Griff is a 13-episode
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
crime drama starring
Lorne GreeneLorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green O.C., LL.D., a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the long-running western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the original science fiction TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
and
Ben MurphyBenjamin E. Murphy is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the ABC television series Alias Smith and Jones, co-starring as Kid Curry, first with Pete Duel and later with Roger Davis....
, which aired from September 29, 1973, to January 5, 1974. Nine months after the expiration of his nearly 14-year role as
Ponderosa RanchThe Ponderosa Ranch was a theme park based on the popular 1960s television western Bonanza. The amusement park operated in Incline Village, near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, from 1967 until 2004...
patriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy...
Ben CartwrightBen Cartwright may refer to:* Ben Cartwright , British actor* Ben Cartwright , a cattle rancher in the television show Bonanza...
on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
's
BonanzaBonanza is an American television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons, it is among the longest running Western television series and continues to air in syndication....
westernThe Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States , but also in Western Canada, Mexico , Alaska The Western...
series, the
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
native Greene portrayed Wade "Griff" Griffin, a former
policeA police service is a public force empowered to enforce the law and provide security through the legitimized use of force.The term is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of...
officer who becomes a private detective. Murphy, an
ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the...
native who grew up near Chicago,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
, previously portrayed
Kid Curry on ABC's
Alias Smith and JonesAlias Smith and Jones is a Western television series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It starred Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Kid Curry, a pair of Western outlaws trying to reform....
western series.
Griff is a 13-episode
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
crime drama starring
Lorne GreeneLorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green O.C., LL.D., a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the long-running western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the original science fiction TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
and
Ben MurphyBenjamin E. Murphy is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the ABC television series Alias Smith and Jones, co-starring as Kid Curry, first with Pete Duel and later with Roger Davis....
, which aired from September 29, 1973, to January 5, 1974. Nine months after the expiration of his nearly 14-year role as
Ponderosa RanchThe Ponderosa Ranch was a theme park based on the popular 1960s television western Bonanza. The amusement park operated in Incline Village, near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, from 1967 until 2004...
patriarchOriginally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy...
Ben CartwrightBen Cartwright may refer to:* Ben Cartwright , British actor* Ben Cartwright , a cattle rancher in the television show Bonanza...
on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
's
BonanzaBonanza is an American television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons, it is among the longest running Western television series and continues to air in syndication....
westernThe Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States , but also in Western Canada, Mexico , Alaska The Western...
series, the
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
native Greene portrayed Wade "Griff" Griffin, a former
policeA police service is a public force empowered to enforce the law and provide security through the legitimized use of force.The term is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of...
officer who becomes a private detective. Murphy, an
ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the...
native who grew up near Chicago,
IllinoisIllinois , the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation...
, previously portrayed
Kid Curry on ABC's
Alias Smith and JonesAlias Smith and Jones is a Western television series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It starred Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Kid Curry, a pair of Western outlaws trying to reform....
western series. In
Griff he played Greene's 31-year-old partner, S. Michael "Mike" Murdock.
Vic TaybackVictor "Vic" Tayback was a New York City-born American actor of Syrian descent.-Biography:Tayback moved with his family to Burbank, California, during his teenage years and attended Burbank High School...
, later the operator of the fictitious Mel's Diner of CBS's
AliceAlice is an American sitcom television series which ran from August 31, 1976 to July 2, 1985 on CBS in the USA. The series was based on the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. The show stars Linda Lavin in the title role, a widow who moves with her young son to start her life over again,...
sitcom, portrays
CaptainCaptain is a police rank.In most U.S. police departments, the rank of captain is immediately above lieutenant. A captain is often the officer in charge of a precinct. In the New York City Police Department, the rank of captain is below deputy inspector...
Barney Marcus of the
Los Angeles Police DepartmentThe Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With nearly 9,900 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 3.8 million people, it is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United...
, Griff's continuing contact with the police. Patricia Stich appeared as Gracie Newcombe, the secretary for the two detectives.
One of the
Griff executive producers was
Steven BochcoSteven Ronald Bochco is an American television producer and writer. He has developed a number of popular television hits including Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue.-Early life:...
, later of ABC's
N.Y.P.D. Blue. The three other executive producers were David Victor, Peter S. Fischer, and Robert F. O'Neill.
Selected episodes
- "The Case of the Baltimore Girls", a two-hour pilot episode, condensed to an hour under the title "All the Lonely People", features Kim Hunter
Kim Hunter was an American film, theatre, and television actress. She won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, each as Best Supporting Actress, for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire. -...
, Patricia Crowley, Lawrence PressmanLawrence Pressman is an American actor, probably best known for roles on Doogie Howser, M.D., Ladies Man, a recurring role on Profiler, and as the titular character on Mulligan's Stew...
, Dabney ColemanDabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor. He is best known for his abrasive characters and his usually present mustache.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary Wharton and Melvin Randolph Coleman...
, William WindomWilliam Windom is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his work on television, including several episodes of The Twilight Zone; playing the character of Glen Morley, a congressman from Minnesota like his own great-grandfather and namesake in The Farmer's Daughter; the character of John...
, and Herbert RudleyHerbert Rudley, , was a prolific character actor who appeared on stage, in films and on television.Rudley was born in 1910 in Philadelphia, and attended Temple University. He left Temple after winning a scholarship to Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre.He began appearing on stage in 1926...
. The detectives investigate clients of a dating service who face extortion'Extortion', outwresting, or exaction is a criminal offense which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly...
or even murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
.
