September 8, 1978 (1978-09-08) – January 5, 1979 (1979-01-05)
The Eddie Capra Mysteries is an American mystery television series starring Vincent Baggetta as a lawyer who investigates murders and has a knack for solving them. Original episodes aired on NBC from September 8, 1978, to January 12, 1979.[1][2]
Eddie Capra is an unconventional young lawyer who recently graduated from New York University Law School and works for Devlin, Linkman, and O'Brien, a conventional, snooty, and very prestigious law firm in Los Angeles, California, that specializes in criminal cases. Headstrong, rebellious, and quirky, shunning court appearances because he dislikes wearing a tie and usually ignoring established legal and police procedures, Eddie tends to rush off and play detective when one of the firm's clients is indicted, seeking evidence with which to exonerate the client – sometimes to the consternation of his colleagues – before the case ever reaches court. Lacey Brown is his secretary, personal friend, and sometime girlfriend, and Jennie is her precocious daughter. Harvey Winchell, an investigator for the firm, is Eddie's enthusiastic young assistant, and J. J. Devlin, an irascible senior partner in the firm, is Eddie's boss.[1][2][3][4][5]
Each episode is constructed in the "classic style" of a detective show, opening with a graphic depiction of a puzzling murder and then following Eddie as he interviews witnesses and other people who might not be telling the truth and uncovers clues missed by the authorities one-by-one until they lead to the killer. In the episode's climax, Eddie usually gathers all the suspects in one room – often a courtroom – and uses deductive reasoning to explain which one of them is guilty.[2][5]
The series employs a gimmick in which viewers – who receive no more or less information than Eddie – are challenged to identify the murderer before Eddie does.[6]
Some scripts used in The Eddie Capra Mysteries were adapted from scripts intended for the cancelled 1975–76 NBC series Ellery Queen.[4]
Broadcast history
Premiering on September 8, 1978 with a two-hour pilot episode,[4]The Eddie Capra Mysteries aired on NBC on Fridays at 10:00 p.m. throughout the rest of its run. Its last original episode aired on January 12, 1979. During the summer of 1979, NBC broadcast reruns of the show in its 10:00 p.m. Friday time slot from June to September.[1][2]
Reruns of The Eddie Capra Mysteries returned to the air in prime time in the summer of 1990, when CBS broadcast episodes of the show at 9:00 p.m. on Thursdays from July 26 to August 30 as a temporary replacement for Wiseguy.[1][2][5]
In the United Kingdom, the series aired on BBC One in 1980.
Episodes
Nº
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
0
"Nightmare at Pendragon Castle"
James Frawley
Peter S. Fischer
September 8, 1978 (1978-09-08)
The two-hour pilot for the series. After the wealthy, powerful, arrogant, obnoxious, and sadistic publisher Charles Pendragon (Robert Vaughn) is killed at his mansion, an actress named Daniella (Janet Margolin) is arrested for his murder. Eddie investigates and finds that Pendragon's associates feared and hated him; he develops a list of suspects made up of Pendragon's dinner guests, all of whom have reasons—past scandals or mistreatment at his hands—to want him dead.Lois Nettleton, Robert J. Hogan, John Considine, Stella Stevens, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Robert Walker, Jr., and George Hamilton also guest-star.[8]
1
"Where There's Smoke"
Ron Satlof
Peter S. Fischer
September 22, 1978 (1978-09-22)
Eddie volunteers to help clear an equivocating young woman of murder charges resulting from an arson investigation.Patti D'Arbanville, Robin Mattson, Randy Powell, Zitto Kazann, and Wallace Rooney guest-star.[8]
2
"Murder, Murder"
Jim Benson
Peter Allan Fields (teleplay) & Ted Leighton
September 29, 1978 (1978-09-29)
3
"Murder on the Flip Side"
Nicholas Sgarro
Lee Sheldon
October 6, 1978 (1978-10-06)
A young secretary hears a recording-company executive call for help from his office and finds him dead, having both suffered a gunshot wound and taken a drink from a glass of poisoned liquor. She becomes the main witness in the executive's murder, but then comes under suspicion herself when the owner of the record label is found stabbed to death in her bathtub. Eddie sets out to prove her innocence, and his investigation reveals that she could not have killed the record-label owner because that murder occurred while the police were interviewing her; he also discovers that the two murder victims were involved in a feud over a crooked record deal.Vicki Lawrence, Dick Haymes, Mel Carter, Joanna Miles, Andrew Robinson, and Rick Springfield guest-star.[8][9]
While being arraigned in a Los Angeles courthouse for swindling various people out of over two million dollars, Warren Custer (Bobby Van) escapes custody and boards a cruise ship bound for Mexico, posing as a worker in the ship's engine room and planning to jump overboard and swim to a small boat piloted by a Mexican fortune hunter (Thom Christopher). Also aboard the ship are the United States Marshal he escaped from, many of his swindling victims, and Eddie and his girlfriend. Custer eventually spots the fortune hunter's boat and jumps overboard, but a couple aboard the ship sees him and reports a man overboard. Both the cruise ship and the fortune hunter attempt to rescue Custer; the fortune hunter's partner makes off in the small boat at the first sign of trouble and leaves him struggling in the water as well. After the cruise ship brings Custer and the fortune hunter aboard, Custer is found to have died of multiple stab wounds; it appears either that someone aboard the ship stabbed him just before he jumped or that the fortune hunter stabbed him in the water, and the ship's captain asks Eddie to find the killer. Meanwhile, the fortune hunter reveals that Custer had converted the stolen money to diamonds and had a key to a safety deposit box in Nicaragua, prompting Eddie and various other people on the ship, including multiple suspects in Custer's murder, to look for the key.James McEachin, Gloria DeHaven, Julie Gregg, Patricia Crowley, Guy Stockwell and Ron Masak also guest-star; Masak's appearance in the episode helped get him his long-running role of Sheriff Mort Metzger on Murder, She Wrote. Filmed mostly aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.[8][10]
^ abcdMcNeil, Alex, Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present, New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 250.
^ abcdeBrooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present, Sixth Edition, New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, ISBN0-345-39736-3, p. 306.
