The Partners

The Partners was a parody of cop shows. It lasted one wacky season on NBC. Don Adams was fresh off of "Get Smart", which had been canceled the season before. Once again, Adams played a bumbling guy who always managed to save the day, despite of himself. Rupert Cross, a fine comic actor in his own right, was his partner. The rest of the cast were populated with good comic actors. Unfortunately, TV tastes were changing--"All In The Family" began that season, too. Audiences were ready for more harder edged fare, and lighter, goofy humor was falling out of favor. There is a made-for-TV movie of this series, mainly consisting of episodes of the show cobbled together.

"The Partners" was a hoot! When it was good, it was great, when it was bad, it was about as mediocre as a mediocre episode of "Get Smart". As another person commented, times were changing and shows like "All In The Family" started to appear -- they were more realist, whereas shows like "The Partners" were much less so. In any case, I have a few episodes recorded on tape from repeats in the early 80s... and I still watch them from time to time for a laugh. Don Adams was a comedy genius (RIP).

...And the music from the series was awesome. The main title was superb... I think it was by Lalo Schifrin, a composer I adore, who was at the top of his game in the early 70s (e.g. "Dirty Harry" and, especially, "Magnum Force").

I would dearly love to own this one season wonder on DVD (or better yet Blu-Ray/HD-DVD)