The Marshal
Encyclopedia
The Marshal is an American
action-drama
television series that aired on ABC
for two brief seasons in 1995
. The show starred Jeff Fahey
as the title character, a United States Marshal charged with pursuing fugitive
s across the nation. In 1995
, the episode "Hitwoman" was nominated for an Emmy Award
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Series.
in Washington, D.C. and Myers presented the idea for a series based on the Marshals to Paramount Television
, the TV arm of Paramount Pictures
. After gaining Paramount's interest, Myers, who was formerly a special projects producer and publicist for Miami Vice
, presented the project to Don Johnson's production company on the Paramount lot.
The project originally was set up with the American Broadcasting Company
(which had a long relationship with Paramount that in the past spawned such hit series as The Brady Bunch
, Happy Days
and its spin-offs, and MacGyver
) as a reality series, however the pilot shoot was halted and the project stalled following a law enforcement incident in Waco
, Texas. Myers then went back to Johnson's company with the concept of a dramatic series based on a U.S. Marshal.
Johnson realized that no television series had specifically targeted the U.S. Marshals, the nation's oldest law enforcement agency, dating back more than 200 years. Johnson chose Jeff Fahey to play Deputy U.S. Marshal Winston MacBride. Fahey had been a friend of Johnson's for years and guest-starred in the Miami Vice
third season premiere "When Irish Eyes Are Crying." This casting was considered particularly crucial since MacBride would have no sidekick
or other regular supporting characters to interact with. Not since The Fugitive
had a crime drama focused so tightly on a single character. Guest stars were a regular part of the program's formula; the episode "Bounty Hunter," directed by Johnson, featured his former Miami Vice cast mate John Diehl as a fugitive serial killer
.
Due to the low shooting expense, The Marshal was filmed in Vancouver
, British Columbia
and Calgary
, Alberta
which would double as "Anytown, U.S.A."; due to the manhunt nature of the series, they would serve as a variety of cities. The show cost $1.5 million per episode which, rather than going to high salaries, went "directly onto the screen, making The Marshal look much more like a movie than a TV series."
The Marshal debuted on Tuesday, January 31, 1995, as a midseason replacement. It then aired regularly on Saturdays opposite CBS
' Walker, Texas Ranger
and performed well enough in the ratings, despite several timeslot switches, to be one of the few ABC series to be renewed for the fall. In September 1995, The Marshal was moved to Monday night to serve as the lead-in for Monday Night Football
(just like fellow Paramount series MacGyver and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
did in recent years), but the ratings slid due to competition from other networks' offerings in the 8pm slot. Consequently, ABC canceled The Marshal shortly before football season ended. Its final episode aired on Christmas Day 1995, the same day as the Monday Night Football season finale.
) is a family man and fugitive-chasing Deputy U.S. Marshal who has never let a criminal get away. By tracking and guarding criminals, he wanders all over the country, meeting different people along the way. The wisecracking MacBride relies largely on his quirky sense of humor and intellect to fulfill his duties.
Everett added that "Fahey could turn into an appealing lead if given more opportunity to loosen up."
However, having seen multiple episodes, Ken Trucker of Entertainment Weekly
gave the series a B+ and encouraged TV viewers to watch it. He noted that despite the "perfectly suited" Fahey's handsome looks, MacBride's best quality is his "air of fallibility" which offers an eccentric spoofing of the macho, heroic archetype. Trucker summed by stating: "At once true to action- show rules and properly parodic about the role of good guys in the late 20th century, The Marshal is an underrated pleasure."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
action-drama
Dramatic programming
Dramatic programming in the UK, or television drama and television drama series in the US, is television program content that is scripted and fictional along the lines of √a traditional drama. This excludes, for example, sports television, television news, reality show and game shows, stand-up...
television series that aired 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...
for two brief seasons in 1995
1995 in television
The year 1995 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1995.For the American TV schedule, see: 1995-96 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...
. The show starred Jeff Fahey
Jeff Fahey
Jeffrey David "Jeff" Fahey is an American film and television actor. He has portrayed Captain Frank Lapidus on the ABC series Lost and the title role of Deputy Marshal Winston MacBride on The Marshal.-Early life:...
as the title character, a United States Marshal charged with pursuing fugitive
Fugitive
A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...
s across the nation. In 1995
47th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 47th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held Sunday, September 10, 1995. The awards show was hosted by Jason Alexander and Cybill Shepherd. It was broadcast on Fox...
