''The F.B.I.'' is an American

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

television series created by

Quinn Martin Quinn Martin (born Irwin Martin Cohn; May 22, 1922 – September 5, 1987) was an American television producer. He had at least one television series running in prime time every year for 21 straight years (from 1959 to 1980). Martin is a mem ...

and

Philip Saltzman Philip Saltzman (September 19, 1928 – August 14, 2009) was an American executive producer and television writer. Saltzman was best known for his work as the executive producer of the 1970s CBS detective series, ''Barnaby Jones''. Saltzman was ...

for ABC and co-produced with

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

, with sponsorship from the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

, Alcoa and

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members ...

(

Tareyton Tareyton is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. History Tareyton began as a variation of Herbert Tareyton cork-tipped non-filter cigarettes (whose slogan was, "There's ''somet ...

and Pall Mall brands) in the first season. Ford sponsored the show alone for subsequent seasons. The series was broadcast on ABC from 1965 until its end in 1974. Starring

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (November 30, 1918 – May 2, 2014) was an American actor known for his starring roles in the television series '' 77 Sunset Strip'' and ''The F.B.I.'' He is also known as recurring character "Dandy Jim Buckley" in the s ...

Philip Abbott Philip Abbott (March 20, 1924 – February 23, 1998) was an American character actor. He appeared in several films and numerous television series, including a lead role as Arthur Ward in the crime series ''The F.B.I.'' Abbott was also the founde ...

and William Reynolds, the series, consisting of nine seasons and 241 episodes, chronicles a group of FBI agents trying to defend the US Government from unidentified threats. For the entirety of its run, it was broadcast on Sunday nights.

Synopsis

Produced by

and based in part on concepts from the 1959

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

theatrical film ''

The FBI Story ''The FBI Story'' is a 1959 American drama film starring James Stewart, and produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Richard L. Breen and John Twist is based on a book by Don Whitehead. Plot John Michael ("Chip") Hardesty ( Jam ...

'', the series was based on actual

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

cases, with fictitious main characters carrying the stories.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (November 30, 1918 – May 2, 2014) was an American actor known for his starring roles in the television series ''77 Sunset Strip'' and ''The F.B.I.'' He is also known as recurring character "Dandy Jim Buckley" in the se ...

played Inspector Lewis Erskine, a widower whose wife had been killed in an ambush meant for him.

played Arthur Ward, assistant director to FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

. Although Hoover served as series consultant until his death in 1972, he never appeared in the series. Stephen Brooks played Inspector Erskine's assistant, Special Agent Jim Rhodes, for the first two seasons.

Lynn Loring Lynn Loring (born Lynn Zimring; July 14, 1944) is an American actress and television and film producer. Career Born Lynn Zimring in Manhattan, Loring began acting with a role on the anthology series '' Studio One'' on CBS. In 1951, at the age ...

played Inspector Erskine's daughter and Rhodes' love interest, Barbara, in the twelve episodes of the show's first season. Although the couple was soon engaged on the show, that romantic angle was soon dropped. In 1967, Brooks was replaced by William Reynolds, who played Special Agent Tom Colby until 1973. The series would enjoy its highest ratings during this time, peaking at No. 10 in the 1970–1971 season. For the final season,

Shelly Novack Sheldon Lennard "Shelly" Novack (January 10, 1944 – May 27, 1978) was an American college and professional football offensive end, who was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the 15th round (135th pick overall) of the 1966 American Football ...

played Special Agent Chris Daniels. Some episodes ended with a "most wanted" segment hosted by Zimbalist, noting the FBI's most wanted criminals of the day, decades before the

Fox Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

aired '' America's Most Wanted''. The most famous instance was in the April 21, 1968, episode, when Zimbalist asked for information about fugitive

James Earl Ray James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After this Ray was on the run and was cap ...

, who was being hunted for the assassination of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

The series aired on ABC at 8 p.m. Sunday from 1965 to 1973, when it was moved up to 7:30 p.m. for the final season. The series was a co-production of

Productions and

, as Warner Bros. held the television and theatrical rights to any project based on ''The FBI Story''. It was the longest-running of all of Quinn Martin's television series, airing nine seasons.

Background

Every detail of every episode of the series was carefully vetted by F.B.I. second-in-command

Clyde Tolson Clyde Anderson Tolson (May 22, 1900 – April 14, 1975) was the second-ranking official of the FBI from 1930 until 1972, from 1947 titled Associate Director, primarily responsible for personnel and discipline. He was the ''protégé'', long-ti ...

