Switch

I only ever saw this series the first (and only) time it was broadcast in Ireland (remember the 'Spinning Coin' at the start ?). Anyway - I agree - it was an excellent 'Sting-in-the-Tail' type show - the 'mark' usually deserved what (s)he got - so in essence we were rooting for the 'bad guys', in the mold of Newman/Redford in the extremely excellent 'The Sting' - a film which NEVER grows stale.

And yes - this is indeed a show which appears to have 'fallen out of Television History' - others being 'Cool Million' and 'It Takes a Thief' - these made Saturday evening viewing (while growing up) a delight.

More please ( but DON'T remake them as movies ! ).

Enjoy !

This is another CBS series which started very strong. A lot of that was the cast. Robert Wagner, Eddie Albert & Sharon Gless are three extreme talents put together on this series. They were what held the later shows together.

The first scripts of this show were extremely intelligent. Wagner playing off Albert & Gless trying to stop the 2 of them from going at each others throats was very effective. The friction gave this show a strong start. The early shows had something special. Charlie Callas helped the early shows too but he strangely stopped appearing after the second season.

Later on in the series, a report about excessive violence on TV came out & CBS reacted by watering down the quality of the action & the parks between Wagner & Albert. Once this happened, the show abruptly lost ratings & got canceled. This was a very good series originally, but if you watch the first shows & then watch the last ones, you will see what I mean about the change.

Switch was an interesting little show, not great, not bad, fairly decent in fact. The premise was retired cop Eddie Albert teams up with retired con man/former adversary Robert Wagner as private eyes with a pre-Cagney and Lacey Sharon Gless as their secretary. Albert and Wagner had an excellent laid back chemistry and some the cases showed some originality and had a pretty high entertainment value. Two interesting notes about the show is I have never seen an article about Sharon Gless or the rest of the cast that even mentions the show and it seems to be completely forgotten in reruns, articles about television or the cast, etc. despite the high visibility of the cast. Second the first two seasons had a very light hearted approach but the last two were considerably darker in tone and far more violent. All in all a decent show that seems to have disappeared down the memory hole. NB Almost a quarter of a century after it first aired and a decade after IMD arrived this it the first comment on it to appear on IMD!

I agree: odd that so much dross is endlessly recycled and yet this perfectly respectable little series seemed to have disappeared off everybody's radar. I particularly liked the theme tune written by Stu Philips and executive producer Glen A Larson.

Perhaps it was the title which seemed to have little to do in the way of describing the action, and even less for the brain to latch on to.... "switch.. Switch?? what on earth was that?"

"A series about a conman and a cop.... Eddie Albert and Robert Vaughan... surely you remember ?... NO?

How it goes sometimes..

Like the only other IMDb.com commentator on this show, I am surprised that Switch has disappeared into TV Neverland.

On the strength of the cast alone, with a fairly significant star (Robert Wagner), a likable and first-rate character actor (Eddie Albert) and a future TV star, Switch should get receive recognition. Yet no one pays attention. Strange.

Still, the show stands up on its own merits. It had an original premise (which has since been copied more than once), cleverly constructed stories, snappy dialogue, spot-on action, likable characters and first-rate acting. All-round excellent entertainment.

If you get the chance to watch this on a rerun, take a look. You won't regret it.

7.5/10