Tightrope (TV series)

Tightrope
Genre	Crime drama
Created by	Clarence Greene Russell Rouse
Written by	Frederick Brady Berne Giler Clarence Greene Steven Ritch Russell Rouse Al C. Ward
Directed by	Abner Biberman Irving J. Moore Russell Rouse Oscar Rudolph
Starring	Mike Connors
Theme music composer	George Duning
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	37
Production
Producer(s)	Clarence Greene Russell Rouse
Cinematography	Scotty Welbourne
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company(s)	Greene-Rouse Productions Screen Gems
Distributor	Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (2001) Sony Pictures Television
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	September 8, 1959 (1959-09-08) – September 13, 1960 (1960-09-13)

Tightrope is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 1959 to September 1960. Produced by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene in association with Screen Gems, the series stars Mike Connors as an undercover agent named "Nick" who was assigned to infiltrate criminal gangs. The show was to have originally been titled Undercover Man but it was changed before going to air.^[1]

Synopsis

Mike Connors' character would narrate the episode, echoing film noir technique. Police often did not know that Nick was working for the law, thus he was in danger from both the good guys and the bad guys. A special gimmick was that in addition to a gun in a shoulder holster, he carried a second gun snubnosed revolver in a holster behind his back; he was often searched by both cops and bad guys, but they stopped searching after finding the first gun.

Guest stars included Jack Albertson, Raymond Bailey, Barbara Bain, Whit Bissell, Madge Blake, Whitney Blake, Neville Brand, Paul Burke, Jean Byron, Anthony Caruso, Mary Castle, Russ Conway, Ellen Corby, Jerome Cowan, Walter Coy, Dennis Cross, Donna Douglas, Jack Elam, Ross Elliott, Douglas Fowley, Bruce Gordon, Dabbs Greer, Ron Hagerthy, Myron Healey, Connie Hines, Richard Jaeckel, L.Q. Jones, John Larch, Ruta Lee, Barton MacLane, John Marley, Ed Nelson, Simon Oakland, John M. Pickard, Mike Road, Madlyn Rhue, Doris Singleton, Olan Soule, Karl Swenson, George Tobias, and Jesse White.

Cancellation

Despite the show's popularity, it was canceled after one season. Mike Connors stated in an interview that the show's sponsor refused the network's request to move it to a later time slot on a different day. When CBS head Jim Audrey stated the show was going to move; take it or leave it, the sponsor dropped Tightrope, and underwrote another program on another network. Connors also did not want suggested changes to the show to turn into an hour format with a sidekick. He thought such an alteration would eliminate the suspense element of the program.^[2]

References

1. ^ "Tightrope!". Broadcasting (Cahners Pub. Co.) 56: 71. 1959. http://books.google.com/books?id=gS8oAAAAMAAJ&q=%22undercover+man%22+mike+connors&dq=%22undercover+man%22+mike+connors&hl=en&ei=jD0gTNzBBYLknAfgwoR5&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ. 
2. ^ pp. 29-30 Weaver, Tom Mike Connors Interview in Eye on Science Fiction, 2003, McFarland

External links

• Tightrope at the Internet Movie Database
• Tightrope at TV.com
• Tightrope at epguides.com