McCloud (TV series)

McCloud
The show's title card.
Genre	Crime drama
Created by	Herman Miller
Starring	Dennis Weaver J. D. Cannon Terry Carter Ken Lynch
Composer(s)	David Shire Stu Phillips Frank De Vol
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	46 (+1 TV movie) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Glen A. Larson Leslie Stevens
Cinematography	John M. Stephens Ben Colman Sol Negrin
Running time	120 min. (20 episodes) 90 min. (19 episodes) 60 min. (6 episodes)
Distributor	Universal Television
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 16, 1970 – April 17, 1977

McCloud is an American television police drama that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1977. The title role was played by Dennis Weaver as Marshal Sam McCloud, a law officer from Taos, New Mexico on semi-permanent "special assignment" with the New York City Police Department.

History

The first choice for the role of McCloud was Fess Parker who turned it down.^[1] Universal hired the highly experienced Dennis Weaver. The pilot, "Portrait of a Dead Girl", aired on February 17, 1970, and established the premise by having McCloud escort a prisoner from New Mexico to New York City, only to become embroiled in solving a complicated murder case.

This premise of "a cowboy in the big city" was more or less adapted from the 1968 Don Siegel film Coogan's Bluff, starring Clint Eastwood. Herman Miller was responsible for the story of Coogan's Bluff and co-wrote the screenplay with Dean Riesner and Howard Rodman (indeed, Miller is credited as the creator of McCloud). Coogan's Bluff reflects Richard Thorpe's 1942 film Tarzan's New York Adventure and the latter-day career of Bat Masterson. (Siegel himself appears in the "Return to the Alamo" episode as "2nd Desk Sergeant".) Like Coogan, McCloud galloped the length and breadth of Manhattan (he was joined by a mounted unit in "The 42nd Street Cavalry"), and the sight of McCloud on horseback riding down the middle of a busy street (taken from an early episode) became one of the series' iconic images.

NBC renewed the show for six 60-minute episodes in the fall of 1970, placing it in the rotation of its "wheel format" series Four in One, along with Night Gallery, San Francisco International Airport, and The Psychiatrist.

In the fall of 1971, NBC placed McCloud, along with two other new series, McMillan & Wife and Columbo, in the rotation of a new drama NBC Mystery Movie which aired on Wednesday night from 8:30–10:00. The running time of each episode was increased to 90 minutes. The umbrella series was a success, finishing at number 14 for Nielsen ratings for the 1971–72 series. The following season, NBC moved McCloud and the other two shows of Mystery Movie to the competitive 8:30–10:00 Sunday night position and added a fourth series, Hec Ramsey to the rotation as the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. The rotating series was an enormous success and finished at number 5 in the ratings for the season.^[2]

Starting in the fifth season in the fall of 1974, the episodes were two hours long, but were dropped again to 90 minutes for the seventh and final season starting in the fall of 1976. The 46th and last episode, "McCloud Meets Dracula", was aired on April 17, 1977.

Dennis Weaver received Emmy nominations in 1974 and 1975 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series.

The executive producer was Glen A. Larson, who also wrote for the series (as did Peter Allan Fields, Lou Shaw, Jimmy Sangster, and others). Larson won an Edgar Award for "The New Mexican Connection".

Since leaving the air in 1977, the show has played regularly and often in syndication. In 1989, Weaver reprised the role in a made-for-television movie, The Return of Sam McCloud, in which his character was now a United States Senator. It first aired on November 12, 1989. Diana Muldaur, fresh from Season Two of Star Trek: The Next Generation, returned to reprise her role as McCloud's love interest, Chris Coughlin.

Recurring themes and characters

The westerner in New York City

The most enduring theme of the show was the conflict between the good-natured, clear-eyed buoyancy of McCloud and the metropolitan cynicism of the residents of New York City, including his fellow officers. McCloud's attire, typically consisting of a sheepskin coat or Western jacket, bolo tie and cowboy hat, allowed for implied comic relief in many encounters with New Yorkers. That New Yorkers might mistake him for a naïf because of his appearance occasionally worked to his advantage. He would often allay suspicion of his motives by insisting he was in New York "to observe and learn".

The signature of McCloud's character was his Western unflappability and seeming inability to recognize an insult, especially from Clifford, whose jibes ("send in the sagebrush Sherlock Holmes") he never would take personally. Weaver's grin and drawling twang represented McCloud as the embodiment of the American law officer who always sees the good in people but knows the real stakes and spares no pain to catch the bad guy. The character's signature catchphrase was "There ya go!", often received with bemusement or puzzlement by the listener. (One exception was a character played by John Denver; at the end of the show they traded catchphrases, Denver responding "There ya go!" to McCloud's "Far out!")

Antagonism with Chief Clifford

Another recurring theme in the show was the conflict between McCloud and his superior, NYPD Chief of Detectives Peter B. Clifford, played in every episode but the pilot by J. D. Cannon. In the first episodes, their relationship was portrayed as somewhat amiable, with Clifford showing a wary respect for the unconventional Westerner assigned to his command. The relationship quickly soured based mostly on McCloud's seeming disregard of authority combined with a charm that let him escape many of the consequences of his "cowboy-like" determination. Clifford's attitude to McCloud became one of cynical antagonism, bordering at times on extreme rage, but usually tempered with a grudging respect for McCloud's ability to solve the most difficult of cases.