, the episode "Hitwoman" was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Series.
Background
The idea for the program came when producer Carole Myers http://www.carolemyers.com and a former law enforcement officer obtained a formal letter from the U.S. Marshals ServiceUnited States Marshals Service
The United States Marshals Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice . The office of U.S. Marshal is the oldest federal law enforcement office in the United States; it was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789...
in Washington, D.C. and Myers presented the idea for a series based on the Marshals to Paramount Television
Paramount Television
Paramount Television was an American television production/distribution company that was active from January 1, 1968 to August 27, 2006.Its successor is CBS Television Studios, formerly CBS Paramount Television...
, the TV arm of Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. After gaining Paramount's interest, Myers, who was formerly a special projects producer and publicist for Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
, presented the project to Don Johnson's production company on the Paramount lot.
The project originally was set up with the American Broadcasting Company
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...
(which had a long relationship with Paramount that in the past spawned such hit series as The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
, Happy Days
Happy Days
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....
and its spin-offs, and MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
) as a reality series, however the pilot shoot was halted and the project stalled following a law enforcement incident in Waco
Waco Siege
The Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, and ended violently 50 days later on April 19. The siege began when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located east-northeast of Waco,...
, Texas. Myers then went back to Johnson's company with the concept of a dramatic series based on a U.S. Marshal.
Johnson realized that no television series had specifically targeted the U.S. Marshals, the nation's oldest law enforcement agency, dating back more than 200 years. Johnson chose Jeff Fahey to play Deputy U.S. Marshal Winston MacBride. Fahey had been a friend of Johnson's for years and guest-starred in the Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
third season premiere "When Irish Eyes Are Crying." This casting was considered particularly crucial since MacBride would have no sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
or other regular supporting characters to interact with. Not since 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...
had a crime drama focused so tightly on a single character. Guest stars were a regular part of the program's formula; the episode "Bounty Hunter," directed by Johnson, featured his former Miami Vice cast mate John Diehl as a fugitive serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
.
Due to the low shooting expense, The Marshal was filmed in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
and Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
which would double as "Anytown, U.S.A."; due to the manhunt nature of the series, they would serve as a variety of cities. The show cost $1.5 million per episode which, rather than going to high salaries, went "directly onto the screen, making The Marshal look much more like a movie than a TV series."
The Marshal debuted on Tuesday, January 31, 1995, as a midseason replacement. It then aired regularly on Saturdays opposite CBS
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...
' Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...
and performed well enough in the ratings, despite several timeslot switches, to be one of the few ABC series to be renewed for the fall. In September 1995, The Marshal was moved to Monday night to serve as the lead-in for Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
(just like fellow Paramount series MacGyver and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 4, 1992, to July 24, 1993. The series explores the childhood and youth of the fictional character Indiana Jones and primarily stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Corey Carrier as the title character, with...
did in recent years), but the ratings slid due to competition from other networks' offerings in the 8pm slot. Consequently, ABC canceled The Marshal shortly before football season ended. Its final episode aired on Christmas Day 1995, the same day as the Monday Night Football season finale.
Plot
Winston MacBride (Jeff FaheyJeff Fahey
Jeffrey David "Jeff" Fahey is an American film and television actor. He has portrayed Captain Frank Lapidus on the ABC series Lost and the title role of Deputy Marshal Winston MacBride on The Marshal.-Early life:...
) is a family man and fugitive-chasing Deputy U.S. Marshal who has never let a criminal get away. By tracking and guarding criminals, he wanders all over the country, meeting different people along the way. The wisecracking MacBride relies largely on his quirky sense of humor and intellect to fulfill his duties.
Season 1
| # | Title | |Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
Season 2
| # | Title | |Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
Critical reception
Todd Everett gave a mediocre review of the series pilot and expected the series to "fade quickly from public consciousness." He also noted one humorous reference but described it as "fleeting" and expressed that the series could benefit from more of such humor.Everett added that "Fahey could turn into an appealing lead if given more opportunity to loosen up."
However, having seen multiple episodes, Ken Trucker of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the series a B+ and encouraged TV viewers to watch it. He noted that despite the "perfectly suited" Fahey's handsome looks, MacBride's best quality is his "air of fallibility" which offers an eccentric spoofing of the macho, heroic archetype. Trucker summed by stating: "At once true to action- show rules and properly parodic about the role of good guys in the late 20th century, The Marshal is an underrated pleasure."