon Acker is a film, stage and television actress.Acker began her acting career in theater, and made her film debut when she recreated her stage role in Lucky Jim . Her first American film appearance was in the Lee Marvin action film, Point Blank .-Movies:*Lucky Jim .....
, Lou Antonio
Lou Antonio
Lou Antonio is an American actor and TV director best known for performing in the films Cool Hand Luke and America, America...
(Emmy-nominated director), Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter was an American actress known for her performances in films such as The Magnificent Ambersons , The Razor's Edge , All About Eve and The Ten Commandments .-Early life:...
, future Dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
star Lloyd Bochner
Lloyd Bochner
Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was a Canadian actor, usually playing the role of suave, rich leading men.- Career :...
, Brooke Bundy
Brooke Bundy
Brooke Bundy is an American actress who has appeared in a number of films and television shows.-Movie:She is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Parker in the 1987 hit horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and its sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master...
, future That's Incredible host Cathy Lee Crosby
Cathy Lee Crosby
Cathy Lee Crosby is an American actress. She achieved TV and film success in the 1980s and was a co-host of the television series That's Incredible!. -Personal life:...
, future Screen Actors Guild president William Daniels
William Daniels
William David Daniels is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild . He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate , as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in...
, Burr DeBenning
Burr DeBenning
Burr DeBenning was an American character actor, who has done work in both film and television. DeBenning appeared in nearly 100 films and TV shows during his career. His credits include the television films The House on Greenapple Road, Wolfen, The Incredible Melting Man, A Nightmare on Elm...
, former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, Andrew Duggan
Andrew Duggan
-Career:During World War II, Duggan was in the 40th Special Services Company, led by actor Melvyn Douglas in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His contact with Douglas later led to his performing with Lucille Ball in the play Dreamgirl. He developed a friendship with Broadway...
, Shelley Duvall
Shelley Duvall
Shelley Alexis Duvall is an American film and television actress best known for her roles in The Shining, Popeye, Thieves Like Us and 3 Women....
, Dana Elcar
Dana Elcar
Dana Elcar was an American television and movie character actor. Although he appeared in about 40 films, his most memorable role was on the 1980s and 1990s television series MacGyver as Peter Thornton, an administrator working for the Phoenix Foundation...
, Jason Evers
Jason Evers
Jason Evers was an American actor.Evers was born Herb Evers in New York City, New York. After quitting high school to join the United States Army, Evers was so inspired by stars like John Wayne that he decided to try acting...
, future M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell
Mike Farrell
Michael Joseph "Mike" Farrell is an American actor, best known for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the television series M*A*S*H . He is an activist for politically liberal causes....
, Paul Fleming
Paul Fleming
Paul Fleming was a German poet. He was born Hartenstein, in Vogtland, Saxony, and received first medical training at the University of Leipzig and his medical doctorate at Hamburg....
, Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
, former Billy Jack
Billy Jack
Billy Jack is a 1971 action film. It is the second, and highest grossing, in a series of motion pictures centering on a character of the same name, played by Tom Laughlin who also directed and co-wrote the script. Filming began in Prescott, Arizona, in fall 1969, but the movie was not completed...
star Burt Freed, future Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
star Paul Michael Glaser
Paul Michael Glaser
Paul Michael Glaser is an American actor and director, perhaps best known for his role as Detective David Starsky on the 1970s television series Starsky and Hutch; he also appeared as Captain Jack Steeper on the 1999 to 2005 NBC series Third Watch.-Early life:Glaser, the youngest of three...
, Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager
Clu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney in the 1960–62 NBC TV series The Tall Man and for his role in the later NBC series The Virginian...
, Peter Haskell
Peter Haskell
Peter Abraham Haskell was an American actor who worked primarily in television.-Early years:Haskell was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Rose Veronica Golden and geophysicist Norman Abraham Haskell...
, Robert Hays
Robert Hays
Robert Hays is an American actor and is arguably most well known for his role in the movie Airplane!-Life and career:...
, former Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an American science fiction film, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, released by 20th Century Fox in 1961. The story was written by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett. Walter Pidgeon starred as Admiral Harriman Nelson, with Robert Sterling as Captain Lee Crane...
star David Hedison
David Hedison
Albert David Hedison, Jr. is an Armenian-American film, television, and stage actor. He was billed as Al Hedison in his early film work. In 1959, when he was cast in the role of Victor Sebastian in the short-lived espionage television series Five Fingers, NBC insisted that he change his name...
, former The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
star David Janssen
David Janssen
David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...
(in a two-hour season-three opening episode which ended with one of the greatest plot twists in TV history), Claudia Jennings
Claudia Jennings
Claudia Jennings was an American model and actress. Jennings was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month in November 1969 and later Playmate of the Year 1970...
, L.Q. Jones, future Chicago Psych Ward star Kate Keenan (Emmy nominee), Dan Kemp
Dan Kemp
Daniel "Dan" Kemp was an American actor best known for his guest-starring roles in several television westerns between 1969 and 1971....
, Sondra Locke
Sondra Locke
Sondra Locke is an American actress, singer and film director.She made her film debut in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress...
, Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia is an American film and television actor and director.- Early life :Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy...
, former Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for...
star Tina Louise
Tina Louise
Tina Louise is an American actress, singer, and author. She is best known for her role as the "movie star" Ginger Grant on the television situation comedy Gilligan's Island .-Early life:...
, Barbara Luna
Barbara Luna
BarBara Ann Luna is an American actress with an extensive list of roles in film, television, and shows. Notable roles included Five Weeks in a Balloon and Lt. Marlena Moreau in the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror"...
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Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
star George Maharis
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George Maharis is an American actor who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series Route 66...
, future Soap
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In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...
star Robert Mandan
Robert Mandan
Robert Mandan is an American actor, most famous for his portrayals of playwright David Allen on the NBC serial From These Roots from 1958–1961, businessman Sam Reynolds on the serial Search for Tomorrow from 1965 to 1970, and his subsequent satire of the genre playing Chester Tate on the sitcom...
, Vera Miles
Vera Miles
Vera Miles is an American film actress who gained popularity for starring in films such as The Searchers, The Wrong Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Psycho and Psycho II.-Early life:...
, future Knots Landing
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Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle...
star Donna Mills
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, Leslie Nielsen
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Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
(Emmy nominee), Nick Nolte
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Nicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor whose career has spanned over five decades, peaking in the 1990s when his commercial success made him one of the most popular celebrities of that decade.-Early life:...
, Sheree North
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Sheree North was an American actress, singer, and dancer. She was known for being 20th Century Fox's answer to Marilyn Monroe from 1954 to 1956...
, the legendary Hollywood "Heavy" Lee Paul
Lee Paul
Lee Paul is an American actor who has appeared in many television shows primarily in the early and mid 1970s.-External links:*...
(The Sting
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The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss . The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Created by...
, among others), John M. Pickard
John Pickard (American actor)
John M. Pickard was an American actor who appeared primarily in television Westerns.-Early life and career:...
, future Hart to Hart
Hart to Hart
Hart to Hart is an American television series, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who also moonlighted as amateur detectives. The series was created by writer Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg...
star Stephanie Powers (Emmy nominee), Judson Pratt
Judson Pratt
Judson Pratt was an American actor whose longest continuing work was in thirteen episodes of ABC's Walt Disney Presents and NBC's Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. A native of Hingham in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Pratt appeared in numerous television westerns and drama series from...
, future Dukes of Hazzard
Dukes of Hazzard
The Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985.The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.- Overview :The Dukes of Hazzard...
star Denver Pyle
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Denver Dell Pyle was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard .-Early life:...
, Dack Rambo
Dack Rambo
Norman Jay Rambeau , professionally known as Dack Rambo, was an American actor, most notable for appearing as Walter Brennan's grandson Jeff in the ABC series The Guns of Will Sonnett, as Steve Jacobi in All My Children, as cousin Jack Ewing on CBS's Dallas, and as Grant Harrison on the NBC soap...
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Wayne Rogers
William Wayne McMillan Rogers III is an American film and television actor, best known for playing the role of 'Trapper John' McIntyre in the U.S...
, future Crazy Like a Fox
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star John Rubinstein
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John Arthur Rubinstein is an American film, Broadway, and television actor, a composer of film and theatre music, and a director in theatre and television.-Early life:...
(Emmy nominee), future Picket Fences
Picket Fences
Picket Fences is a 60-minute American television drama about the residents of the fictional town of Rome, Wisconsin, created and produced by David E. Kelley. The show initially ran from September 18, 1992, to June 26, 1996, on the CBS television network in the United States...
star Tom Skerritt
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Thomas Roy "Tom" Skerritt is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962.-Early life:...
(Emmy nominee), future Starsky and Hutch
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star David Soul
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Rich Man, Poor Man is a novel written by Irwin Shaw in 1969. It is the last of the novels of Shaw's middle period before he began to concentrate, in his last works such as Evening In Byzantium, Nightwork, Bread Upon The Waters, and Acceptable Losses, on the inevitability of impending death...
star Peter Strauss
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Peter Strauss is an American television and movie actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s.-Personal life:...
(Emmy nominee), future Alice
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Alice may refer to:* Alice , including a list of notable people called Alice-Books and comics:* Alice , the heroine of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass...
star Vic Tayback
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Victor "Vic" Tayback was an American actor.-Life and career:Tayback was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, the son of Helen and Najeeb James Tayback. His parents were immigrants from Aleppo, Syria. Tayback moved with his family to Burbank, California, during his teenage years and attended...
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This page is about the former United States politician. William Windom was an American politician from Minnesota. He served as U.S. Representative from 1859 to 1869, and as U.S. Senator from 1870 to January 1871, from March 1871 to March 1881, and from November 1881 to 1883...
, Dana Wynter
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, and future Harry O star Anthony Zerbe (Emmy Award winner in 1976 -- Best Supporting Actor).
Famous Cannon Quotes
To a client: "OK, sir, I'll take your case and investigate what happened...But just remember, the truth is like rain --- it doesn't care who gets wet."To an underling of a crime boss: "Number one: I don't talk to pip-squeaks and Number two: I don't work for no $500."
