Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American dramatized court show that ran during the 1963-64 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern.
The majority of episodes consisted of two segments. Set in Los Angeles, the first part ("The Arrest") followed Detective Sergeants Nick Anderson (Ben Gazzara) and Dan Kirby (Roger Perry) of the LAPD as they tracked down and captured a criminal. The apprehended suspect was then defended in the second part ("The Trial") by criminal attorney John Egan (Chuck Connors), who was often up against Deputy District Attorney Jerry Miller (John Larch) and his assistant, Barry Pine (John Kerr, who later became an actual lawyer).
Gazzara agreed to play the role of Anderson only after extracting a promise from the producer that scripts would avoid stereotypical depictions of police officers.
In a 1963 TV Guide interview, Gazzara described his portrayal of Anderson: "I'm supposed to be a thinking man's cop. I'm a serious student of human behavior, more concerned with what creates the criminal than how to punish him. In other words, I'm not the kind of cop who asks, 'Where were you the night of April 13th?' It's my job to show that there is room for passion and intellectualism and personal display even within a policeman."
Guest stars on the series included Francis De Sales, Peter Fonda, Billy Gray, Joey Heatherton, Charlene Holt, Kim Hunter, Dayton Lummis, James MacArthur, Roddy McDowall, Michael Parks, Mickey Rooney, William Shatner, Everett Sloane, Barbara Stuart and Beverly Washburn.
Arrest and Trial debuted on September 15, 1963. Its last telecast was on September 6, 1964. On Friday, April 24, 1964, it became the first American import to be broadcast on the UK's BBC2.
Read more about Arrest And Trial: DVD Release
Famous quotes containing the words arrest and/or trial:
“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“A trial cannot be conducted by announcing the general culpability of a civilization. Only the actual deeds which, at least, stank in the nostrils of the entire world were brought to judgment.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)