Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as The FBI's Lewis Erskine
This week marked the 10th anniversary of the death of actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr., whose many credits included starring in The FBI, which ran from 1965 until 1974.
The show was an idealized version of the bureau. And for much of its run, the real-life FBI had a say in the series, including vetoing Bette Davis as a guest star. At Quinn Martin Productions (which made the series as part of a joint venture with Warner Bros.), no explanation was given. The answer was simply no.
The anniversary of Zimbalist's passing also reminded me of something else about the QM show.
In The FBI, Zimbalist's Lewis Erskine first checked to see if a suspect had an outstanding warrant, such as "unlawful flight." If not, Erskine or his associates actually got a warrant before moving in. The FBI in the Zimbalist show followed rules, even if real life wasn't so clean, including illegal wiretapping during the J. Edgar Hoover era. Hoover died on May 2, 1972, after The FBI's seventh season completed production.
In the decades since the notion of law enforcement officers who follow their own rules took hold. Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry movies (released by Warner Bros.) from 1971 to 1988 did a lot of popularize this idea. But there have been other TV shows that grabbed onto the concept. Changing times and all that.
Below is a clip from a second-season episode, "The Executioners Part I." Erskine and crew are conducting surveillance and spot a hit man played by Robert Duvall. Once Erskine knows there's an outstanding warrant, the bureau's agents move.
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