User Reviews

Aside from the made for TV movie "The Return of Frank Cannon" (1980), this is the final time to see Cannon. And, for a final episode, it looks as if the writers ran out of conventional ideas and went for something very unconventional...though it seemed to work for me.

This episode is about mind control drugs being used by the US Army...something, sadly, that really DID happen during the 1960s...when such experiments were considered 'necessary'. In this episode, a soldier runs amok on base--trying to kill his doctor and shooting at others. Frank Cannon is asked to investigate by the wife of the shooter, as she cannot understand the sudden change in her husband. From the minute he arrives, the base commander stonewalls his investigation....good thing Cannon is friends with a general who is more than willing to get to the bottom of what's really happening here.

This is an interesting, albeit paranoid episode of the show. But, as I mentioned above, there had been mind altering experiments done in the past...so the idea isn't so far-fetched after all. Weird but well done...and a radical departure for the show...especially since a private eye would have no ability to really go onto a military base and investigate much of anything in real life.

This March-1976 episode aired only 4 or 5 months after the Church Committee hearings exposed the MKULTRA mind-control experiments conducted by the CIA on unwitting Americans. The experiments were supposedly ended in the early 1970s, though there is considerable evidence (look up the assassination of Nick Deak) that the program was simply renamed. Of course, it's far fetched that a private detective could ever effectively investigate such activity, let alone get any cooperation from the military brass. But considering the fact that many people who were born after the 1980s have no idea that any of this ever happened and would call such stories "baseless conspiracy theories", it's good have this episode around as a reminder of the fact that there was a time when the media was far more willing to investigate what our government does to us than it is today.

It was big news in Hollywood at the time that CANNON was leaving the air. The series may not necessarily have been cancelled, though the ratings dipped significantly as the series was running up against BARETTA, an overnight sensation. The show even left its long time Wednesday slot and moved to Sundays, taking the old MANNIX time slot.

The fifth season had some dynamic episodes and definitely could have had a longer life. There has also been some chatter that William Conrad may have bowed out due to personal reasons, and to note his wife passed a few years later. He may have wanted to spend time with his family. CBS certainly supported him, and thank you's were extended from all the good folks (and some superstars) who worked on the series.

The series is still around in reruns, which would have made him quite happy. In fact, it has been said that his later series, JAKE AND THE FATMAN was an offbeat salute to CANNON.

The final episode is quite good, all about controversial mind experiments in the US Army. Actually, beginning in the 1950s there were investigations as to whether military personnel were secretly fed illegal drugs. Later top shows such as 60 MINUTES and 20/20 did stories on military suicides and whether they could have been the result of subliminal drug activity.

Such is the case here as Cannon investigates strange happenings on an army base. The cast is top notch, with Conrad's old Warner Brothers pal Simon Scott playing a general, and looking every bit of the part. Soap opera star Quinn Redeker (DAYS OF OUR LIVES and THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS) plays Sgt. Wilson and versatile Peter Mark Richmon plays a colonel. Richmond was a staple in tv shows of the 60s and 70s.

Cannon did make a brief comeback in 1980 as a two hour movie, THE RETURN OF FRANK CANNON, all about a mysterious murder on a ranch, which may have been inspired from an earlier episode that starred Julia Adams.

We will never forget Bill Conrad. When he passed in 1994, TVLAND saluted Cannon for years, not to forget the famous "Cannon diet" promotion. SEASON 5 EPISODE 25 remastered CBS dvd box set.