The FBI would witness many changes 50 years ago this year. Season Eight was finishing, and so was William Reynolds’ tenure as Special Agent Tom Colby (though he would appear as a guest on Season Nine).
As Season Nine approached, Shelly Novack was tapped to play Special Agent Chris Daniels for the series’ 23 episodes that would air on the ninth season. The series was moved from its 8 p.m. timeslot on Sundays to a half-hour earlier on the same day. Despite declining ratings, it held its own to force the 1973 iteration of Perry Mason off the air in January 1974.
L. Patrick Gray, who had been acting Director of the actual bureau, had to resign on 27 April 1973 because of Watergate, a scandal that would have more far-reaching consequences for the show as well as the bureau. And ironically, it was FBI second-in-command Mark Felt who was “Deep Throat,” who assisted Bob Woodward in the Watergate coverage.
And it was that scandal that helped to trigger the show’s cancellation in 1974. By then, the writers were running dry on story ideas, and the bureau was asking its offices to come up with cases that could serve as potential episodes.
However, the series kept chugging on, as it had a new producer, Anthony Spinner. And when Clarence Kelley became the first permanent successor to J. Edgar Hoover on 9 July 1973, he instituted a number of changes, including hiring minorities and women as agents. That was shown on the penultimate new episode, “Confessions of a Madman,” airing on 14 April 1974. Mary Frann, who would later achieve lasting fame on the sitcom Newhart, plays a female agent who works with Inspector Lew Erskine and Agent Chris Daniels.
One thing that did not change was the guest star roster. Besides returning favorites such as Peter Mark Richman and John Vernon, we had a young Tom Selleck and future Barney Miller lead performer Hal Linden; singer Nancy Wilson appeared as well with Mr. Linden.
Though no longer in the Top 30 highest-rated shows, The FBI retained its quality, and the final aired episode, “The Animal,” rerun on Sunday, 8 September 1974, was a fitting sendoff to one of the longest-running crime shows.