To a suspect: "Fresh air?...When I get through with you, the only fresh air you're gonna get will be in an exercise yard."
To a client: "You have just asked the question that sends me right through the ceiling...I'd like to go one day without someone asking me: 'Can I trust you?'...Well, the answer is: 'No, no, you cannot trust me, why don't you try Lt. Hayes?'"
To a client: "Listen to me...When you withhold information from me, not only do you compromise my ability to investigate -- but you make me appear as a jack-ass."
To the proprietor of the club where a murder victim worked: "Well surely you have his W-2 form?....Or doesn't your establishment worry about things like taxes."
To the proprietor of the club where a murder victim worked (same): "Now tell me about Sam Gerritz...And not how he danced, but how he died."
Pressing a thug's head up against bubbling grease in a fry-o-lator basket: "OK...Now I wanna know who's behind the pressure to get me out of town, hmmm."
To a guy sticking his finger in his face: "Don't point your finger at me!!...I hate it when people point fingers at people!"
To an African-American couple over Cannon's apartment for dinner: "What makes you think a person like me wouldn't enjoy soul food?..Just remember, when it comes to the soul, we do not count the calories."
Over the phone to a crime boss who's thug Cannon beat up after being attacked: "I guess you didn't send one of your better boys...You'll find him on the hood of his car."
To a man ready to commit his 3rd murder: "You seem to have established your standard operating procedure fairly well."
To a sleazy bar-owner: "With what I could dig up on you in two days, I could put you away for 20 years...But lucky for you, I need to catch a murderer...So I'm going to ask you just one more time --- who was the man who ran outta here?"
To a teen-age punk who tells Cannon to mind his own business because his father is Chief-of-Police: "I'm sure he's really proud of you."
To a man about to reach into his pocket for a gun: "I suggest you don't do that, sonny."
In response to a man who answered that a murdered con-man seemed like a pretty nice guy: "Really?...Because "Nice Guy" is a Minority Report."
In response to a police detective who intimated that Cannon's client was a prime suspect because the murder victim owed her money and people get killed for owing money: "Well people get killed playing radios in bathtubs too."
On asked whether he would take a case written into a will (the dead man stipulated that his death was to be investigated before dispersion of his assets): "I'll have to think about it...You see, I've never been retained by a dead man before."
Waking up groggy at sunrise after a nighttime car crash: "Where's my Egg McMuffin?...I want my Egg McMuffin!...Oh, my head"
To a mentally ill client who tells Cannon he feels like he's in a movie doing horrible things to people, but can't stop: "Maybe it's time you walked out on that movie."
To a guy (Dale) about to be beaten up by a loanshark: "I said HOLD IT!...Who's the paper tiger, Dale?...Does he always maul his clients like that?"
To mentally-ill teen-ager with a Manson-like following who was threatening to throw himself off a cliff to commit suicide: "I won't let you do it Larry...No way...So that all the kids in this town can yell 'Martyr' every time the sun goes down."
Approaching vandals who trashed a client's restaurant: "Why, you animals!"
After being knocked down a flight of stairs by a baby carriage, a client standing nearby says that the kid upstairs collect bottles: "Well, maybe he thinks I give refunds."
To a murderer who tries to buy Cannon off with a tempting, 'how about I mention some figures?': "Figures?...How about 10 to 40 for Murder One?"
To a suspect who caught Cannon's arm with a fish-hook (causing Cannon great pain), but then said he was actually only trying to help: "You're about as helpful as a case of the plague!"
In response to an allegation that he was responsible for a senator committing suicide (Cannon had exposed the senator ordering murders): "No....He did it all himself."
To a supper club owner: "It's Friday night, there are maybe a dozen people out there, at 2 bucks a head...You must be a financial wizard -- you don't take in enough to wax your dance floors, yet you manage to meet a payroll and contribute large chucks of money to the Eckworth Foundation."
To the Eckworth Foundation president: "Mr. Eckworth...I came to Woodfield 24 hours ago without a care in the world...Since that time, I've been roughed up by the police, threatened by one of Webber's boys, and linked you to a murdered con-man you never met --- not to mention that Ernie Webber contributes large amonts of money to your foundation when he doesn't even take in enough to pay his light bill."
DVD releases
CBS DVD (distributed by ParamountParamount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...
) has released the first two seasons of Cannon on DVD in Region 1.
In Region 4, Shock Entertainment
Shock Records
Shock Records is Australia's largest independent record label. It helps distribute records from overseas records labels such as Epitaph Records, and also for small record labels designed specifically for that band such as Cement Records...
has released the first two seasons on DVD in Australia.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1, Volume 1 | 13 | July 8, 2008 |
| Season 1, Volume 2 | 13 | December 2, 2008 |
| Season 2, Volume 1 | 12 | June 2, 2009 |
| Season 2, Volume 2 | 12 | February 16, 2010 |
Nielsen ratings
- 1971-72: #29
- 1972-73: #14
- 1973-74: #10
- 1974-75: #21
- 1975-76: Not in top 30