James Whitmore is lawyer Abraham Lincoln Jones who specializes in mostly white collar crime. Conlan Carter is his paralegal C.E.Carruthers and Janet De Gore is his secretary Marsha Spear. The show was cancelled after the first season but a flood of letters made the network bring it back for one more run. I wasn’t a fan since there were too many righteous moments where people changed their minds and character because they just wanted to do what was right. Too much treacle. The name Abraham Lincoln Jones is beyond lame.
March 24,1961 episode: “A Very Special Citizen” with Vic Morrow, Simon Oakland and Herb Vigran – Dr.Bigelow (Vic Morrow) has just opened up his practice as a country GP. He gets a summons that he’s being sued for a hundred thousand dollars. One night he spotted a teenager who got hurt while changing a tire. The jack landed on his arm. Bigelow put it in a sling and gave him instructions about what to do when he got home and drove off.
Bigelow goes to see Mr.Jones who agrees to take the case. Bigelow doesn’t have any malpractice insurance. He says he had to spend the money on medical equipment so he could get started.
Jones says the lawyer for Mr.Reiman (Herb Vigran) and his son Chris will be the slick Marek (Simon Oakland). Reiman says Chris was a top pitcher in high school and could have been a major leaguer. He blames Bigelow for ignoring Chris’s injury and his arm stiffened up. No more baseball. Marek says he’ll settle for twenty grand. It’s either that or court. Bigelow decides to fight it out.
At the trial both lawyers are in attack mode, especially Marek leading to lots of sustained objections from Jones. The verdict is in. Bigelow will have to pony up seven thousand dollars. Reiman can’t believe the low amount.
Bigelow freaks out and says he’s going to open a practice in the city where he can charge high fees. That leads to a righteous confrontation with C.E. about principal etc. The whole scene reeks of manipulation of the audience.
Bifelow goes through some aw shucks moments and Jones will handle the appeal of the verdict.
Over the shows run it featured a lot of big name guest stars. Peter Falk was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in “Cold Turkey.”
Vic Morrow and Conlan Carter both appeared on “Combat!”. Morrow was Sgt.Saunders and Carter played Doc. (1963-67).
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