The 1978 TV Miniseries To Kill a Cop was the inspiration for this cop series which lasted only one season. Joe Don Baker played the title character - an intelligent, compassionate chief of detectives who's southern drawl made him seem out of place in Manhattan. Like Telly Savalas' Kojak and his lollypop, Eischied had a quirk. He kept a cat as a pet and was devoted to it. The story lines were typical of the genre and era and each week he would help his detectives solve the case.
This series was the first to pay its lead actor $1,000,000.00 for his role, and only lasted 13 episodes. It's never made it to DVD and is extremely difficult to find online video of. Above is the only clip I could find, included in a series of show opens from 1980. It was uploaded by bobtwcatlanta.
Obscurity factor: 10 (not on DVD, hard to find online, not well remembered)
If it's pronounced like "I shied," then that title is ringing a bell but that's about all. I say another well-warranted "10" on the O.F. scale. (BTW, I'm impressed that there was a working actor named Alan Fudge. It turns out, thanks to IMDB, that he did a lot of TV but never anything that I saw ... until now.)
ReplyDeleteI believe that is the pronunciation. It is an obscure one... From the write up on Wikipedia it looks like one I would enjoy too.
ReplyDeleteEight years later ... I'm on the trail of some episodes through private collectors. Great show (pronounced EYE-SHIED) ... Left to rot in a bad time-slot, against DALLAS ...
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