Petrocelli

My name is Tod Persellin - my family lived at 515 avenida de palmas in Tucson - not sure exact date of the scene shoot, but the Petrocelli show used our home for the episode that aired Mar 13, 1975

Anyway, I had been out in our backyard playing wall ball at the time - if they shot it in 75 I was 10 - for some reason, I didn't know they were shooting at the time - anyway, I went into the house thru our kitchen backdoor and made my way to the front of the house (wondering why it was so quiet, where everyone was) - low an behold, once I hit the living room, there was a HUGE party going on in there! The actors and actresses sure were surprised to see me - there was a huge cake, and they said "hey kid, want some cake"? I think someone even said "you're gonna be on tv" lol - they were all very nice about it, laughing it up, and I got cake out of it too!

Turns out I had botched the scene - the film crew was in the front driveway, they were into the shot already - my parents (also outside around where the crew was) told me later the director shouted "who the hell let that @#^%&@% kid in there"! True story

The Star or Citizen wrote a story about the scene they did at our house - it was titled "Petrocelli Visits The Persellins", but there was no mention of my cameo! One of the show artists did a cat drawing for us (we had several cats back then) - anyway, a neat little piece of movie trivia that hasn't been shared (it took me this long to go thru every episode to find the one they did at our home)

I think the best lessons "Petrocelli" teaches us are that 1) things aren't always as they seem, and 2) there's a good reason to presume a person innocent until proven guilty - because he just might be innocent, after all. This is a cast that worked very well together, and the writing, too, was excellent. I liked the fact that we would see the crime being committed from different perspectives. I don't know if "Petrocelli" was the first show to ever do that, but it sure kept me tuned in every week. It would be wonderful if TV Land would run this series again.

I was in high school when this show was new, and I got interested only when it was already in its final of 2 seasons. I remember how they would dramatize several differing accounts of what had taken place, but I always thought the trial/hearing was too easily resolved when Tony P. gave his version. And it wasn't even in the 'final summation' stage. He just said something like, "I'm going to share with the court the only way this crime could have happened..." and the case would be dismissed. That's just too simplistic, and it's hard to believe any judge would let him do that-- and the prosecutor does not even object.

There were some running gags and sub themes that helped make the show interesting. Unlike Perry Mason, we see quite a bit of Petrocelli's after-hours. I don't even remember if it was explained why he lived where he did, so I assume he just wanted to be away from the big city, have land and build a house of his own; which he and Maggie did, though not apparently with much speed. If they had gotten more done on that house I wonder if that would have made any difference in the show's popularity. Maggie (Susan Howard) was his secretary/bookkeeper, as well as his wife, and she managed to get into jeopardy as much as Tony and Pete (his easy-going, less scrupulous cowboy investigator) did. And he liked root beer, was sensitive about his name being mispronounced as PETroSELLee instead of PETroCHELLee, correcting anybody who did that, or else deliberately mispronouncing THEIR name. And he often alluded to his Italian heritage and being brought up poor; which often compelled him to sympathize with poorer clients. The town where he kept his office was San Remo, another Italian reference. In one episode he told Maggie that his mother could prepare meatballs in 10 minutes, implying that she should be able to do that. Then she brought his lunch in a bag, he took it out and there was a can of meatballs and a note, "Here's your 10-minute meatballs." Not a belly-laugh, but amusing if you know the characters.

But Barry Newman and Susan Howard were very good actors. I wish the series had lasted 5 years, so it would have been syndicated in more markets and for longer. I would probably have every available episode on tape or disk it that had been the case.

BearManor Media has very recently published "Petrocelli: An Episode Guide and Much More," ISBN 9781629332055.

Spun-off from the movie "The Lawyer" (qv), "Petrocelli" is a great, one hour courtroom drama starring Barry Newman as the displaced New York Lawyer in the desert, Tony Petrocelli. In the late 1990s there was something of a revival in its popularity in the UK, when the BBC began screening it daily in their early afternoon (2pm) slot. It was certainly more entertaining than the show it replaced, "Quincy MD", although perhaps it did not scale the heights reached by the champion of that particular timeslot, "Columbo". "Petrocelli" became the all time favourite tv show of my University friend and housemate Neil, who would often miss lectures to catch the daily afternoon dose of legal drama. I wouldn't go that far, but I'd still say it's great entertainment. When compared to some of the lame legal dramas out there today ("The Practice", anyone?) the writing here is positively superb.