''McCoy'' is an American

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

series that starred

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor whose career spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s (Kansas Raiders, 1950) and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 f ...

and aired on

NBC-TV The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

during the 1975–1976 season.

Synopsis

The series stars

as a con man who, along with a team of friends, "out-cons" bad guys in order to steal back their ill-gotten gains and return the loot to its rightful owners. The schemes were elaborate and laced with satirical humor. The series bears resemblances to the then-recent film ''

The Sting ''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw).''Variety'' film review; December 12, 1973, page ...

'', as well as to the contemporary series ''

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

'' and the British literary character

Simon Templar ''The Saint'' is the nickname of the fictional character Simon Templar, featured in a series of novels and short stories by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books unt ...

. Co-starring with Curtis was

Roscoe Lee Browne Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and director. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's ...

as a nightclub comedian.

Episodes

Production and reception

The series was produced in the format of two-hour telefilms, that were broadcast as part of the '' NBC Sunday Mystery Movie'' as one of several rotating series that would air once a month. Other series involved in the Universal Television franchise package were ''

Columbo ''Columbo'' () is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC f ...

'', '' McCloud'', and ''

McMillan & Wife ''McMillan & Wife'' (known simply as ''McMillan'' from 1976–77) is an American police procedural television series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the ...

''. However, ''McCoy'' failed to garner the same ratings as its fellow programs and was cancelled after an initial 90-minute pilot TV movie ("The Big Ripoff") and four two-hour episodes were broadcast. A novelization of the pilot, written by Linda Stewart as "Sam Stewart", titled for the series, was published by

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

in 1976, and reprinted as ''McCoy: The Big Rip-Off'', under W.H. Allen's Star imprint in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

External links

* * 1970s American comedy-drama television series 1975 American television series debuts 1976 American television series endings English-language television shows NBC Mystery Movie NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television {{US-drama-tv-prog-stub

Synopsis

Episodes

Production and reception

See also

External links