Wade Griffin (Griff)

Created by Larry Cohen

The Voice of Doom” as a P.I.?

Pa Cartwright as a shamus?

Canada’s own Lorne Greene (why do you think they call it a “Greene Card”?) played WADE “GRIFF” GRIFFIN, a veteran LAPD captain who resigned from the force after thirty years of service over a matter of principle, but stormed right back into the game less than a year after the long-running Bonanza has moseyed off into the sunset. The sure-fire premise? After witnessing his private eye son’s murder and his grandson’s kidnapping. Griff decides to become a private eye himself. At least, that’s how the pilot for this short-lived TV series played out.

The ensuing series, Griff (1973-74, ABC), takes place long after the killing and kidnapping have occurred, and featured Griff running his newly-opened Wade Griffin Investigations, aided by his young partner, Mike Murdoch, and their faithful secretary Gracie. Wade made his home in the “swinging, youth-oriented Westwood section of Los Angeles.”

Yeah, because in network-think, when you think of swinging youth, the first name you think of is… Lorne Greene?

But hey, in the early seventies, a ham sandwich could get its own show if it was a private eye.

It wasn’t that Griff was necessarily “bad” so much as it was not very different than other, too similar and often much better shows at the time.

Curiously, the pilot that set everything up never even aired until a year and a half after the series had sputtered and died. Adding insult to injury, one of the few available examples of this show is a bashed-together made-for-TV flick, Death Follows a Psycho, released for syndication that slapped together two unconnected episodes.

FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

• “It’s nice to know something (Dellaventura) finally came along to knock off Lorne Greene’s Griff (1973) as the worst TV eye of all time, but it took more than twenty years!”
  — Ted Fitzgerald

TRIVIA

• Early in his career, Greene auditioned for an announcing job with Canada’s CBC and soon became one of the country’s most prominent  and trusted newscasters. But during the early years of World War II, when every night seemed to bring more bad news from the front, he earned the nickname “The Voice of Doom”.

TELEVISION

• GRIFF
  (1973-74, ABC)
  12 60-minute episodes
  Premiere: September 29, 1973
  Created by Larry Cohen
  Writers: Larry Cohen, Arnold Laven, Peter S. Fischer, Steven Bochco, Victor Laszlo, William Driskill, Lou Antonio, Robert Biheller, W. Dal Jenkins, Tim Maschler, Dick Nelson, Bill Svanoe, Kenneth Johnson, Dick Spanos
  Directors: Lewis Allen, Edward M. Abroms, Walter Doniger, Allen Baron, Kenneth Johnson, Arnold Laven, Robert Michael Lewis, Russ Mayberry, Lou Antonio
  Produced by David Victor, for Universal
  Starring Lorne Greene as WADE GRIFFIN
  with Ben Murphy as Mike Murdoch
  Patricia Stich as Gracie Newcombe
  and Vic Tayback as Captain Barney Marcus
  Also starring James Olson, Lee H. Montgomery, Lorraine Gary, Brooke Bundy, Ken Swofford, Scatman Crothers
  Guest stars: Sharon Dennis, Barbara Feldon, Jared Martin, Mark Miller, Pat Crowley, Robert Sampson, Scatman Crothers, Sal Mineo, Ricardo Montalban, Norman Fell, Robert Webber
  Robert Webber, Kim Hunter, Susan Howard, James McEachin, Pamela Hensley, Nick Nolte, Dabney Coleman, Philip Michael Thomas
  • SEASON ONE
  • “The Framing of Billy the Kid” (September 29, 1973)
  • “Death by Prescription” (October 6, 1973)
  • “All the Lonely People” (October 13, 1973)
  • “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” (October 20, 1973)
  • “Marked for Murder” October 27, 1973)
  • “The Last Ballad” Episode (November 10, 1973)
  • “Countdown to Terror” (November 17, 1973)
  • “Elephant in a Cage” (November 24, 1973)
  • “His Name Was Nancy” (December 8, 1973)
  • “Hammerlocke” (December 15, 1973)
  • “Isolate and Destroy” (December 22, 1973)
  • “Fugitive from Fear” (January 5, 1974)
• MAN ON THE OUTSIDE
  (1975, ABC)
  Pilot (for the already-cancelled series)
  First aired June 29, 1975
  Teleplay by Larry Cohen
  Directed by Boris Sagal
  Produced by George Eckstein
  Executive Producer: David Victor, for Universal
  Starring Lorne Greene as WADE GRIFFIN
  Also starring James Olson, Lee H. Montgomery, Lorraine Gary, Brooke Bundy, Ken Swofford, Scatman Crothers
• DEATH FOLLOWS A PSYCHO | Buy the DVD | Watch it now
  (1975, syndicated)
  Made-for-TV movie
  Premiere: January 1, 1972
  Writers: Arnold Laven, Peter S. Fischer, Steven Bochco, Victor Laszlo
  Directors:  Richard Bennett, Arnold Laven
  STARRING LORNE GREENE as Wade Griffin
  Also starring Ricardo Montalban, Vic Tayback, Ben Murphy, Patricia Stich
  Not really a made-for-TV movie, but a cobbled together, clunky mash-up of two previously aired episodes,”Countdown to Terror” (November 17, 1973) and “Elephant in a Cage” (November 24, 1973) for the syndication market.

NOVELIZATIONS

• Griff (1973, by Robert Weverka) | Buy this book
  An adaptation (Weverka isn’t very fond of the word novelization) of the pilot.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• The Casting Ouch!
  Unlikely Private Eyes (No, Really…)
• The Casting Couch
  Suggested Casting Choices from the Peanut Gallery

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.  Thanks for the nudge.