6.2 /10 1 Votes
5/10 TV Theme music composer Earle Hagen First episode date 5 January 1969 Network NBC Number of episodes 16 | 7.3/10 IMDb Genre Crime drama Country of origin United States Final episode date 31 August 1969 Number of seasons 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Created by Ivan Goff
Ben Roberts
Warren Duff Starring James Whitmore
Enzo Cerusico Composer(s) Earle Hagen
Richard Shores
Hugo Friedhofer
Carl Brandt Cast Enzo Cerusico, James Whit Similar The Danny Thomas Hour, Dan August, The Law and Mr Jones, Temperatures Rising, Kraft Suspense Theatre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My friend tony opening credits nbc drama
My Friend Tony is an American crime drama that aired on NBC in 1969. The pilot originally aired as "My Pal Tony" on The Danny Thomas Hour on March 4, 1968.
Contents
My friend tony theme intro outro
Synopsis
The series features Enzo Cerusico as the title character, Tony Novello, and James Whitmore as John Woodruff, a professor of criminology who served in Italy during World War II. As a child, Novello had been a street urchin who survived as a pickpocket, with Woodruff being one of his intended victims. The premise of the series was that the adult (and reformed) Novello had emigrated to the United States to join Woodruff in a private investigation team. Novello handled the legwork and physical side of the investigations while Woodruff conducted painstaking analysis of the most obscure clues.
My Friend Tony debuted on January 5, 1969. NBC slotted the program in the 10 p.m. Eastern timeslot on Sundays, following Bonanza. The network ended production of the series after 16 episodes but continued airing reruns of the show through that summer. The program aired for the last time on August 31, 1969.
Reception
Despite having the highly successful Bonanza as its lead-in, Sheldon Leonard — who developed My Friend Tony and was its executive producer — attributed the program's low ratings to its timeslot.
"First, the 10-to-11 P.M. time spot didn't take full advantage of Enzo's youthful audience, as shown by his flood of fan mail, which exceeds anything in our experience," Leonard told TV Guide. "Second, because of the one-hour length and the network's commitment to 27 new projects all demanding air time, there was no 8 or 9 o'clock spot into which to move it."
Critics had savaged My Friend Tony, calling the series "hackneyed and confusing" ... "the kind of minimal fare that has been ground out ad nauseam" ... "mundane" and "bilge."