The Snoop Sisters

The Snoop Sisters
The Snoop Sisters title card
Created by	Alan Shayne
Starring	Helen Hayes Mildred Natwick Lou Antonio Art Carney (Pilot) Bert Convy Lawrence Pressman (Pilot)
Opening theme	Jerry Fielding
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	4 (+ 1 TV movie)
Production
Executive producer	Leonard B. Stern
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	90 min.
Production companies	Talent Associates-Norton Simon, Inc. Universal Television
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	December 19, 1973 (1973-12-19) – March 19, 1974 (1974-03-19)
Related
NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie

The Snoop Sisters is an American comedy-mystery television show that aired on NBC during the 1973–1974 season, airing on a monthly rotation (referred to as a "wheel") as part of the NBC Tuesday Mystery Movie, sharing the timeslot with Banacek, Tenafly, and Faraday and Company.

The show stars Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick as two elderly sisters, Ernesta Snoop and Gwendolyn Snoop Nicholson, who routinely stumbled across mysteries, which they solve. The series followed the 1971 ABC television movie Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate, which also starred Hayes and Natwick working together as amateur sleuths, along with Myrna Loy and Sylvia Sidney. A pilot for the series, also titled The Snoop Sisters, but later retitled "The Female Instinct", aired on December 16, 1972, on NBC.

Guest stars during the series' brief run include Joan Blondell, Jill Clayburgh, Alice Cooper, Bo Svenson, William Devane, Tammy Grimes, George Maharis, Roddy McDowall, Eve McVeagh, Geraldine Page, Walter Pidgeon, Vincent Price, Fritz Weaver and, in her final screen appearance, Paulette Goddard.

Synopsis

Predating Murder, She Wrote, Ernesta was a mystery novelist, while her widowed sister Gwendolyn (known as "G") typed the stories from Ernesta's dictation. G was also a writer, but of poetry, having had one book of poetry published. Her late husband was named George, and G fancied he resembled Melvyn Douglas. The sisters lived in a townhouse on Gramercy Park in New York City and traveled in a 1920s Lincoln sedan. They were assisted in their investigations by Barney, their chauffeur and caretaker, played by Art Carney in the pilot and Lou Antonio in the series, and somewhat reluctantly by their nephew, NYPD Lieutenant Ostrowski, played by Lawrence Pressman in the pilot and Bert Convy in the series.

Cast

• Helen Hayes as Ernesta Snoop
• Mildred Natwick as Gwendolyn Snoop Nicholson
• Lou Antonio as Barney
• Bert Convy as Lt. Steve Ostrowski

Episode list

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
0	"The Female Instinct"	Leonard B. Stern	Alan Sharp, Leonard B. Stern, Hugh Wheeler	December 18, 1972 (1972-12-18)
Series pilot: A spinster and her widowed sister, who are both mystery writers, try to track down the killer of a former movie star.
1	"Corpse and Robbers"	Leonard Horn	Don Ingalls, Leonard B. Stern	December 19, 1973 (1973-12-19)
Ernesta receives a telephone call from an old gentleman friend — surprising, since he has been dead for months.
2	"Fear Is a Free-Throw"	Boris Sagal	Dorothy Herald	January 29, 1974 (1974-01-29)
Gwendolyn is the prime suspect after a basketball star is poisoned by an antacid tablet she gave him.
3	"The Devil Made Me Do It!"	Leonard Horn	Tony Barrett Robert Foster	March 5, 1974 (1974-03-05)
The Snoop sisters uncover a Satanic cult when they endeavor to unravel the murder of an airline passenger.
4	"A Black Day for Bluebeard"	David Friedkin	Tony Barrett Jackson Gillis	March 19, 1974 (1974-03-19)
Vincent Price guest-stars as a washed-up horror movie star suspected of murdering his wealthy wife.

Reception

Both Natwick and Hayes were nominated for Emmy Awards for their work on the program. Natwick won.

DVD releases

Visual Entertainment released The Snoop Sisters: The Complete Series on DVD in Canada on March 15, 2011; and in the U.S. on June 7, 2011. Madman Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Australia (Region 4) on March 16, 2011.

DVD name	Release dates
	Region 1 (U.S.)	Region 1 (Can.)	Region 4 (Aus.)
The Snoop Sisters: The Complete Series	June 7, 2011	March 15, 2011	March 16, 2011

External links

• The Snoop Sisters at IMDb