Sam Valenti Jr. (aka “The Ferret”)

Created by Blake Edwards
Pseudonyms include Sam O. Brown
(1922-2010)

In this comedy, Robert Loggia played legendary anti-terrorist UN Special Agent SAM “THE FERRET” VALENTI, whose disappearance sets off an global crime wave.

It falls to his son SAM VALENTI JR. (Steve Guttenberg), a bumbling, accident-prone jazz musician and amateur inventor (and possibly a part-time private eye), operating under his father’s old codename, to track down his father and save the world.

As one does…

This was intended at first as a big screen comedy, a sort of Pink Panther spin-off, with Junior to be played by Dudley Moore as a sort of Inspector Clouseau knock-off (Peter Sellers was iffy about playing Closeau yet again). When nobody went for it, Edwards  retooled the idea as an NBC movie-of-the-week (and a pilot for a possible series) starring Steve Guttenberg, with all references to the Pink Panther removed.

Except for the animated opening credits, which bore a striking similarity to the Panther films..

To no avail. The film was never made, the TV pilot never aired…

TELEVISION

• THE FERRET
  (1984, NBC)
  Unaired
  60 minutes
  Story and teleplay by Blake Edwards, Maurice Richlin and Stanley Shapiro
  Teleplay by Tom Waldman and Frank Waldman
  Directed by Terry Marcel
  Starring Steve Guttenberg as SAM VALENTI JR.
  and Robert Loggia as SAM VALENTI
  Also starring Sandahl Bergman, Jennifer Edwards, Brian Dennehy, Clive Revill, Penny Santon
  and Sam Wanamaker as The President

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Blake Edwards’ Private Eyes
  And other miscreants…

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.