Bronk

Contra rcj5365's review, this was Palance's SECOND weekly TV series. His first was another one-season wonder, "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1963-64). In that one, Palance was the manager of a traveling circus.

The role of "Bronk" seems to be a much better fit for Palance, allowing him to appear both sensitive and badass simultaneously. Alex Bronkov is a pipe-smoking cop who is called into action by the mayor of Ocean City to clean up the town of corrupt officials, scumbuckets, and the type of people Palance played for most of his career.

An interesting connection here is that Carroll O'Connor, in the middle of his run as Archie Bunker on "All in the Family", found the time and energy to be the creator and showrunner for this particular series. He definitely put a quality touch on what might otherwise be a paint-by-numbers police procedural.

Somehow, though, the combination of O'Connor's behind-the-camera touch and Palance's tremendous acting skills wasn't quite enough to keep this quality show going. While the viewing public gave it high marks, CBS decided to yank it after one season.

Bronk was an uneven but nevertheless interesting cop series that I somehow either missed or for some reason wasn't shown in my local area when first broadcast in 1975-1976.

Based on the video release, I must assume that the final few episodes were originally filmed in a sequence different than the dates on which they were eventually broadcast.

The pilot film and episodes 1 through 16 feature, among others, Dina Ousley as Bronk's wheelchair-bound daughter and Harvey Beckman as a retired, former desk sargeant who is now owner of a garage that restores vintage cars--some of which Bronk actually drives himself, eventually settling on a grey 1959 Cadillac.

However, beginning with episode 17 ("Jackson Blue"), daughter Ousley is no longer listed in the credits and never mentioned again while the "retired" Beckman has inexplicably returned to his post as desk sargeant (as if he had never left in the first place) leaving the viewer to assume he has given up running his garage or that episodes 17 through 24 should have been aired before episodes 1 through 16.

Episodes 18 through 24 feature a different variation of the series theme intro while Beckman maintains his long-winded desk sargeant role.

The final episode 24 ("The Vigilante") is strange in that Bronk himself only makes a very brief (virtually a cameo appearance) in an early scene, henceforth leaving Vic Morrow in a memorable role as a free-lance detective to carry the story to its violent conclusion.

A second Bronk season never materialized but why? Did Jack Palance have a falling out with the producers? Did he have money or health issues?

As Palance's next appearance was in the 1976 film "Black Cobra", was there a time constraint demanding he quit continuing on with the Bronk character?

If anyone in-the-know can fill in the blanks here, it would be most welcome indeed.

This was actor Jack Palance's only shot of doing a weekly television series. And the only weekly TV series he ever did.

Tough guy Jack Palance by the way,who frequently played heavies and mostly villains in movies,made the switch from being the baddie into a tough as nails comtemplative cop for this single-season series called "Bronk",which was first shown as a made for television movie for CBS in January of 1975 which starred Jack Palance and was directed by Richard Donner. On the strength and success of that two-hour movie pilot the series "Bronk" premiered on CBS-TV on September 21,1975 and ended its run on July 18,1976 producing 23 episodes-all in color and was produced for MGM Television. Tough as nails pipe smoking Lt. Alex Bronkov(who by the way was Polish-American)had been enlisted by his old friend Pete Santori(Joesph Mascolo),who was the mayor of Ocean City,in Southern California to help clean up the corruption-ridden town. Bronk worked on special assigments from the Mayor,with the assistance of fellow officer Sgt. John Webber(Tony King) in going after the low-lifes and the scums that have plagued the town. This was indeed one very interesting show too,with Jack Palance himself doing some of his own stunts on the show and not bad for a short-lived cop show that went beyond some of the tough competition of other detective shows of the 1970's.

Also featured in the cast were retired policeman Harry Mark(Henry Beckman),who was a close friend of Bronk's who was now in the auto-junkyard business,and Bronk's cripped daughter Ellen(Dina Ousley),who had been confined to a wheelchair by an accident that had crippled her and killed Bronk's wife(which happened to Bronk's wife was in the pilot episode of the series). Interesting point about this show by the way if you like to know.....Actor Carroll O'Connor who was at the time this show premiered and was known to audiences as the feisty Archie Bunker on the successful comedy series "All In The Family",was behind the production of this series as well serving as the creator(who was in charge of production),executive producer and not to even mention writing and directing several episodes of "Bronk",which lasted one season. The show was so successful that the network decided the renew "Bronk" for the 1976-1977 season,but despite the ratings it received,CBS pulled the plug after 23 episodes. But repeated episodes of this series did appear for CBS Late Night for the 1976-1977 season.

A great show. Shame there was only 1 season as you always get your money's worth with Jack Palance. This series is available on Warner Archives. The sound isn't great on the first 3 episodes but the rest are fine.