Anonymous Batty insider says: "Burt has a proven track record with Batty voters, but is Dan August really prime Burt? More importantly, is it prime QM? That may be the key question because later this season, the guys did Streets of San Francisco, and the two shows may cancel each other out. I bet the guys saw more of this than many other programs they have covered, though, which might help. DA could score in the downballot acting categories, though, since the episode they discussed was so loaded with guest stats. I mean, Harrison Ford and Gary Busey didn't even make the opening credits!"
On one hand, we all love the image of Fell as Stanley Roper grinning at the camera. Let's try, difficult as it is, to remove that picture from our mind. If you take out the mugging Stanley from Fell's repertoire (not that I want to), is there any better combination of pitchman and product than he and Pepto?
*We hope you enjoy our look at Dan August as Summer comes to a close. If only we could have released The Kid with the Broken Halo (with June Allyson) in June.
*We talk about Dan August and Robert Pine not in a standalone Pick Your Pine but at the end of our Celebrity Bowling episode!
*Shout-out to Jonathan Martin's book Quinn Martin, Producer.
*Dan August aired for 26 episodes in the 1970-71 season on ABC Wednesdays at 10:00 PM, then Thursdays at 9:30. After Burt Reynolds became a big movie star, CBS showed reruns in its late night lineup in Summer 1973 and Summer 1975.
*World Vision International is the Christian aid agency. Worldvision Enterprises was the programming distributor that emerged from the FCC's Fin-Syn rules that blocked original owner ABC from syndicating its own programs. Aaron Spelling's company was involved with it, and then Spelling's company was absorbed into Viacom.
*The episode with Richard Basehart and John Ritter is #12, "Quadrangle of Death." Robert Pine appears in episode 21, "Bullet for a Hero." Ricardo Montalban is in the second episode, "The Murder of a Small Town."
*Dave Grusin did not win a Batty for the St. Elsewhere theme song, which lost to Henry Mancini's What's Happening!! for Outstanding Instrumental. Cheers won that season for Theme with Vocals (Season 6 Battys). Good Times did, however, win in the Season 4 Battys over Punky Brewster and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, giving Grusin his Batty.
*Grusin also created themes for The Name of the Game, It Takes a Thief, and more.
*Ena Hartman's lone role as a series regular is Dan August, but she is considered a trailblazer for her work in other TV series of the era. She is in the first Airport movie and stars in Terminal Island.
*Barney Phillips' coroner is named Mike Golden.
*"The Manufactured Man" premiered March 11, 1971, the 22nd episode of the series.
*Harrison Ford was 28 when this episode aired. Billy Dee Williams was 33. David Soul was 27, Mickey Rooney was 50.
*Keith Andes (Lawrence Merrill II) was the lead in This Man Dawson (1959) and NBC soap Paradise Bay (1965).
*Harry Harris of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who we quote on the podcast, wrote his own obituary, and you can see it here.
*Hawk is Burt's 1966 ABC series. Reynolds is an Iroquois NYC police detective.
After 12 seasons, we finally talk about a Quinn Martin Production--Dan August! Before Burt Reynolds was BURT REYNOLDS, he starred as the titular homicide detective Dan August for one season alongside Norman Fell, Richard Anderson, and in this episode a galaxy of guest stars. A murder of a young woman leads Dan into the dark alleys of California politics, where he encounters a scoundrel, an old smoothie, and a sparkplug political operative. If you're lucky, he might make a leaping tackle or three!
