The Partners is an American sitcom

Situation comedy

A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 that aired on September 18, 1971 through September 8, 1972 on NBC

NBC

The 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...

.

Synopsis

The program featured Don Adams

Don Adams

Don Adams was an American actor, comedian and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart in the television situation comedy Get Smart , which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Smart...

 and Rupert Crosse

Rupert Crosse

Rupert Crosse was an American television and film actor. Crosse was the first African American to be nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the 1969 adaptation of William Faulkner's The Reivers....

 as bumbling detectives (Adams' Lenny Crooke being the more inept of the two). Veteran actor John Doucette

John Doucette

John Doucette was a film character actor. He was a balding, husky man remembered for playing mob muscle and western bad guys in movies...

 played the exasperated Captain Andrews, a character not unlike "the Chief" portrayed by Edward Platt in Adams' earlier Get Smart

Get Smart

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

. Dick Van Patten

Dick Van Patten

Richard Vincent "Dick" Van Patten is an American actor, best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television sitcom Eight is Enough. He began work as a child actor and was successful on the [New York] stage, appearing in more than a dozen plays as a teenager...

 (who later gained fame as the father on 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...

) played the sycophantic desk Segeant Higgenbottem. Adams' real-life cousin, Robert Karvelas (best known as Agent Larabee from Get Smart) had a recurring role as Freddie, a character who compulsively confessed to crimes he did not commit.

The pilot featured guest appearances by Joey Forman

Joey Forman

Joey Forman was an American comedian and comic actor. He first attracted attention in Las Vegas as the opening act for Mickey Rooney...

 (Adams' Crooke mistakenly bursts into his apartment while Foreman is showering and orders him to "drop the soap"), Art Metrano

Art Metrano

Arthur "Art" Metrano is an American actor and comedian, born in Brooklyn, New York City. Metrano may be best known for his role as Lt./Capt./Cmdt. Mauser in Police Academy 2 and Police Academy 3....

 and Yvonne Craig

Yvonne Craig

Yvonne Joyce Craig is an American actress best known for her role as Batgirl from the 1960s TV series Batman, and as the Orion Marta in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Whom Gods Destroy”.-Early life and career:...

 (best known as Batgirl from ABC's Batman

Batman (TV series)

Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...

).

Production notes

Unlike many television programs of its day, The Partners eschewed a traditional opening title sequence. The opening credits were merely interspersed during the first few minutes, akin to the technique that has become quite commonplace today. The theme music, which accompanied the closing credits and occasionally popped up during the program itself, was composed by Lalo Schifrin

Lalo Schifrin

Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...

, best known for the theme to Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

.

Cast

• Don Adams
  Don Adams
  Don Adams was an American actor, comedian and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart in the television situation comedy Get Smart , which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Smart...
  
   : Det. Lennie Crooke
• Rupert Crosse
  Rupert Crosse
  Rupert Crosse was an American television and film actor. Crosse was the first African American to be nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the 1969 adaptation of William Faulkner's The Reivers....
  
   : Det. George Robinson
• John Doucette
  John Doucette
  John Doucette was a film character actor. He was a balding, husky man remembered for playing mob muscle and western bad guys in movies...
  
  : Captain Andrews
• Robert Karvelas
  Robert Karvelas
  Robert Karvelas was an American actor who was notable for his role as the Chief's dense assistant, Larrabee, on the 1960s sitcom Get Smart. He was Don Adams' cousin....
  
  
• Dick Van Patten
  Dick Van Patten
  Richard Vincent "Dick" Van Patten is an American actor, best known for his role as patriarch Tom Bradford on the television sitcom Eight is Enough. He began work as a child actor and was successful on the [New York] stage, appearing in more than a dozen plays as a teenager...
  
  : Sgt. Higgenbotem

Reception

NBC had exceptionally high hopes for the series after it performed well with test audiences. However, it failed to find a large enough audience because it had to compete with CBS's All in the Family

All in the Family

All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

, which was at that time the highest rated show on television. Originally, CBS had scheduled My Three Sons

My Three Sons

My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...

against The Partners, but substituted All in the Family at the last minute.