Once upon a time you weren't a real TV detetctive unless you had a gimmick; Banacek was Polish, Barnaby Jones was old, Pepper Anderson was a "Police Woman," Ironside was in a wheelchair, Longstreet was blind, McCloud was a cowboy, Kojak was bald, Starsky and Hutch were "cool" (I HATE that word!), Columbo was polite and persistent...
Cannon, who left the force after his wife and child were killed (a plot thread tied up in one of the later episodes), was fat. And like Sammo on "Martial Law" nearly thirty years later, he didn't let his excess avoirdupois hinder his getting results. Unlike Sammo, however, he was hopeless when it came to the rough stuff - watching him get physical is embarrassing, and you suspect he and everyone else involved knew it, which is why hand-to-hand fight scenes were kept to a minimum throughout. (Scenes of him scuba-diving were also kept to a minimum of one episode of the entire run - William Conrad in a wetsuit is not something you want to see.)
The series was more reliant on stories than gimmicks, however, and it was William Conrad's show. No sidekicks, no best buddies, no revolving-door love interests, no down-at-heel stuff for him; he was good value, and so was the series.
