''Jigsaw'' is a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

that aired as an element of the

wheel series A wheel series, wheel show, wheel format or umbrella series is a television series in which two or more regular programs are rotated in the same time slot. Sometimes the wheel series is given its own umbrella title and promoted as a single unit ins ...

'' The Men'', part of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

network's 1972-73 lineup.

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predeces ...

produced ''Jigsaw''; the same studio had previously been responsible for a series which, in part, inspired ''The Men'': ''

The NBC Mystery Movie ''The NBC Mystery Movie'' is an American television anthology series produced by Universal Pictures, that NBC broadcast from 1971 to 1977. Devoted to a rotating series of mystery episodes, it was sometimes split into two subsets broadcast on diff ...

''.

Overview

The program starred James Wainwright as Lt. Frank Dain, who worked as an investigator for the

California State Police The California State Police (CSP) was a state level security police agency founded on March 15, 1887 which primarily served to protect the State Capitol Building, the Governor, other state agencies located throughout the state, and thousands ...

Department's Bureau of Missing Persons. Dain was a rebel who chafed at standard police procedures and techniques, but was always effective in finding the person for whom he was searching. He pieced each case together as if it were a

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture. In th ...

. Shortly before the series' cancellation, Dain was booted from the bureau and set up shop as a private eye.Fitzgerald, Ted
"Frank Dain."
The Thrilling Detective Web Site.

Episodes

References

External links

* * American Broadcasting Company original programming 1970s American crime drama television series 1972 American television series debuts 1973 American television series endings Television series by Universal Television English-language television shows Television shows set in California {{US-drama-tv-prog-stub