87th Precinct

87th Precinct was a cop show that ran on NBC for one season. It aired on Monday nights from 9:00-10:00, and was the first television series in history to be based on a series of novels. The books were written by the award-winning author Evan Hunter under the pseudonym of Ed McBain. Hunter, whose many credits include The Blackboard Jungle and the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, continued to write the novels until his death on July 6, 2005. The 55th and final installment, Fiddlers, was published in September 2005.

The show starred Robert Lansing as Steve Carella, Ron Harper as Bert Kling, Norman Fell as Meyer Meyer, and Gregory Walcott as Roger Havilland. All four men were relatively unknown at the time they were cast, and later went on to have varying degrees of success in television and films.

For Bob, 87th Precinct was the first of the six primetime television series in which he either starred or co-starred. According to an article written by Diane Albert (The TV Collector, Vol.2, No. 57), executives at Universal Studios had been very impressed with Bob's guest work in various shows and had been trying to get him to do a series for quite some time. He had turned down several offers they made before finally accepting the role of Detective Steve Carella.

Ironically, it was not the first time that Bob had ever played Carella. In 1960, a year before the series began, he had starred as the heroic detective in the feature film The Pusher, which was based on Ed McBain's novel of the same name. Hubbell Robinson, the executive producer of the series, had never heard of the film when he cast Bob in the show, and had no idea that he had previously played Carella.

Also in the cast was Gena Rowlands, who played Teddy Carella, Steve's deaf-mute wife. Both Rowlands and the character were extremely popular with the audience, but she only appeared in a total of four episodes. According to the TVC article, Rowlands' contract stated that she was to appear only in episodes in which her character was central to the main plot. After being in three of the first six episodes, Rowlands did not make another appearance for several months. Her disappearance caused a big uproar among fans of the show, and she returned after a nearly five-month hiatus for one more episode.

According to TVC, everyone involved with the show got along well together. Although the actors took their work very seriously, they found plenty of time to play practical jokes and to kid around on the set. Bob and Ron Harper were particularly close, and even rode around in patrol cars together to get a better feel for their characters.

Unfortunately, despite the comraderie that existed among the actors, the talent of the cast, and the excellent scripts, some of them which were written by McBain himself, the show was cancelled after only one season.

As is the case with so many other good television series, the decision not to pick it up for another year was based on behind-the-scenes politics, not low ratings. In fact, just the opposite was true. Not only were the ratings good, but the stars were getting lots of mail and the show was considered by people both in and out of the industry to be a hit. TV Guide even did a cover story on it at the end of the season (see the full article in the Articles section below).

According to Norman Fell, the reason the show was cancelled was because Hubbell Robinson, the show's executive producer, left NBC to take a job with CBS. NBC, in retaliation, decided not to continue carrying his show. It was replaced by Saints and Sinners, a series in which Bob later made a guest appearance, and The Price is Right.