City of Angels (1976 TV series)
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- For the 2000 television series starring Blair Underwood, see City of Angels (TV series).
| City of Angels | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Stephen J. Cannell |
| Starring | Wayne Rogers Elaine Joyce Clifton James Philip Sterling |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Jo Swerling Jr. |
| Running time | 60 min. |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | February 3 1976 – May 18 1976 |
City of Angels was a 1976 television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and produced by Roy Huggins, who had previously worked together on The Rockford Files. American mystery novelist Max Allan Collins has called City of Angels "the best private eye series ever."[1]
Plot
Former M*A*S*H co-star Wayne Rogers played a determined but sometimes ethically challenged private detective, Jake Axminster, who looked out for himself—and somewhat less aggressively for his clients—amid the corruption of Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1930s. He was aided in his investigative efforts by a ditzy blond secretary, Marsha Finch (Elaine Joyce), who also ran a call-girl business on the side, and by lawyer Michael Brimm (Philip Sterling). Brimm was called on frequently to defend Axminster against charges (mostly trumped-up) that were lodged against him by Lieutenant Murray Quint (Clifton James), a thoroughly crooked member of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Background
Loosely inspired by the 1974 film Chinatown[2], City of Angels adopted the same cynical view of Depression-era Los Angeles, a place where Hollywood and crime competed for attention. Part of the inspiration for this series came from Roy Huggins’ hard-boiled 1946 detective novel, The Double Take[3], which had also provided the source material for an older Huggins-created series, 77 Sunset Strip. Individual episodes of this show were based on real-life events. The three-part pilot episode, “The November Plan,” was based on a notorious 1933 American conspiracy known as the Business Plot, which involved wealthy businessmen trying to bring down United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a coup. Another episode featured a pricey brothel where the prostitutes were movie-star look-alikes; that establishment was based on the historical T&M Studio (later fictionalized in L.A. Confidential as the "Fleur de Lis Club.")
Like Banyon, an earlier and similar L.A.-set American series, City of Angels was short-lived. Only 13 hour-long episodes of the show were produced before NBC canceled the series. Critics argued that the TV audience didn’t connect with Rogers as a tough, wise-cracking gumshoe, and co-creator Huggins was said to have thought Rogers was miscast.[4]
The theme music for City of Angels was composed by Nelson Riddle.[5]
References
- ^ Pierce, J. Kingston. "Killers, Cover-ups and Max Allan Collins." January Magazine, September 1999.
- ^ Thompson, Robert J. (1990). Adventures on Prime Time: The Television Programs of Stephen J. Cannell. Praeger Publishers. ISBN: 027593330X. Pg. 74. Excerpts of the book can be found here
- ^ Pierce, J. Kingston. "The Book You Have to Read: 'The Double Take,' by Roy Huggins." The Rap Sheet, January 9, 2009.
- ^ Smith, Kevin Burton. "Jake Axminster." The Thrilling Detective.
- ^ Coucoucircus.org
External links
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