Kein Fall für FBI

After his contract with MGM ran its course, Robert Taylor like a lot of the stars of the studio system, was not getting a whole lot of good film offers, mainly because fewer films were being made. What work was to be had was in television for a lot of stars and that trend would become more pronounced as time went on.

Taylor tried his hand at the small screen and the result was two very successful television series, The Detectives and Death Valley Days. His work in television in the last decade of his life was probably better than most of the films he was doing.

I recently saw a few episodes of The Detectives and it was nice to recollect what a quality show that was. The men on Taylor's squad were three dimensional people, you did get to see them and their immediate families and circle of friends. Tige Andrews and Mark Goddard who later went on to The Mod Squad and Lost in Space respectively were on the squad as was radio actor Russell Thorsen.

Taylor was Captain Matt Holbrook, a tough no-nonsense commander, who went by the book. I was fortunate to see some episodes with Ursula Thiess as a reporter who was Taylor's lady friend. They seem to have a Marshal Dillon/Kitty Russell relationship, nice to see a little romance for mature folks. As Mr.&Mrs. Taylor never worked together on the big screen, these episodes of The Detectives were a real treat.

The Detectives seemed very much a transitional show between shows like the documentary style Dragnet and a show like NYPD Blue where we got to know all the members of the 15th precinct squad as three dimensional characters. Sad it didn't run longer than three years, but I understand Taylor was tired of the weekly grind of turning out over 30 episodes a season. Half that constitutes a season today.

Catch the show if any of the cable channels run it.

The Detectives was a pretty good cop show that ran 3 seasons, the first two were 30 minute episodes but the last season expanded to 60 minute shows. When you read the above cast list it credits the leads of the series at the very bottom and as only having one episode each. Of course this is incorrect. From the start it was obviously going to be Robert Taylor's show but he had fine support especially from the excellent Tige Andrews who was the only other lead to stay the course of the show. In the first two seasons we had Russell Thorson as the aged experienced detective but when the third season went to 60 minutes he was dropped and two young guys were bought in, Mark Goddard and Adam West.We had an excellent, strong cast and good, gritty stories. High points had to be The Legend Of Jim Riva starring Edward G. Robinson and the wonderfully, evocative, poignant episode Song of the guilty heart starring Inger Stevens and providing an excellent episode for Tige Andrews who has the pivotal, compassionate lead role in that episode.Robert Taylor really disliked t.v but he gave an authoritative performance each week and along with Tige Andrews and of course Adam West, Mark Goddard and Russell Thorson's fine performances this ensured it became a believable show that had some excellent writing. It remains a series that lingers in one's memory. Doubt we will ever get a DVD release but it can still be found playing the cable channels.As a footnote to this review I would like to say that I corresponded with one of Tige Andrew's sons- Tony - a few years ago, he is a real nice guy and to top it all I had a very nice hand written letter from Tige plus a great signed photo, he told me that would be the last time he sent an autographed photo as he had generally stopped working then, it was a very nice personal letter, rest in peace Tige Andrews, a fine actor, a fine person.

A good cop show from the 60's with Robert Taylor leading his band of cops against the evildoers of the USA. I found the shows pretty predictable but always enjoyable. Taylor was wooden but it was great to see Adam (Batman ) West, Mark ( Lost in Space ) Goddard and Tige ( Mod Squad ) Andrews as the other detectives.The 30 minute shows never seem to air which is a pity as the ones I did see were great, but the 60 minute shows are a little padded but better on characters. Always worth a watch and better than the stuff TV churns out today.For my money I agree with the first comment that Tige Andrews was the best character in the series. His stories were generally the most believable.

WATCHING ROBERT TAYLOR IN TV AND MOVIES IS A DELIGHT HE ALWAYS GAVE A GOOD PERFORMANCE AND TODAYS ACTORS SHOULD REVIEW AND LEARN FROM. WATCH HIS COWBOY AND GANGSTER PARTS WHERE GREAT.