AMY PRENTISS – Long before she was known as Archer’s mother, the talented Jessica Walter had churned out powerful performances of all kinds in movies and television. Jessica’s short-lived run as the sleuth Amy Prentiss is a reminder that a program can be a bit too far ahead of its time to thrive.
IRONSIDE: AMY PRENTISS (May 23rd, 1974) – For readers too young to remember the term “back-door pilots” it referred to producers using an episode of an existing hit television series as a de facto pilot for a new series. The star and a few cast members of the prospective new series would costar with the hit series’ regulars in a story tailored to show off what the proposed new series would be like.
The 2-part Ironside story Amy Prentiss was such a back-door pilot. The tough and capable Prentiss becomes the new Chief of Detectives in San Francisco. Amy deals with subtle and not-so-subtle resentment from more experienced men who either wanted the position themselves or feel that Prentiss is bound to screw up and embarrass the force. Some men even resign in protest.
So far, so good as it would have been too unrealistic in a 1970s series to pretend the first woman in a high-profile position in a major city would not be subjected to intense, unfair scrutiny. However, the character of Amy Prentiss was not a one-note figure.
In one of the most cited aspects of Chief Prentiss, she had paid her dues as a woman in the workforce long before feminism was embraced as fashionable by women much younger than her. Amy was the widow of a late military man and preferred to go by “Mrs. Prentiss” rather than cave in to using “Ms. Prentiss” as a feminist reporter was pushing her to do.
Jessica Walter as Amy was just as tough with that woman as she was with sexist men trying to undermine her. One memorable bit of dialogue from Mrs. Prentiss went “No, Crystal, it’s Mrs. Prentiss. M-R-S. Alan Prentiss died in the service of his country, and I’m proud to have been his wife. And if you ever misquote me again, in fact maybe if you ever quote me again, I’m going to have that irresponsible rag of yours send you out to the middle of some ocean to get the inside story on the birth of a live volcano. Awfully nice talking to you.”
(It’s tough not to imagine Mama Archer delivering those lines.)
Right away our heroine is faced with a potentially explosive situation. Bill Parkins (THE William Shatner) shoots a felon to death and says he was just returning fire. However, no gun was found on the dead man. So, Bill relocates and changes his name to T.J. Hooker. (I’m KIDDING!)
Amid the resulting media circus and political pressure to nail Bill Parkins to the wall, Chief Prentiss wades through the evidence to determine what really happened while juggling other ongoing cases and responsibilities, too.
Shatner is almost as good as Jessica Walter in this 2-part story. His bad-boy, loose cannon cop put me in mind of the ultimately shady private investigator that he played on a memorable episode of Hawaii Five-0.
EPISODE ONE: BAPTISM OF FIRE (December 1st, 1974) – The May pilot episodes proved popular enough to add Amy Prentiss to the rotation of 2-hour murder mystery shows on The NBC Mystery Movie. The Amy Prentiss series replaced the canceled Richard Boone show Hec Ramsey.
A change from the Amy Prentiss pilot on Ironside was the addition of a young Helen Hunt as Amy’s daughter Jill despite the character being childless in the pilot. Art Metrano played one of Chief Prentiss’s subordinate detectives, Rod Pena, with Steve Sandor as Detective Tony Russell and Johnny Seven as Detective Contreras.
William Shatner made his last appearance as Bill Parkins, ending the unneeded “will they or won’t they” aspect of the series.
In this 2-hour tale, our heroine contends with the usual sexism and resentment in the police department while trying to solve a murder involving industrial espionage and an old family friend. Also starred Gordon Jump, Ken Swofford, Mills Watson, Mariclaire Costello and Robert F. Simon.
NOTE: This episode was released on VHS under the title Prime Suspect, which has caused some confusion on IMDb with the Helen Mirren series of that name. One IMDb synopsis for this Amy Prentiss episode even refers to “a crown witness” turning up dead.
“Crown witness?” Who knew San Francisco followed the British legal system? Given San Francisco’s reputation it would give new meaning to the term “Queen’s Counsel” wouldn’t it? (Look, I passed up the easy “back-door pilot” joke above, so throw me a bone here.)
EPISODE TWO: THE DESPERATE WORLD OF JANE DOE (December 22nd, 1974) – Chief Prentiss becomes heavily involved in a murder investigation regarding an unnamed woman. She simultaneously oversees cases involving a serial cat burglar and a check-fraud ring.
I like the way Amy Prentiss sprinkled in other ongoing crime investigations, since a Chief of Detectives would not have the luxury of dealing with just one lone case at a time.
Guest stars this time around included Cameron Mitchell, Andrew Prine, Joyce Van Patten, Don Murray, Corinne Camacho, Britt Lind and Michael Pataki.
EPISODE THREE: PROFILE IN EVIL (February 2nd, 1975) – Amy throws herself into an investigation of the killing of a San Francisco cop. She begins to suspect corruption in the department is being covered up when not only other police officers but even the slain cop’s wife refuse to cooperate with the investigation.
Among the guest stars were Edy Williams, Jamie Farr, Jack Soo, Tige Andrews and James Wainwright.
*** And sadly, those four stories were all the world got from the promising Amy Prentiss series. Ironically, the program’s hardcore police procedural approach would become practically de rigueur a few decades later.
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