Saturday, July 13, 2013

What Might've Been: O'Hara, US Treasury (1971)

After years of police dramas on radio & TV, Jack Webb decided the time was right to expand his horizons. Unfortunately, his first experiment was a ratings failure though a critical success.

O'Hara, US Treasury was the first series Webb had developed for a network other than NBC, with this series sold to CBS in 1971. It served as a comeback vehicle for veteran David Janssen (ex-The Fugitive), marking a return to the network where he'd scored his first hit (Richard Diamond, Private Eye) nearly 20 years earlier.

But there was one problem, and it was a big one. CBS placed the show on Fridays, where it was trying to fill a hole created by the cancellation of Get Smart after the previous season. The problem wasn't the time slot, but rather the competition, specifically, ABC's lineup, which included The Brady Bunch & The Partridge Family, entering the 3rd & 2nd seasons, respectively. As a result, O'Hara lasted 6 months before being decommissioned in March 1972. By that time, Webb had already struck gold again at NBC with Emergency!, as he moved his focus back to his home area in LA.

SupremeTeam68 uploaded the open:



No rating. Never saw the show.

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