''Mobile One'' is an American television series that aired on the ABC network from September 12,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

to January 5,

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

. The show was a production of Jack Webb's

Mark VII Limited Mark VII Limited was the production company of actor and filmmaker Jack Webb, and was active from 1951 to his death in 1982. Many of its series were produced in association with Universal Television; most of them aired on the NBC television netwo ...

for

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 prede ...

. It was the only Mark VII Limited show to air on ABC.

Premise

Unlike most of Mark VII's other productions, ''Mobile One'' was not based on the real-life exploits of a police force or any other governmental agency. The show was set instead in a local television station's

electronic news gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape techno ...

operation, which at the time was a very new technology. Jackie Cooper starred as on-screen reporter Peter Campbell;

Julie Gregg Julie Gregg (born Beverly Scalzo; January 24, 1937 – November 7, 2016) was an American television, film and stage actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Sandra Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972). Also notably, she was nominated f ...

played Maggie Spencer, Campbell's producer; and Mark Wheeler played camera operator Doug McKnight. Much of the show was spent covering Campbell and McKnight's travels to the scenes of crimes, accidents, and other newsworthy events in a mobile unit car, thereby resembling Mark VII's ''

Emergency! ''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situa ...

'' (which concurrently aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

) in an emphasis upon action and adventure.

Episodes

Production notes

The show was produced by

William Bowers William Bowers (January 17, 1916 – March 27, 1987) was an American reporter, playwright, and screenwriter. He worked as a reporter in Long Beach, California and for ''Life'' magazine, and specialized in writing comedy-westerns. He also turn ...

and created by James M. Miller; Cooper also directed at least one episode. ABC initially scheduled the show on Friday nights against NBC's '' Sanford and Son'' and ''

Chico and the Man ''Chico and the Man'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for four seasons from September 13, 1974, to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown (the Man), the cantankerous owner of a run-down garage in an East Los ...

'' and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

' ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. Th ...

;'' it moved to Monday nights starting on October 27, 1975. Ratings were poor and the network cancelled the series after only thirteen episodes. The 90-minute pilot film for the series, ''Mobile Two'', aired on ABC on September 2, 1975.

References

* ''Total Television: A Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present,'' Alex McNeil, New York: Penguin, revised ed., 1984.

External links

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InBaseline
{{Jack Webb/Mark VII Limited American Broadcasting Company original programming 1975 American television series debuts 1976 American television series endings 1970s American television series Television series by Mark VII Limited Television series by Universal Television Television series about journalism English-language television shows Television shows set in Philadelphia