"Cannon" (1971) TV series 1971-1976

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Directors:

E. Arthur Kean
Jimmy Sangster

Writer:

George McCowan (writer)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Release Date:

14 September 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Mystery | Drama

Plot:

The cases of a fat private detective.

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Private Detective | Private Eye | Fat Man | Character Name In Title

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

William Conrad

...

Frank Cannon (120 episodes, 1971-1976)

Runtime:

60 min (120 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Quinn Martin Productions (QM)

Trivia:

In the pilot of the series, Cannon drove a Lincoln Continental Mark III. The car was wrecked by the bad guys in an attempt to scare Cannon off the case. Then, for most of the series, Cannon barreled around in a Lincoln Continental Mark IV. During the last part of the series' run, the chubby private eye's Cannonmobile was the Lincoln Continental Mark V.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Sopranos: In Camelot (#5.7)" (2004)

Another Excellent Detective series of the 70's.

Cannon was an excellent tv movie and resulted in a successful series that ran for 5yrs.

William Conrad was brilliant as the overweight Private Eye Frank Cannon.

He proved that you didn't have to be good looking or a super hero to be a good detective.

So he was fat, so what, he was an everyman detective and an ordinary guy that you might see in the street who happened to be overweight.

Despite this he proved he was intelligent, quick witted and he had a number of smarts to outwit his opponents, but he was also capable of looking after himself physically when the situation arose (he was an expert in karate, being overweight does not mean you can't handle the rough stuff when you need to, my judo instructor was 19st, the same weight as Cannon, but boy could he move fast when performing various judo throws and moves).

I am 19st myself, but I know that I can look after myself when need be, with my experience of judo.

Remember Cannon was cunning and knew that his size might get in the way of the physical rough stuff, so he planned his moves carefully and used short swift karate & judo moves to gain the upper hand of his opponents.

He proved that a fat man could look after himself and that he was more than capable when it was needed to deal with violent crooks.

If he was ever attacked and beaten up, he usually got his revenge at the end of the story one way or another.

Also it has to be remembered that Cannon carried a gun. He was an expert with firearms and an excellent marksman (as was William Conrad in real life)and was a competent driver in his Lincoln Continental.

All in all Cannon was another good tv detective series of the 70's, which sadly has given way to the over violent and over done crime films & television series of today, which to my mind lack story content of these old tv detective series of yesterday, which had good story content without the need for over the top violence.

I hope to see video releases of this series soon.