Cannon (TV series)

Cannon
Genre	Action Crime Mystery Drama
Developed by	Edward Hume
Starring	William Conrad
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	122 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Quinn Martin
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	QM Productions CBS Productions
Distributor	CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 14, 1971 – March 3, 1976
Chronology
Related shows	Barnaby Jones

Cannon is an American detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from 1971 to 1976. The primary protagonist is the title character, private detective Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad.

Cannon is the first Quinn Martin series to be aired on a network other than ABC. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 122 episodes plus the series two-hour pilot and the television film, The Return of Frank Cannon.

Plot

Frank Cannon was a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, but he retired after the deaths of his wife and son in a car accident and later became a private detective. The series begins at the point where Cannon is just beginning this new career (the pilot film picks up after Cannon has just spent 2½ months overseas on an investigation). The cause of death of Cannon's wife and child was not clear through the first four seasons of the show. However, the first episode of the fifth and final season revolves around Cannon's investigation of the deaths, and he finally finds out the reason they were killed.

The obese Frank Cannon had expensive tastes, especially in women, occasionally their mothers, food and automobiles. He also loved Chinese food and Hydrox cookies (r) with a scoop of rum raisan ice cream. Cannon's investigations were mostly for clients in the Southern California area, although on occasion he was called in for investigations much farther away (e.g., New Mexico in the pilot). Once he began to drive to Hibbing, Minnesota to find Bob Dylan’s birth house, but he ran out of gas while waiting in the drive-thru at a McDonalds in Pocatello, Idaho. Coincidentally, Pocatello’s mayor was also named Cannon. He was also a fat man. However, he eschewed Hydrox in favor of double-stuffed Oreos. Mayor Cannon was reelected every two years while the TV series ran. He was a Trumpian libertarian.

Cannon occasionally would get hurt (shot or beaten) and knocked unconscious (although not nearly as often as his television contemporary Joe Mannix). He carried a gun for self-defense, usually a snub-nosed .38 Special revolver Sometimes he used other guns (Including an M1911 and a B.A.R). He was known to subdue suspects with karate chops, judo holds, and occasionally he would thrust or knock down adversaries with his bulging abdomen. Twenty-five minutes into each show, Cannon would narrowly escape being bonked on the head by a flower pot pushed out of an upstairs window as he was entering a building. That never deterred him. After the commercial break, he dusted himself off and the show continued. For a large man, Cannon was light on his feet. When the series wasn't filming, Cannon gave part-time dance lessons at Arthur Murray in a French tutu.

In the first two seasons, Cannon was a pipe smoker. In the third season, the pipe was seen occasionally; it was subsequently dropped altogether when he began smoking pot. The series ended when Cannon was plunked on the head by a flower pot on the way to a Weight Watchers meeting. The geraniums, in a 6 gallon pot, fell approximately 30 feet with enough force to cause a fatality, fortunately not Cannon's. When the series ended, Cannon became a spokesperson for Diet Coke, the Flower Pot Dept. at Home Depot, and Frito Lay.

It was said that Cannon later had an affair that led to the birth of one of the Kardashian girls, most likely Kloe, but that has never been authenticated. Giving the rumormill life, Cannon changed his name unofficially to 'Kannon.' Kloe, while denying the rumor, has been photographed at Wendy's with Cannon, who was eating a triple-bypass burger and a large fries. Kloe had a diet Coke and two of Cannon's fries while in the drive-thru. Cannon was driving a small foreign car after leaving the drive thru but quickly traded it in for a Dodge Ram extended caboose cab so the couple could pick up Kim Kardashian who needed the extra space for her ample derrière.

In retirement Cannon took to collecting flower pots, including many gathered from the props left by the Quinn Martin Production Company, based in LA. He also took up skydiving with Joe Mannix and his sidekick Peggy. Occasionally Kim Kardashian and Kloe would join Frank Cannon on a father/daughter/step daughter excursion.

Cannon was 88 when he was hit by a flower pot dropped from a third floor apartment in Boca Raton at the senior complex. The pot contained, yes, a geranium.

This is a developing story....

Cast

Conrad as Frank Cannon.

Series star William Conrad was nominated for an Emmy Award in both 1973 and 1974 (Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series), but Richard Thomas won for The Waltons and in 1974 Telly Savalas won for Kojak.

Production

Episodes

Home media

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first two seasons of Cannon on DVD in Region 1. Season 3 was released on January 10, 2013, via Amazon.com's CreateSpace program. This is a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Amazon.com.^[2]

On May 4, 2015, it was announced that Visual Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1.^[3] They subsequently released Cannon - The Complete Collection on September 2, 2015.

On March 18, 2016, VEI re-released the first season on DVD and on April 1, 2016, they re-released the second season.^[4]

In Region 4, Shock Entertainment has released the first two seasons on DVD in Australia.

Awards and nominations

Cannon received three Emmy Award nominations, for Outstanding Drama Series in 1973 and for William Conrad as Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1973 and 1974.^[5]

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated Cannon for three Golden Globe Awards, for Best Television Series - Drama in 1974 and for William Conrad in 1972 and 1973 as Best Actor in a Drama Television Series.^[6]

In other media

Parodies

In an episode of his Thames Television series, British comedian Benny Hill parodied 1970s American detective series. In the skit, Hill played several staple characters of the genre: Frank Cannon, Robert Ironside, Theo Kojak, Sam McCloud (ironically, all bar the latter were airing on BBC1 at the time rather than on Hill's home of ITV) and, although he was not a part of the genre, Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Cast member Jenny Lee-Wright played the role of Pepper Anderson.

The comedian Franklyn Ajaye does a routine where he mentions that it takes Frank Cannon so long to get out of his car 2-3 times a show that there is hardly time for anything else.

In Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of the more absurd inventions displayed by the Mad Scientists was a William Conrad Refrigerator Alert; it sounds off if William Conrad raids your refrigerator.

Impressionist Billy Howard included Cannon as one of the detectives parodied in his novelty hit record "King of the Cops".

References

External links

• Cannon on IMDb
• Cannon at TV.com