- "The Framing of Billy the Kid", not a western character, but Nick Nolte
Nicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor, film producer and former model.-Early life:Nolte was born in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Helen , a department store buyer, and Franklin A. Nolte, a farmer's son who worked in irrigation pump sales and was an All-American candidate at Iowa State in...
as a professional football player, Billy Randolph, who is accused of murder. Susan HowardJeri Lynn Mooney , better known as Susan Howard, is an American actress, writer, and political activist; best known for portraying the character Donna Culver Krebbs on the soap opera Dallas, Maggie Petrocelli on the television show Petrocelli, and to Star Trek fans for portraying Mara, the first...
, subsequently of CBS's DallasDallas is an American prime-time television soap opera that originally ran from 1978 to 1991. It revolved around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries...
, portrays Evan Sands in the episode.
- "Death by Prescription" with Barbara Feldon
Barbara Feldon is an American former model and a prolific character actress of stage who is primarily known for her roles on television. Her most prominent role was that of Agent 99 on the popular 1960s sitcom, Get Smart.-Early life:Feldon was born in Pittsburgh's suburb of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania...
, Jared MartinJared Martin is an American actor, born in Queens, New York on December 21, 1940.- Acting career :Born to Charles E. Martin in Manhattan on December 21, 1940, a cover artist for The New Yorker, and Florence Martin, Jared Martin began acting at the age of ten, when his parents gave him the choice of...
, Mark MillerMark Miller is an American television actor/writer who made more than forty appearances in television programs and films since 1957. He co-starred with Joanne Dru and J...
, and Warren StevensWarren Stevens is an American stage, screen, and television actor.Born in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, Stevens began his acting career after serving in the U.S. Army Air Force as a pilot during World War II. He trained at The Actor's Studio in New York, received notice on Broadway, and thereafter...
- "Don't Call Us; We'll Call You", with Ben Piazza as Henry Pizer; Gracie, the detectives' secretary, is terrorized by anonymous threats on her life.
- "Prey": singer Sal Mineo
Salvatore Mineo, Jr. , better known as Sal Mineo, was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause....
plays a Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern president named Gamal Zaki, whom Griff and Mike must protect from an assassinationAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
attempt. Scott HylandsScott Hylands is a Canadian actor who has appeared in movies, television, and on the stage. He played Detective Kevin "O.B." O'Brien on the television series Night Heat from 1985 to 1989.-Filmography:...
portrays the awaiting assassin. Oddly, three years later, Mineo was himself murdered.
- "The Last Ballad": Griff investigates the death of a rock singer after she undergoes an abortion
An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
when the provider, Dr. Martha Reed, played by Kim Hunter, is held by the police. William Windom, formerly of ABC's The Farmer's DaughterThe Farmer's Daughter is an American situation comedy series that was produced by Screen Gems Television and aired on ABC from September 20, 1963 to April 22, 1966. It was sponsored by Lark cigarettes and Clairol for whom the two leading stars often appeared at shows end promoting the products...
, appears in the role of Christopher Woods. This episode was aired not long after the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion in its companion Roe v. WadeRoe v. Wade, , a landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion, is one of the most controversial and politically significant cases in U.S. Supreme Court history.In Roe v...
and Doe v. BoltonDoe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court overturning the abortion law of Georgia. The Supreme Court's decision was released on January 22, 1973, the same day as the decision in the better-known case of Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S...
opinions.
- "Countdown to Terror" with Ricardo Montalban
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG , was a Mexican-born American radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning seven decades and multiple notable roles...
- "Elephant in a Cage" with character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays a particular type of role rather than leading ones. Character actor roles can range from bit parts to secondary leads...
Harold J. StoneHarold J. Stone was an American film and television character actor.Born Harold Hochstein to a Jewish acting family, he began his career on Broadway in 1939 and appeared in five plays in the next six years, including One Touch of Venus and Stalag 17, following which he made his motion picture...
, a veteran of many crime dramas
- "Her Name Was Nancy" with Michael Callan
Not to be confused with Michael Callen.Michael Callan is an American actor.Born Martin Harris Calinieff in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Callan began his career as Mickey Calin, and it was with this name he appeared on Broadway in The Boy Friend , Catch a Star , and West Side Story .Callan's film...
, formerly of the NBC sitcom Occasional WifeOccasional Wife is a half-hour American sitcom that aired on NBC on September 13, 1966, and ran until May 9, 1967...
, and Christopher Connelly, who played Norman Harrington of ABC's Peyton PlacePeyton Place is an American prime time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
- "Hammerlock" with Norman Fell
Norman Fell was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.-Early life:...
- "Isolate and Destroy" with Inga Swenson
Inga Swenson is an Emmy award and Golden Globe-nominated American actress.Swenson was a member of Alpha Phi sorority at Northwestern University where she studied in their famed Drama Department....
and Pamela HensleyPamela Gail Hensley is an American actress. She is best known for playing Princess Ardala on the 1979-1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and C.J...
- "Fugitive from Fear", the series finale, about an escaped convict who leads an upright life for thirteen years until he is suddenly exposed by a relentless prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
guard
Griff was filmed by Groverton Productions at Universal City Studios in Los Angeles. The series followed the
ABC Suspense Movie at the 10 p.m. Eastern timeslot on
SaturdaySaturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. Saturday is considered either the sixth or seventh day of the week....
s opposite CBS's
The Carol Burnett ShowThe Carol Burnett Show is a sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner...
and the
NBC Saturday Night at the MoviesNBC Saturday Night at the Movies, was the first continuing weekly prime time network series to show relatively recent feature films from major studios in color...
.