Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
Question: Am I too old for ...
Question: Am I too old for television? Or maybe the kids programming the networks are only into business degrees and never bothered to learn anything about the business they are in? When Law & Order was being pushed, NBC claimed the show was unique (something that had never been tried before on television) because the first half hour of the show was to be used to set up the crime, while the second half was used for the trial. Wasn't there a 90-minute ABC drama that did the same thing in the '60s? I think it was called Arrest and Trial, but that title brings to mind a Cops-type show from a few years ago, so I don't think that's it. — Number 6ix Televisionary: Ah, but it was, 6ix. Arrest and Trial, which ran on ABC for a year beginning in September 1963, was comprised of two overlapping 45-minute segments. Much like L&O, it showed the crime and the arrest in the first, and the trial in the
Question: Am I too old for television? Or maybe the kids programming the networks are only into business degrees and never bothered to learn anything about the business they are in? When Law & Order was being pushed, NBC claimed the show was unique (something that had never been tried before on television) because the first half hour of the show was to be used to set up the crime, while the second half was used for the trial. Wasn't there a 90-minute ABC drama that did the same thing in the '60s? I think it was called Arrest and Trial, but that title brings to mind a Cops-type show from a few years ago, so I don't think that's it. — Number 6ix
Televisionary: Ah, but it was, 6ix. Arrest and Trial, which ran on ABC for a year beginning in September 1963, was comprised of two overlapping 45-minute segments. Much like L&O, it showed the crime and the arrest in the first, and the trial in the second. Ben Gazzara headed up the first half as LAPD troubleshooting gumshoe Nick Anderson, while Chuck Connors took over for the second as highly paid defense lawyer John Egan, who tried to undo Anderson's hard work.
It was indeed groundbreaking work for TV, and Gazzara made a point of telling TV Guide in 1963 that he wouldn't have been on the show had the situation been otherwise. "I'm supposed to be a thinking man's cop," he said. "In other words, I'm not the kind of cop who asks, 'Where were you on the night of April 13?' It's my job to show that there is room for passion and intellectualism and personal display even within a policeman."
Executive producer Frank Rosenberg was glad his man felt that way, and was even happier that Gazzara, who was trained on the Broadway stage, didn't condescend to the then-looked-down-upon medium. "He's an expressive performer, but still one who hasn't come into TV with the snobbish attitude of many actors successful on the stage. He doesn't, in other words, read our scripts, which have been done in haste, and remind us that he's used to Tennessee Williams.
As for your first question, you're only as old as you feel.