Philip Abbott

. The fourth series from QM Productions after "The New Breed", "The Fugitive", and "Twelve O'Clock High", "The F.B.I." was Quinn Martin's longest running action series. It was unique as its stories were apparently supervised by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover himself, no less. (Martin later allowed that Hoover was less concerned with the storylines but watched over the presentation of proper Bureau procedure with eagle eyes.) In its first year, the show allowed occasional human moments. Inspector Lewis Erskine lost his wife in a job-related shoot-out. His daughter, Barbara, was engaged to Special Agent Jim Rhodes, a match not altogether approved of by Erskine. Barbara was gone after the first year.