Coming up on 60 years!!! How the time flies …
Nearly 60 years ago, The FBI made its debut on ABC. The show was announced in a release in early 1965, an offshoot of 1959’s The FBI Story and 1963’s FBI Code 98. ABC’s fall season was up and running, and Batman‘s Adam West was turning 37 that day. He was set to begin filming the pilot of that show that next month.
And we mention that show because of the effect it and The FBI both had in helping to save ABC from total disaster. Many of those new ABC shows did poorly in the ratings, and it was causing problems for the network. While The FBI was not in the Top 30 highest rated television shows that season, it managed to hold on and had its ratings rise to No. 29 the following season.
The episode that aired that very late summer night, “The Monster,” got the series going, and it is well acted. This show, like other early Season One episodes, delves more into the personal side of Lewis Erskine, and we see that with the interaction between him and Dina Merrill, who has a real liking for him. While this episode is evidence that the series was trying to find its footing, it is very well acted, and well worth a watch!!!