Sam Benedict
Format	Legal drama
Created by	E. Jack Neumann
Starring	Edmond O'Brien Richard Rust Joan Tompkins
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	28
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	Black and white
Original run	September 15, 1962 – March 30, 1963

Sam Benedict is a legal drama from MGM Television, starring a 47-year-old Edmond O'Brien, which ran on NBC during the 1962–1963 television season. O'Brien played the experienced, flamboyant San Francisco attorney Sam Benedict. Richard Rust portrayed his 24-year-old understudy, Hank Tabor. The series was modeled on the career of famous defense lawyer and author Jake Ehrlich, who served as a technical consultant to the program. Producer/writer Gene Roddenberry, subsequently of Star Trek, had previously failed in his effort to turn Ehrlich's life into a series called 333 Montgomery Street, with DeForest Kelley as "Jake Brittin".^[1]

Just prior to Sam Benedict, O'Brien had starred earlier in a detective series Johnny Midnight and had completed supporting roles in the films The Longest Day, appearing as General Raymond O. Barton in the story of D-Day, and cast as the narrator, Tom Gaddis, in Birdman of Alcatraz with Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, and Telly Savalas.^[2]

E. Jack Neumann was the creator and executive producer of Sam Benedict. Previously, Neumann worked with William Holden in The Blue Knight. Directors included Richard Donner, Paul Henreid, and Ida Lupino (who also appeared as a guest star). Lupino had previously directed Edmond O'Brien in The Bigamist (in which she was also his co-star) and The Hitchhiker.^[1]

Robert Lansing appeared in one episode as a nonconformist high school English teacher, dismissed because he assigns his students to read a banned book. This was a pilot for a series, but NBC instead chose not Lansing but 29-year-old James Franciscus as Mr. Novak, for which Neumann was also the executive producer.^[1]

Joan Tompkins co-starred in all episodes as Trudy Wagner.^[3] Guest stars on the series included Inger Stevens, Vera Miles, Elizabeth Ashley, Diana Hyland, Ruth Roman, Hazel Court, Elizabeth MacRae, Howard Duff, Gary Merrill, Claude Rains, Brian Keith, and Michael Parks, and Barbara Stuart. Nancy Kelly, who had once been briefly married to Edmond O'Brien, also guest starred. Joseph Schildkraut received a best actor Emmy Award nomination for his guest role.^[1]

Real-life lawyer Ehrlich was known for his colorful, famous clients, and segments of the TV series were mostly character studies of Sam Benedict's clients. There was relatively little deep mystery, and there was also little treatment of the kind of social issues mastered in CBS's The Defenders starring E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed. (Ehrlich later complained in his autobiography that the early viewing hour for the show limited its ability to tackle controversy.) Most episodes followed two story lines: first Benedict's case and then Tabor's. This format was later adapted on NBC's popular LA Law. A year after Sam Benedict, O'Brien was nominated for an Academy Award for John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May. O'Brien played an alcoholic U.S. senator who attempts to halt a coup against the U.S. President, portrayed by Fredric March.^[1]

Rebroadcasts of the series continued from April to September 7, 1963. Nelson Riddle composed the music for the series.^[4]

Two years after this series ended, O'Brien returned to NBC in 1965 as Will Varner in The Long Hot Summer with co-stars Roy Thinnes and Nancy Malone. After thirteen episodes, O'Brien was replaced in that role by Dan O'Herlihy for the remaining dozen segments.^[5]

Sam Benedict faced competition from was two variety programs: The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show on ABC (which was axed even before Sam Benedict) and the first season of The Jackie Gleason Show on CBS. In the 1963-1964 season, Sam Benedict was replaced at the 7:30 Eastern time slot on Saturdays by another MGM series about a trainee and his mentor: The Lieutenant starring 26-year-old Gary Lockwood and Robert Vaughn, then only thirty.^[6]

Producer Paul Monash (Peyton Place) produced a near remake of Sam Benedict from 1967-1969 in the ABC series Judd, for the Defense, starring Carl Betz in the role of Benedict and Stephen Young as another Tabor.^[7]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sam Benedict at the Internet Movie Database