What Might've Been: Arrest & Trial (1963)

Sunday wasn't always movie night on ABC, though many of us grew up with The ABC Sunday Night Movie.

In 1963, ABC had a 90 minute crime drama, Arrest & Trial, airing from 8:30-10 pm (ET) on Sundays. A procedural drama in more ways than one, Arrest combined the courtroom drama of Perry Mason with the by-the-book investigations of Dragnet.

The first half of the show chronicled the cases leading up to the arrest, with Ben Gazzara (later of Run For Your Life) as the lead detective. The second half was the trial, with Chuck Connors (ex-The Rifleman) as defense attorney John Egan. John Larch, a former radio star, was the district attorney. Larch's resume included guest appearances on Naked City, The Fugitive, and, post-Arrest, The Invaders. The ensemble also included Don Galloway (pre-Ironside) and Joe Higgins, better known for his later work in commercials for Dodge as a sheriff, which Higgins later parlayed into a gig on Hee Haw.

So why did Arrest & Trial fail? The Rifleman had, I believe, gone into syndication in 1963, and viewers still saw Connors as Lucas McCain, not yet ready to accept him in a more contemporary role. He'd have made a great Perry Mason in a remake of that series, had 20th Century Fox not chosen Monte Markham for the role.

More than 35 years after Arrest ended, Universal revived the title, and entrusted it to producer Dick Wolf (Law & Order, Chicago Fire, etc.), who opted to develop a fact-based half hour documentary series, since he had already co-opted the original Arrest format for Law & Order. The revamped Arrest, with Brian Dennehy as host, also ran for 1 season.

Speaking of producers, Arthur H. Nadel had worked with Connors on The Rifleman, and later found work at Filmation on their family of live-action adventure shows in the 70's.

Let's take a look at a sample episode. (Edit, 12/6/18: Had to change the video.)



Connors would land two more series in the 60's, Branded & Cowboy in Africa. Branded lasted two seasons. Cowboy lasted just one. After that, Connors hosted Thrill Seekers, bringing him back to Four Star, the home of The Rifleman, before his final primetime series, Werewolf. Branded, in fact, was the only one of this group to go beyond one season. Can't see why no one else saw him as a lawyer or DA.

Rating: A.