"Naked City" fans should have been screaming "Bring back Silliphant" after sitting through this awful episode written by others, the second clunker in a row.
It's filled with cliches and harps on making us feel sorry for the star Paul Burke. He's in a bar when masked robbers take over, and is blamed for supposed cowardice when he fails to act in time to save a drunk who's murdered.
We see the dead man's wife railng at Burke, and even the bar owner, both played by very fine actresses (Betty Field and Jean Stapleton) stuck with crappy roles. Johnny Seven is typecast as a totally evil bad guy while Dick York is the doctor who's his brother and gets trapped into helping bro by treating a partner in crime with a gunshot wound caused by Burke.
Another criminal is a showy little role for young James Caan. And the script also trots out corny police department politics in putting McMahon also on the spot for defending his detective Burke when the higher ups want to scapegoat him.
It's filled with cliches and harps on making us feel sorry for the star Paul Burke. He's in a bar when masked robbers take over, and is blamed for supposed cowardice when he fails to act in time to save a drunk who's murdered.
We see the dead man's wife railng at Burke, and even the bar owner, both played by very fine actresses (Betty Field and Jean Stapleton) stuck with crappy roles. Johnny Seven is typecast as a totally evil bad guy while Dick York is the doctor who's his brother and gets trapped into helping bro by treating a partner in crime with a gunshot wound caused by Burke.
Another criminal is a showy little role for young James Caan. And the script also trots out corny police department politics in putting McMahon also on the spot for defending his detective Burke when the higher ups want to scapegoat him.