Friendship with Sgt. Broadhurst

In many episodes, McCloud was partnered with Sgt. Joe Broadhurst, played by Terry Carter. Broadhurst, a New Yorker, was portrayed with a certain existential pessimism to counter McCloud's high spirits. Like Chief Clifford, Broadhurst felt himself wise to McCloud's peculiarities, but was without the anger, and usually wound up resigned to being drawn into McCloud's schemes to solve particular cases, sometimes against direct orders. He would then sometimes play the role of voluntary lightning rod for Clifford's anger, and absorb as much of the blame for McCloud's initiative as McCloud himself. (Broadhurst served as acting Chief of Detectives three times during Clifford's absence, in "This Must Be the Alamo", "Return to the Alamo" and "'Twas the Fight Before Christmas...".)

Other characters

Other recurring characters on the show included the gravel-voiced Sgt. Grover, played by Ken Lynch, who seemed to be forever at his desk in the squad room. The ever-smiling but somewhat batty Sgt. Phyllis Norton was played by Teri Garr.

Love interests

McCloud was portrayed as something of a ladies' man, and the characters played by the frequent female guest stars would often fall for his protective charm. He was also given a recurring love interest, the tough-spoken but soft-hearted Chris Coughlin, played by frequent guest star Diana Muldaur, whose duties as newspaper writer ("never a reporter") sometimes came into conflict with McCloud's police work.

Portrayal of New York City in the 1970s

The show, which was in some senses a big city Western, was set in New York City during what was arguably the nadir of the city's existence in the late 20th century, a period following the troubled 1960s and leading up to the fiscal crisis of 1975 (which figured in "The Day New York Turned Blue", for example).

At the time, the city seemed to be on an inexorable downward slide into chaos, a theme that was explored in a more brutal fashion in William Friedkin's film The French Connection which was released the year after the pilot of McCloud. In some episodes (such as "Walk in the Dark") the city was portrayed as particularly crime-ridden, with the danger of muggings and bodily harm at every turn. Such lurking evil was often more in the dialogue than the pictures, however, and the show retained a somewhat whimsical and sunny flavor despite the subject matter.

McCloud was filmed partially on location (the unit was in New York for "A Little Plot at Tranquil Valley" notably, and traveled to Hawaii for "A Cowboy in Paradise", to Mexico City and Teotihuacán for "Lady on the Run", and to Sydney for "Night of the Shark" — second-unit footage came from London, Paris, Monaco, Rome, and Moscow at various times), but utilized the Universal back lot for many scenes.

A recurring theme in many episodes was the incorporation of a plot device from Hollywood cinema, particularly at the climax of an episode. Examples included chases on horseback to lasso cattle rustlers ("The Colorado Cattle Caper"), a 1930s-style gangster shoot-out (the film-within-a-film shot on location in "The Gang That Stole Manhattan,"), a Jesse James-style train hold-up on the Long Island Rail Road ("Butch Cassidy Rides Again"), and a showdown with a vampire on the Third Street Bridge ("McCloud Meets Dracula").

Revival plans

In 2003, USA Network announced plans for a new McCloud series. The new series was to be a "reimagining" of the Weaver original, with the character changed to a woman and played by comedienne Brett Butler. The series was not produced, though USA did launch a short-lived reimagined version of Kojak starring Ving Rhames that year.

Episodes

Main article: List of McCloud episodes

DVD releases

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released Seasons 1 & 2 of McCloud on DVD in Region 1 and Region 2 in 2005/2006. It is unknown if the remaining seasons will be released at some point

In Region 4, Madman Entertainment has released the first five seasons on DVD in Australia. Season 5 was released on October 19, 2011.^[3]

DVD Name	Ep#	Release dates
		Region 1	Region 4
Seasons One & Two	11	August 9, 2005	April 19, 2010 (Season 1)[4] September 13, 2010 (Season 2)[5]
The Complete Third Season	5	TBA	March 16, 2011[6]
The Complete Fourth Season	5	TBA	July 20, 2011[7]
The Complete Fifth Season	9	TBA	October 19, 2011

In popular culture

McCloud became the basis for a recurring joke on the movie-mocking TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000: whenever one character in the featured movie would call out to someone else, host characters Joel Robinson, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot would chime in by calling out to other unrelated fictional characters such as Mr. Drysdale and "Mr. Eddie's father". Invariably, these exchanges ended with Servo calling "Chief?" and Crow responding with "McCloud!" The gag was most prominently featured in episode 303, "Pod People".^[8]

On an episode of The Simpsons, "The Lastest Gun in the West", Weaver guest-stars as an old-time cowboy star named Buck McCoy, who in the '70s had starred on a detective show called "McTrigger", about which McCoy admits, "Seems all I did was shoot hippies." A clip showed McTrigger driving through New York in a convertible shooting at random members of the hippie crowd that covered the sidewalks. McCoy mentions the show was retooled after his character was written out to become Room 222.

References

1. ^ http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Parker/interview_fess_parker.htm
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/15043/mccloud-the-complete-fifth-season-5-dvd-set
4. ^ http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/13232/mccloud-the-complete-first-season
5. ^ http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/13233/mccloud-the-complete-second-season-3-dvd-set
6. ^ http://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/14553/mccloud-the-complete-third-season-3-dvd-set
7. ^ http://www.madman.com.au/series/home/16333/mccloud-the-complete-fourth-season-3-dvd-set
8. ^ Satellite News - Ward E - List303a

External links

• McCloud at the Internet Movie Database
• McCloud: Who Killed Miss U.S.A.? at the Internet Movie Database
• McCloud at TV.com
• McCloud titles and air dates
• Episode Guide
• McCloud crew guide
• Museum of Broadcast Communication: NBC Mystery Movie