Dan August

Pretty cool old show. Neat vintage footage. Reynolds is a little stiff but he had yet to grow into his thing. Even Norman Fell is different to see in this role, my biggest memory of him was threes company where he was a laugh. Good story lines, typical drama from the 1970s. No humor at all in it. Neat to see a lot of the bit characters that kept popping up into the late 1970s and 1980s. It seek to get better as it goes along. Unusual format with the different 'acts'. I'm a old car lover so it's cool to see all of the old rides. It's too bad they reformat the screen to wide-screen on these old shows, would be better in the original format.

Dan August starred Burt Reynolds as a homicide detective working cases in a fictional California town. The opening scene usually depicted a murder being committed by a concealed figure, and the episode would eventually reveal the killer. Despite a solid supporting cast and thoughtful episodes centered on topical issues like prejudice, workers' rights and military desertion, the show was never really given a chance, ending its run after only 26 episodes.

Many television executives cannot exactly be accused of being visionaries, and it's obvious they didn't know what they had in Dan August, which was at least on par with many of the other similarly-themed shows of the time. Ironically, the impetuous, short-sighted decision to cancel the series led to great success for three of its principal characters: Both Richard Anderson and Norman Fell, two solid character actors would each later co-star in highly successful television series The Six Million Dollar Man and Three's Company respectively. And of course Burt Reynolds went on to box office superstardom in the 1970s and later returned to television, winning an Emmy for the show Evening Shade. Producer Quinn Martin didn't miss a beat and continued his track record of successful series, conceiving Cannon, Barnaby Jones and The Streets of San Francisco throughout the decade. Nonetheless, one can't help but wonder what a little patience could have meant for the trajectory of Dan August.

'The House on Greenapple Road' was the original pilot for this series, and in fact starred Christopher George as Dan August, not Burt Reynolds. The was never an episode called 'Once is Not Enough', let alone it being the pilot episode 'introducing us to the character of Dan August'. For goodness sake, there is an episode list alongside the subject! It's so easy to verify your facts. People use the IMDb as a source of reliable information, so unreliable information such as that previously posted on this subject, and many others I might add, should not be allowed to find its way here. I thought the IMDb personnel vetted these postings?

From the first episode,the short-lived television series "Dan August" lived up to its title and then some. Set in Santa Luisa,California, Burt Reynolds portrayed Dan August,a straight tough as nails police cop who works for the Santa Luisa Police Department along with Sergeant Charles Wilentz(Norman Fell)and Sergeant Joesph Rivera(Ned Romero)while under the supervision of the commander and chief(not to mention Dan's boss)George Untermeyer(Richard Anderson). And since August had grown up with many of the people he had to deal with in Santa Luisa,he became more personally involved in the cases that were assigned to him than most most big city detectives. In spite of all this August would go to great lengths in locating the clues,track down the suspects responsible for the crimes committed and in true fashion,always brings get his man in true TV detective fashion(whether it was jumping from the roof of a building onto his prey or hanging onto the hood a car to apprehend a dangerous suspect).

"Dan August" was just that and then some:one action packed police drama show that was top of the norm during the early 1970's and kept viewers in tuned to see what would happen next. From the first telecast of the series on September 23,1970 to the final telecast on April 8,1971, the series produced 26 episodes all in color for the ABC-TV network. However,ABC repeated these 26 episodes from April of 1971 until August 26,1971. "Dan August" was one of the great cop/detective shows produced by Quinn Martin(who served as executive producer of this series)along with producers John Conwell,Arthur Fellows,and Adrian Samish(executives in charge of production)also with producers Robert Lewin and Anthony Spinner. And this was one show that went by the standard Quinn Martin format(Acts One Thru Four and Epilogue)and each week combined mystery and suspense with high powered action with Reynolds doing most of his own stunts(with the assistance of stunt coordinator Hal Needham). This was a series that brought some of the best directors in the business and it features Gene Nelson,Ralph Senensky, Michael Caffey, Walter Grauman,Virgil W. Vogel and some fine writing from the talents of Richard Carr,Jack Turley,Chester Krumholz,Rick Husky,Richard Landau, Robert Dozier,William Wood,and Nicholas E. Baehr. Add this with the opening theme score from composer Dave Grusin and you're in for a treat.

"Dan August" was so good that during its short-lived run was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1971 with Burt Reynolds nominated for Best Actor in a Dramatic Role in a television series. The guest stars that were on board for this series consisted of several that consistently stand-out as the best and they're usually the regular Quinn Martin players that were in different episodes throughout its run. The series did very well for one of new ABC shows that premiered during the 1970-1971 season. The show premiered on Wednesday nights and it had stiff competition from The NBC Mystery Hour and also went up against the CBS powerhouse crime drama "Hawaii Five-O". During its run on ABC from 1970-1971,the series faltered to mediocre ratings and was not renewed for a second season. Shortly thereafter Reynolds became a major celebrity through feature films and other exposure (he did "Deliverance" after the series ceased production)making him one of the hottest box office stars of the 1970's. However,repeated episodes brought it back for CBS in May of 1973 and the network broadcast it in prime-time during May of 1973 until October of 1973,and again from April of 1975 until June of 1975 when CBS showed during its CBS Late Night lineup of shows.

From the opening notes of its musical theme to the last moment of its (standard QM) epilogue "Dan August" provided energetic entertainment. The opening credits alone provided more action than most of the other shows on TV at the time. The supporting cast was superb. Richard Anderson made a great boss. Those who found Norman Fell an unlikely casting choice as a cop probably never saw him as "Detective Meyer Meyer" on 87th Precinct". He was sound , steady back-up for Burt Reynolds's volatile, hyperkinetic style. I miss the days when they used to rebroadcast this series as a summer replacement! Watching Reynolds sliding across floors and rolling over car hoods after bad guys was a hoot! Every week he could be counted on to leap off a tall building onto his prey!