rickr442

Typical Spelling schtick, helped by a solid lead actor. Lee Horsely was in his twenties during the series production, played older, and was usually a bit above the predictable plot lines. Better in later episodes.

Show started really cartoony. Ridiculously handsome zillionaire Texas oil family heir living in Southern California sidelines as a private eye, eventually taking the p.i. Gig full time.

The usual Aaron Spelling drivel is all there, copious wealth, a really silly hero car, HUGE hair, screechy Dominic Frontiere music, canned sound effects, new Fords everywhere, women as victims, and laughably obvious plots.

I think this may be the best of Spellings mountain of dreck, carried mostly by the likable Horsely. Not 'good, but more bearable than Aarons usual tripe.

I'll watch just about anything that Robert Reed appears in. I've always heard that he loathed the Mike Brady role and tried to balance that dreck with meatier roles like his supporting role in MANNIX and a tasting sinister turn as a hit man in HARRY O.

Something must've distracted him along the way because he signed on to this mess, the Brady mob singing and dancing and pretending to be entertainers of some sort. It's just painful. Badly written and endlessly strained, it lasted nine episodes before being put to sleep forever.

Please spare yourself of this mess. Guest stars like Vincent Price (???) in torturous sitcom skits t(avoiding the use of well-known Brady sets) didn't help, nor did the contrived musical numbers. And what's with the canned laughter and extended applause?

Seventies TV was rarely 'great' and there has to be a bottom rung somewhere. Trust me... this is it.

San Francisco was still like THIS! Karl Malden dispensing wisdom, Michael Douglas dispensing testosterone, new Fords as far as the eye can see, and only a hint of the depravity that the city exudes. Good stories, well directed, thoughtful in short doses. Worth your time until Douglas exits, then it fades to black.