City of Angels (1976 TV series)
City of Angels | |
---|---|
Created by | Stephen J. Cannell Roy Huggins |
Starring | Wayne Rogers Elaine Joyce Clifton James Philip Sterling |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 13 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer | Jo Swerling Jr. |
Production companies | Roy Huggins-Public Arts Productions Universal Television |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | February 3 May 18, 1976 | –
City of Angels is a 1976 American
Plot
Axminster drives a 1934 ragtop Studebaker and keeps his office in downtown L.A.’s historic Bradbury Building, phone number OXford-8704. (Brimm’s office is located just across the hall.) For his services, Axminster charges $25 a day plus expenses. Although Brimm describes him as “Mr. Play-It-Safe,”[2] Axminster regularly places himself in danger by helping friends and annoying the police with his questions. His efforts frequently result in his being beaten up. So often does Quint order his thrashing, that Axminster has taken to having nude photographs shot of himself in order to prove later on how aggressive the cops were in their interrogations.[3]
The detective drinks coffee addictively. When one client asks him whether his habit keeps him up, Axminster responds, “No, but it helps.” He appears to be constantly in debt, and he’s not above borrowing money from friends and even from his bootblack, Lester (Timmie Rogers).[4] Axminster “gripes in general about the cost of staying alive. ‘All the angels left this burg about 20 years ago,’ is his succinct summation of the 1930s ...”[5]
Background
Inspired by the 1974 film
Like
Series co-creator Huggins was said to have thought Rogers was miscast.[9] Meanwhile, Rogers had his own gripes. An "associate of his" was quoted in TV Guide as saying that "Wayne actually tore up Angels scripts while they were shooting on the set and rewrote them himself. He hated the material they gave him."[10] That article continued:
- Rogers says, "Angels is a classic example of convoluted, disconnected, bad storytelling." The show had share-of-audience figures of 50%, 31% and 29% for the first three episodes—certainly a respectable record for a mid-season replacement. "These were fine episodes, written by Steve Cannell," says Rogers. "After that, the others couldn't match Cannell's pace and the bottom fell out."
- He mostly blames lack of story preparation time for the demise of Angels. "Often we'd have only an outline in hand, with the shooting deadline almost upon us. Sometimes we'd have a script only at the very last minute. I never heard of a show where you shot through the night and ran out of darkness, but that's what happened to us.
- "The other big factor was that we'd see someone lost or murdered on page 1 of the script and Jake Axminster would be hired to handle the matter. Then we'd have 49 pages of red herrings. On page 50 we'd come back to the initial thesis. We were seeing non sequiturs all over the place. You can't get away with that."
Wayne Rogers was paid $25,000 a week for his starring role in City of Angels,[11] his first series since departing from M*A*S*H the previous year.
The series' theme music was composed by Nelson Riddle.[12]
City of Angels was repeated on the
Episodes
This section needs a plot summary. (May 2017) |
Note that Roy Huggins is credited as a writer under his own name for episodes 1, 2, 3 and 9, and as "John Thomas James" for episodes 4, 6, 7, 8 and 11.
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "The November Plan, Part I" | Don Medford | Story by : Stephen J. Cannell & Roy Huggins Teleplay by : Stephen J. Cannell | February 3, 1976 |
2 | "The November Plan, Part II" | Don Medford | Story by : Stephen J. Cannell & Roy Huggins Teleplay by : Stephen J. Cannell | February 10, 1976 |
3 | "The November Plan, Part III" | Don Medford | Story by : Stephen J. Cannell & Roy Huggins Teleplay by : Stephen J. Cannell | February 17, 1976 |
4 | "The Parting Shot" | Sigmund Neufeld, Jr. | Story by : John Thomas James Teleplay by : Philip DeGuere, Jr. | February 24, 1976 |
5 | "A Lonely Way to Die" | Douglas Heyes | Douglas Heyes | March 2, 1976 |
6 | "The House on Orange Grove Avenue" | Robert Douglas | Story by : John Thomas James Teleplay by : Stephen & Elinor Karpf | March 16, 1976 |
7 | "Palm Springs Answer" | Alan Reisner | Story by : John Thomas James Teleplay by : Merwin Gerard | March 23, 1976 |
8 | "The Losers" | Barry Shear | Story by : John Thomas James Teleplay by : Gloryette Clark & John Thomas James | April 6, 1976 |
9 | "A Sudden Silence" | Douglas Heyes | Story by : Roy Huggins Teleplay by : Douglas Heyes | April 13, 1976 |
10 | "The Castle of Dreams" | Robert Douglas | Story by : Stephen J. Cannell & Philip DeGuere, Jr. Teleplay by : Stephen J. Cannell | April 20, 1976 |
11 | "Say Goodbye to Yesterday" | Jerry London | Story by : John Thomas James Teleplay by : Gloryette Clark | May 4, 1976 |
12 | "The Bloodshot Eye" | Hy Averback | Philip DeGuere, Jr. | May 11, 1976 |
13 | "Match Point" | Ralph Senensky | Richard Boeth | May 18, 1976 |
References
- ^ Pierce, J. Kingston. "Killers, Cover-ups and Max Allan Collins." January Magazine, September 1999.
- ^ "The Castle of Dreams" - Episode 10
- ^ "A Lonely Way to Die" - Episode 5
- ^ "The November Plan, Part II" - Episode 2
- ^ Wilkins, Barbara. "TV's 'Manure,' Says Wayne Rogers, Who Plays the Angles as Skillfully as 'City of Angels'." People, March 8, 1976.
- ISBN 0-275-93330-X. 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.
- ^ Amory, Cleveland. Review: City of Angels. TV Guide, April 10, 1976. Pg. 35.
- ^ Smith, Kevin Burton. "Jake Axminster." The Thrilling Detective Web Site.
- ^ Stump, Al. "The Wonderful Wizard of Bucks." TV Guide, July 10, 1976. Pgs. 20-22.
- ^ Stump, pg. 21.
- ^ TelevisionTunes.com
External links
- City of Angels at IMDb
- Shonk, Michael. “A TV Series Review: City of Angels (1976).” Mystery*File, April 16, 2012.