Arrest and Trial was a 90-minute crime drama that aired one season on ABC.
The show was set in Los Angeles and aired Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern during the 1963-64 season.
Each week's program was actually two 45-minute segments. The first segment followed Sgt. Nick Anderson (Ben Gazzara) of the LAPD as he tracked down and apprehended a criminal. The person Anderson arrested was defended in the second half of the show by criminal attorney John Egan (Chuck Connors).
Gazzara agreed to play the role of Anderson only after extracting a promise from the producer that scripts would avoid stereotypical depictions of police officers.
In a 1963 TV Guide interview, Gazzara described his portrayal of Anderson: "I'm supposed to be a thinking man's cop. I'm a serious student of human behavior, more concerned with what creates the criminal than how to punish him. In other words, I'm not the kind of cop who asks, 'Where were you the night of April 13th?' It's my job to show that there is room for passion and intellectualism and personal display even within a policeman."
Arrest and Trial debuted on September 15, 1963. Its last telecast was on September 6, 1964. On Friday, April 24, 1964, it was the first American import to be broadcast on the UK's BBC2.
Through a combination of re-enactments and actual footage, sensational true crimes are followed from their commission, through the investigation and apprehension of the suspected criminal, and finally to his/her trial. Written by frankfob2@yahoo.com
The format of this series consisted of the first half of each episode dealing with the crime investigation, the second half the trial. This format later, in part, inspired the similar but much longer-running "Law & Order" (1990).
