Tag Archives: Robert Conrad

FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: THE D.A. (1971-1972)

THE D.A. (1971-1972) – For any readers who are not familiar with the topic, D.A. stands for District Attorney. This short-lived series starred Robert Conrad as Deputy D.A. Paul Ryan in Los Angeles. Harry Morgan portrayed H.M. Stafford, Ryan’s investigator. 

A pair of 2-hour made-for-tv movies served as pilots for the potential D.A. series beginning in 1969. The subsequent series was only a half-hour long with the first segment detailing the criminal investigation and the second segment presenting the trial.

MURDER ONE (December 8th, 1969) – Deputy District Attorney Paul Ryan (Robert Conrad) works at convicting a beautiful nurse who is using her medical skills to conceal her murders of her rich husbands and other relatives. It’s an uphill battle since his superiors think the woman is innocent. Also starring Diane Baker, Howard Duff, J.D. Cannon, Dana Elcar, Fredricka Meyers and Scott Brady. (2 hours)  

CONSPIRACY TO KILL (January 8th, 1971) – Ryan convicts a pharmacist of manslaughter for the suspicious shooting of an alleged burglar. He vacates the conviction and tries a murder charge when evidence indicates that the pharmacist is part of a drug ring that the “burglar” was also part of. Also starring THE William Conrad, Belinda Montgomery, Don Stroud, Leslie Parrish and Virginia Gregg. (2 hours)  

THE EPISODES: Continue reading

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A MAN CALLED SLOANE (1979) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

a man called sloaneA MAN CALLED SLOANE (1979) – Robert Conrad, often called the ultimate man’s man, was famous for several television series over the decades, especially The Wild Wild West and Black Sheep Squadron. Here is a look at his modern-day spy series from 1979, the last Quinn Martin Production. 

Conrad starred as American superspy Thomas Remington Sloane III aka T.R. Sloane, who worked for an espionage outfit called UNIT. (Go ahead and write T.R. Sloane/ Doctor Who fan fiction. Or not.) The evil organization opposed to our hero’s agency was called KARTEL.

Ji-Tu Cumbuka from blaxploitation films played Torque, a brawny mercenary with an artificial arm which could be outfitted with flamethrowers and other weaponry. (Arm? Torque? See what they did there?) Torque started out as a Jaws-like foe of T.R. Sloane but joined UNIT as Sloane’s partner. 

sloane two picsSultry Michelle Carey, daughter of MacDonald Carey and a veteran of many Wild Wild West episodes herself, provided the voice of EFFIE, the supercomputer at UNIT headquarters. Dan O’Herlihy played UNIT’s director.   

A Man Called Sloane was fun but not spectacular and it only lasted 12 episodes in addition to a tv movie produced as a pilot for the series. That film wound up not being broadcast until AFTER the show was already canceled. Robert Logan portrayed Sloane in that telefilm but was replaced by Robert Conrad for the show.   

THE PILOT MOVIE AND EPISODES: Continue reading

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ROBERT CONRAD’S “THE ADVENTURES OF NICK CARTER” (1972): FORGOTTEN TV

Adventures of Nick CarterTHE ADVENTURES OF NICK CARTER (1972) – Rest in peace, Robert Conrad. For decades, rugged sex symbol Robert Conrad embodied the old expression “women want him and men want to BE him.” My sister Debbie was a huge fan of Robert’s incredibly tight pants and frequently-bared chest. 

Thanks to television, home video and the internet, generations of viewers have been treated to Conrad’s memorable portrayals of heroes like old west Secret Service Agent Jim West on Wild, Wild West, real-life World War Two flying ace Greg “Pappy” Boyington on Black Sheep Squadron, secret agent T.R. Sloane on A Man Called Sloane and French trapper Pasquanel on the mini-series Centennial. (“Mawn uh-MEE!”)      

Nick Carter 2A few years after Wild, Wild West went off the air, Conrad starred in this pilot film for a tv series based on old Dime Novel and Pulp hero Nick Carter.

Carter had been around since the 1880s but, presumably to avoid too much resemblance to Wild Wild West, The Adventures of Nick Carter was set in the year 1912 instead. Continue reading

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FRONTIERADO SAGA – DUSTY MURTAUGH

Another one of my sisters okayed me posting the Saga I wrote for her back in 2009. (Well, one paragraph is new. You never know when inspiration will hit you.) For fhe Blackwater Kid’s Saga click here: https://glitternight.com/2011/05/21/frontierado-saga-the-blackwater-kid/

For Amarillo Rose’s Saga click here: https://glitternight.com/2011/05/23/frontierado-saga-amarillo-rose/

For Six-Gun Sara’s Saga click here: http://midaevalmaiden.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/six-gun-sara/

 Dusty Murtaugh 

 

Deborah Ann “Dusty” Murtaugh was born in California in approximately 1859. She ran away from home at 15 disguised as a boy and found a job tending to horses for the Wells Fargo stagecoach company for a few years.  This was when she Continue reading

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