American TV series or program
The Outsider
|
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Genre
| Detective drama
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Created by
| Roy Huggins
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Starring
| Darren McGavin
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Composer
| Pete Rugolo
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Country of origin
| United States
|
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Original language
| English
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No.
of seasons
| 1
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No.
of episodes
| 26
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Running time
| 60 minutes
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Production companies
| Public Arts
Universal Television
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Network
| NBC
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Release
| September 18, 1968
(
1968-09-18
)
?
April 16, 1969
(
1969-04-16
)
|
---|
The Outsider
is an American detective drama created by
Roy Huggins
and starring
Darren McGavin
. A two hour pilot movie aired on November 21, 1967; about a year later, a regular series of 26 episodes aired on
NBC
for one season from September 18, 1968, until April 16, 1969.
[1]
Premise
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]
40-ish
Los Angeles
?based private eye David Ross (
Darren McGavin
) is a group-home raised orphan with no family, originally from
Puyallup, Washington
. (Notably, both series creator Roy Huggins and star Darren McGavin were also originally from Washington state, Huggins from
Littell
and McGavin from
Spokane
.) As a teen, Ross became a high-school dropout and a runaway from the group home. At the age of 19, while riding the rails, Ross got into an altercation with a railroad policeman and inadvertently ended up killing him while trying to defend himself. Convicted of murder, he spent six years in prison before receiving a governor's pardon.
Now working as a licensed private investigator, Ross is constantly harassed by police partly for his past crime, and partly due to his activities investigating cases. Ross lives alone in a small, shabby, sparsely furnished apartment in L.A., and is essentially an 'outsider' in society.
Most episodes of
The Outsider
begin near the story's climax, with Ross in some sort of imminent, life-threatening danger. After briefly setting up the situation via narration, Ross will then (also via narration) say some variation of "I suppose you're wondering how I got here..." The story is then presented in flashback, leading back to the climax, which is then resolved.
When investigating cases, Ross only resorts to violence when forced to, and his carry pistol is a tiny .25-caliber semi-automatic. Many of Ross' cases involve eccentric Hollywood or Southern California types, with whom he copes in a bemused fashion. Ross himself has some peculiarities and eccentricities; for instance, he routinely keeps his phone in his fridge.
There were no other regulars on the show aside from McGavin, although
Ossie Davis
played Ross' antagonistic police contact Lt. Wagner in the pilot, and James Edwards played the same character in two episodes of the series.
Bill Quinn
is seen in two late-running episodes as another (slightly friendlier) police contact, Lt. Kanter.
Episodes
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Pilot TV Movie (1967)
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Series (1968-69)
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One two-part program was edited together into a feature-length film and shown on U.S. television under the title
The 24-hour Mile
. A paperback spinoff novel,
The Outsider
, was written by prolific American genre writer
Lou Cameron
.
References
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]
- ^
The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present
. Ballantine Books. p. 898.
ISBN
0-345-45542-8
.
External links
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]