. Actors playing F.B.I. agents, and other participants, were given background checks to guarantee that no "criminals, subversives, or Communists" were associated with the show. The premiere episode of the first season, "The Monster," about a handsome serial killer who strangled women with their own hair, so shocked Tolson that he recommended the show be cancelled. J. Edgar Hoover attempted to cancel the show on at least seven other occasions. Upon Tolson's direction, the violence in the show was severely curtailed in the final three seasons.

Cast

as Inspector Lewis Erskine *

as Arthur Ward * William Reynolds as Special Agent Tom Colby *

as Barbara Erskine (season 1) * Stephen Brooks as Special Agent Jim Rhodes (seasons 1 and 2) *

as Special Agent Chris Daniels (season 9) *

Dean Harens Dean Arthur Harens (June 30, 1920 – May 20, 1996) was an American actor. He appeared in movies, plays and many TV programs over four decades. Early years Born in South Bend, Indiana in 1920, Harens studied at the Goodman Theatre in ...

as Special Agent Bryan Durant *Lew Brown as Special Agent Allen Bennett *

Anthony Eisley Anthony Eisley (January 19, 1925 – January 29, 2003) was an American actor best known as one of the detective leads, Tracy Steele, in the ABC/Warner Brothers television series '' Hawaiian Eye''. Early in his career, he was credited as Fred Eis ...

as Special Agent Chet Randolph *

Hank Brandt Hank Brandt (born Henry William Haar Jr.; June 4, 1934 – December 4, 2004) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing Leonard Waggedorn in the American sitcom television series ''Julia'' from 1968 to 1971. Brandt was ...

as Special Agent William Converse (recurring role)

Episodes

Nielsen ratings

*Season 1: Not in Top 30 *Season 2: #29, 20.2 *Season 3: #22, 21.2 *Season 4: #18, 21.7 *Season 5: #24, 20.6 *Season 6: #10, 23.0 *Season 7: #17, 22.4 *Season 8: #29, 19.2 *Season 9: Not in Top 30

Home media

(under the

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

label) has released all nine seasons of ''The F.B.I.'' on DVD in region 1 via their

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

. These are Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases and are available through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. The ninth and final season was released on September 23, 2014.The 9th and Final Season is Now Available on DVD!

Similar series

* An updated and revamped version of the series, '' Today's FBI'', executive produced by David Gerber for

Columbia Pictures Television Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CPT) was launched on May 6, 1974, by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gem ...

, aired on ABC from October 1981 through April 1982 in the same Sunday 8 p.m. time slot as its predecessor. * A remake of the original series, produced by

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...

Imagine Entertainment Imagine Entertainment (formerly Imagine Films Entertainment), also known simply as Imagine, is an American film and television production company founded in November 1985 by producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard. Background Brian Graz ...

for Fox, was set for air in Fall 2008, but it didn't materialise. * In September 2018, a similar series, titled ''

'', debuted on

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 ...

; this series was co-created by

Dick Wolf Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American film and television producer, best known for his ''Law & Order'' franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four international spinoffs. He is al ...

and Craig Turk 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 ...

. Unlike ''The F.B.I.'' and ''Today's FBI'', however, the cases presented are largely fictional. Would be followed by two spinoffs: '' FBI: Most Wanted'' and '' FBI: International''.

Popular culture

* The ''

Lupin the Third Part II ''Lupin the 3rd Part II'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by TMS Entertainment. Part of the ''Lupin III'' franchise, it is the second anime television adaptation of the ''Lupin III'' manga series created by Monkey Punch. Altho ...

'' episode ''Diamonds Shining in the Robot's Eye'' parodies ''The F.B.I.''. * In 1971, ''MAD'' Magazine published a satire titled ''The F.I.B.'' * The series was featured in

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...

's ninth film '' Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'', wherein

Rick Dalton Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

, the film's main character, portrayed the villain in an altered version of "All the Streets Are Silent" (air date November 28, 1965), the eleventh episode of the first season of ''The F.B.I.'' Rick Dalton replaced the character played by Burt Reynolds in the original episode.

References

External links

* *
''The FBI'' Open and Close of programThe FBI Tribute Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:F.B.I., The 1960s American crime television series 1970s American crime television series American Broadcasting Company original programming Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios 1965 American television series debuts 1974 American television series endings English-language television shows Television series about the Federal Bureau of Investigation Television shows set in California Espionage television series