Sarge (TV series)

*Sarge*
Sarge
	Promotional photo of George Kennedy for the Sarge
Genre	Crime drama
Created by	David Levy
Starring	George Kennedy
Theme music composer	David Shire
Composer	David Shire
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executive producer	David Levy
Producer	David Levinson
Cinematography	Richard A. Kelley; Jacques R. Marquette
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	44 mins.
Production companies	Universal Television; Harbour Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 21, 1971 –; January 11, 1972
Related
	Sarge: The Badge or the Cross; Ironside; ; The Bold Ones: The New Doctors; Amy Prentiss; Ironside (2013)

Sarge is an American crime drama television series starring George Kennedy.^[2] The series aired for one season on NBC from September 1971 to January 1972.

Overview[edit]

Kennedy stars as Samuel Patrick Cavanaugh, a San Diego police detective sergeant who decides to retire and enter the priesthood after his wife is murdered. Sarge had initially studied for the priesthood prior to his police career, but his seminary studies were interrupted by military service in the Marine Corps during World War II.

The series, which ran in 1971-72, was preceded by a pilot titled Sarge: The Badge or the Cross (February 22, 1971 airdate), which set the premise for the subsequent series. One week before the show's fall premiere, on September 14, 1971, Cavanaugh traveled to San Francisco because of the death of a friend and fellow priest. His investigation caused him to cross paths with the characters from Ironside in a two-hour special that consolidated the two series' consecutive time slots. This has been subsequently seen as a TV-movie, The Priest Killer.

The series was set in San Diego and the pilot movie was filmed primarily on location. However, when the series went into production, episodes were filmed in Los Angeles. The parish church used was St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church on North Broadway in Chinatown.

George Kennedy's character was originally Sarge Swanson in the pilot movie. Starting with the Ironside crossover episode, and for the rest of the series, his last name was changed from Swanson to Cavanaugh. Supporting actor Ramon Bieri played Sarge's police contact. In the pilot, his name was Chief Dewey, but was changed to Lt. Barney Verick, chief of detectives, for the series. Sallie Shockley (Valerie) and Harold Sakata (Kenji Takichi) reprised their roles from the pilot movie for the series. Henry Wilcoxon as Bishop Andrade and Dana Elcar as Father Frank Dismore also appeared in the pilot, as well as the series.

Episode list[edit]

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
0	"The Badge or the Cross"	Richard A. Colla	Don Mankiewicz	February 22, 1971 (1971-02-22)
1	"A Terminal Case of Vengeance"	John Badham	Joel Oliansky	September 21, 1971 (1971-09-21)
2	"Ring Out, Ring In"	Daniel Haller	Edward DeBlasio	September 28, 1971 (1971-09-28)
3	"Psst! Wanna Buy a Dirty Picture?"	Richard Donner	Howard Dimsdale	October 5, 1971 (1971-10-05)
4	"Identity Crisis"	Unknown	John McGreevey	October 12, 1971 (1971-10-12)
5	"A Push Over the Edge"	John Badham	Story by : Stanford Whitmore Teleplay by : David Levinson	October 26, 1971 (1971-10-26)
6	"John Michael O'Flaherty Presents the Eleven O'Clock War"	Seymour Robbie	Robert Collins	November 2, 1971 (1971-11-02)
7	"Silent Target"	Daniel Haller	Story by : Edward De Blasio Teleplay by : Joel Oliansky	November 9, 1971 (1971-11-09)
8	"Quicksilver"	Seymour Robbie	Story by : Joel Hammil Teleplay by : Joel Hammil & Robert Van Scoyk	November 16, 1971 (1971-11-16)
9	"A Bad Case of Monogamy"	Joel Oliansky	Robert Van Scoyk	November 23, 1971 (1971-11-23)
10	"The Combatants"	Walter Doniger	Walter Black	November 30, 1971 (1971-11-30)
11	"A Company of Victims"	Jeannot Szwarc	Robert Collins	December 7, 1971 (1971-12-07)
12	"A Party to the Crime"	Ron Winston	Arthur Heinemann	December 28, 1971 (1971-12-28)
13	"An Accident Waiting to Happen"	Daniel Haller	Stanley Hart	January 4, 1972 (1972-01-04)
14	"Napoleon Never Wanted to Be a Cop"	Georg Fenady	Hal Sitowitz	January 11, 1972 (1972-01-11)

Reception[edit]

Sarge was well received but ultimately failed by being pitted against CBS's Hawaii Five-O and The ABC Tuesday Movie of the Week.

Syndication[edit]

Since 1973, episodes have been syndicated under The Bold Ones umbrella title, and can be seen on Cozi TV; it was previously seen on the RTV network in selected areas.

References[edit]

^ Faulkner, Robert R. (1983). Music on Demand. Transaction Publishers p. 51. ISBN 978-1-4128-2923-6.
^ Bernstein, Adam (March 1, 2016). "George Kennedy: Versatile character actor who won an Oscar for 'Cool Hand Luke' and was a mainstay of 1970s disaster films". The Independent. Retrieved April 9, 2020.

External links[edit]

Sarge at IMDb

[Faulkner-1] Faulkner, Robert R. (1983). Music on Demand. Transaction Publishers p. 51. ISBN 978-1-4128-2923-6.

[Kennedy-2] Bernstein, Adam (March 1, 2016). "George Kennedy: Versatile character actor who won an Oscar for 'Cool Hand Luke' and was a mainstay of 1970s disaster films". The Independent. Retrieved April 9, 2020.

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