87th Precinct

I am amazed that some shows only lasted a year. There are quite a few great shows that just never found an audience. 87th Precinct is one of them. Robert Lansing has to be one of the best actors TV has ever seen. I cannot remember not liking him in anything he has done. 12 o'clock High, he was great. His guest role on Star Trek was great. And in one of his later roles on Automan, he was wonderful. The other 3 actors compliment him very well. I bought the series on DVD because of Ron Harper. I know him from The Planet of the Apes TV show and the final season of Land of the Lost. He provides a good spark here. Norman Fell (forever Mr. Roper) does a fine job on the show. And finally Gregory Walcott. I as not real familiar with his work, but he fits in very well. I am really not a big fan of drama. I like a little humor added in. That is why I'm such a fan of Jack Webb's shows (Dragnet. Adam-12 & Emergency). They all had there moments of humor along with the drama. However 87th Princinct does have it's lighter moments. As a whole, almost all 30 episodes are good to great. Excellent wrtiting, acting and suspense.

And why on earth is there only one review here for it?!?! Well, let me write a second one.

This series was released on DVD in 2012 (so the previous reviewer eventually got their wish), and I purchased it out of curiosity but left it unwatched until now, December of 2018. Let's not go into lengthy explanations of why, I just have a habit of doing such things - call it a busy life.

From the first episode this show struck me as very unusual, very well written, well acted, and of good length (48 min per episode). Some other good shows (such as M-Squad with Lee Marvin) suffer from a 25 min run time, which doesn't allow the script writer time to sink their teeth into the story.

Things that have been most notable about this series are that as it has gone on there have been many face to face confrontations that have been so well written and acted that you find yourself completely absorbed by the scene. Someone could smash into your parked car and you would shrug off being told, saying "not now, go away!" Peter Falk's performance was a particular highlight, with Robert Lansing carrying off his half equally well.

If I had to criticise anything it would be the opening credits: the music is fine, but the action-less station-room character intros just don't match. Something much more dramatic was needed here, although I doubt this was the reason for the show's early axing.

Oh, one last thing - check out Ron Harper who plays one of the four main characters...it wasn't apparent immediately but after a while all I could see or hear was Mickey Rourke! See if you agree.

This was an excellent program that should have run longer. Robert Lansing was an excellent Steve Carella and the other characters were also good. The only thing different from the novels was Roger Havilland portrayed by Gregory Walcott. On the show, he was a tough but likable person whereas in the novels he was a brutal jerk. The earliest episodes were the best in my opinion. Especially the very first two, The Floater and Lady in Waiting. I was lucky enough to find VHS copies on eBay. In another episode, The Very Hard Sell, Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame appears as a very nasty drug pusher while Arte Johnson later of Laugh-In appears as a desk clerk at a fleabag hotel.

This would make an excellent DVD collection, but of course, it is probably not well remembered although McBain's series of novels are very popular.