''Mobile One'' is an American television series that aired on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

network from September 12,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

to January 5,

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phil ...

. The show was a production of

Jack Webb John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, who is most famous for his role as Sgt. Joe Friday in the ''Dragnet'' franchise, which he created. He was a ...

Mark VII Limited Mark VII Limited was the production company of actor and filmmaker Jack Webb, and was active from 1951 to his death in 1982. Many of its series were produced in association with Universal Television; most of them aired on the NBC television networ ...

for

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predec ...

. It was the only Mark VII Limited show to air on ABC.

Premise

Unlike most of Mark VII's other productions, ''Mobile One'' was not based on the real-life exploits of a police force or any other governmental agency. The show was set instead in a local television station's

electronic news gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape technol ...

operation, which at the time was a very new technology.

Jackie Cooper John Cooper Jr. (September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011) was an American actor, television director, producer, and executive, known universally as Jackie Cooper. He was a child actor who made the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first ...

starred as on-screen reporter Peter Campbell;

Julie Gregg Julie Gregg (born Beverly Scalzo; January 24, 1937 – November 7, 2016) was an American television, film and stage actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Sandra Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972). Also notably, she was nominated f ...

played Maggie Spencer, Campbell's producer; and Mark Wheeler played camera operator Doug McKnight. Much of the show was spent covering Campbell and McKnight's travels to the scenes of crimes, accidents, and other newsworthy events in a mobile unit car, thereby resembling Mark VII's ''

Emergency! ''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama A medical drama is a television show or film in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. Most recent medical drama (film and television) ...

'' (which concurrently aired on

NBC 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 ...

) in an emphasis upon action and adventure.

Episodes

Production notes

The show was produced by

William Bowers William Bowers (January 17, 1916 – March 27, 1987) was an American reporter, playwright, and screenwriter. He worked as a reporter in Long Beach, California and for ''Life'' magazine, and specialized in writing comedy-westerns. He also turn ...

and created by James M. Miller; Cooper also directed at least one episode. ABC initially scheduled the show on Friday nights against NBC's ''

Sanford and Son ''Sanford and Son'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977. It was based on the British sitcom ''Steptoe and Son'', which initially aired on BBC One in the Unite ...

'' and ''

Chico and the Man ''Chico and the Man'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC for four seasons from September 13, 1974, to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown (the Man), the cantankerous owner of a run-down garage in an East Los ...

'' and CBS' ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker (auth ...

;'' it moved to Monday nights starting on October 27, 1975. Ratings were poor and the network cancelled the series after only thirteen episodes. The 90-minute pilot film for the series, ''Mobile Two'', aired on ABC on September 2, 1975.

References

* ''Total Television: A Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present,'' Alex McNeil, New York:

Penguin Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

, revised ed., 1984.

External links

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InBaseline
{{Jack Webb/Mark VII Limited American Broadcasting Company original programming 1975 American television series debuts 1976 American television series endings 1970s American television series Television series by Mark VII Limited Television series by Universal Television Television series about journalism English-language television shows Television shows set in Philadelphia