Dapper but dirty cop Jake Stiles (Joe Penny) teams with grizzled District Attorney J.L. McCabe (William Conrad) to track down the murderer of Mitchell Thompson (Josef Rainer) one of wealthiest men in the city. The victim's two surviving kin are his younger brothers - a pair of oddballs who are disturbingly close. But one (Dwight Schultz) is an odder ball than the other (Russell Todd). He has been covertly taunting McCabe and the police in a serial murder spree of homeless men.
The tone of the way the wealthy brothers are played is several steps beyond eccentric. I can interpret it as a statement on "affluenza" before it was an actual term. Here that is taken to the extreme in a tour-de-force characterization by Dwight Schultz. There is not just solipsism and narcissism. David Thompson is a classic take on the cinematic stock character of wealthy and warped predator from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The murderers on this show characteristically displayed galling audacity.
The main demographic they attracted with this show was an older, upper income, conservative one. They attempted to offer them something of classic appeal. It meant presenting something that was kind of like 1930s/1940s era mystery with Joe Penny as the classic leading man (A Cary Grant for the 1980s). Blending with that is McCabe portrayed by an actor whose following stretched back to days on radio and you have a retro feel the formula could reliably deliver week by week during the TV season.
The ideal settings for various episodes were upscale in keeping with so many Hollywood murder mysteries which is why we see so many wealthy bad people and wealthy victims. The fact that so many of the guest characters are played by actors who tended to attract a younger demographic would also become a continuous aspect of the series. Russell Todd was brought in for that here.
As for the continuing character study of the leads sublety was insufficient often times. They obviously went for a gruff but proud father/roguish but loyal son vibe. The opaqueness of that is captured in the appalling opening titles sequence from the show's first season which includes a hokey scene of the actors embracing as their characters praise each other's awesomeness and virtue. That cringe-inducing scene of characters telling, when they should be showing, started off every show on a poor note until they got a new titles sequence.
The tone of the way the wealthy brothers are played is several steps beyond eccentric. I can interpret it as a statement on "affluenza" before it was an actual term. Here that is taken to the extreme in a tour-de-force characterization by Dwight Schultz. There is not just solipsism and narcissism. David Thompson is a classic take on the cinematic stock character of wealthy and warped predator from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The murderers on this show characteristically displayed galling audacity.
The main demographic they attracted with this show was an older, upper income, conservative one. They attempted to offer them something of classic appeal. It meant presenting something that was kind of like 1930s/1940s era mystery with Joe Penny as the classic leading man (A Cary Grant for the 1980s). Blending with that is McCabe portrayed by an actor whose following stretched back to days on radio and you have a retro feel the formula could reliably deliver week by week during the TV season.
The ideal settings for various episodes were upscale in keeping with so many Hollywood murder mysteries which is why we see so many wealthy bad people and wealthy victims. The fact that so many of the guest characters are played by actors who tended to attract a younger demographic would also become a continuous aspect of the series. Russell Todd was brought in for that here.
As for the continuing character study of the leads sublety was insufficient often times. They obviously went for a gruff but proud father/roguish but loyal son vibe. The opaqueness of that is captured in the appalling opening titles sequence from the show's first season which includes a hokey scene of the actors embracing as their characters praise each other's awesomeness and virtue. That cringe-inducing scene of characters telling, when they should be showing, started off every show on a poor note until they got a new titles sequence.
