Cannon Complete Series DVD Box Set

About ‘Canno’ TV Series
Produced by TV legend Quinn Martin, this 1971-1976 CBS series starred William Conrad as balding, portly ex-cop Frank Cannon. Dismissed from the police force for being overweight, he goes into business for himself as a private detective─charging high rates to his wealthy clients in order to maintain his gourmand lifestyle and help the poor for little to no cost. Standard; Soundtrack: English. 122 episodes plus the original pilot and the made-for-TV movie “The Return of Frank Cannon” on 31 discs. 103 hrs.

After his wife and child are killed in a car bomb meant for him, Frank Cannon (William Conrad), detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, resigns from the force to become a private investigator. Cruising for justice in his signature Lincoln Continental Mark IV, Cannon makes an effort to take clients from every walk of life, though he charges the rich hefty fees in order to satisfy his penchant for the finer things in life.

VEI presents “CANNON”…one of the most critically acclaimed television series of the 1970s. This DVD collection includes all five seasons of this hard hitting and long running series starring William Conrad as the daunting and fearless private detective Frank Cannon and featuring such guest stars as Nick Nolte, Robert Loggia, Tina Louise, David Janssen, Stefanie Powers and Leslie Nielsen. This audience favorite was created and produced by Quinn Martin, whose other award winning productions include Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco and The Fugitive. It also attracted notable directors, including Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon, Superman and The Omen) and Leo Penn (Star Trek, Cagney & Lacey, Kojak).

Frank Cannon isn’t your average, strikingly handsome TV private detective. He is every man, who every man believes he could be. And when put to the test, he is more than equal to the task of bringing the unjust to justice. This outstanding DVD collection includes over 100 episodes of this Golden Globe and Emmy nominated series.

Product details
Actors: William Conard
Format: Color, Dolby, Widescreen, PAL
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 4 for Australia
Number of discs: 31
Studio: Visual Entertainment Inc.
DVD Release in: 2015

One of the biggest P.I. TV shows of the seventies and make no mistake: there was plenty of meat on those bones..

Television’s FRANK CANNON was a tough, expensive, overweight PI with a taste for fine food and wine. A former cop, he quit the force after the tragic death of his wife and infant son in an automobile accident. Haunted by the incident, he’s put all his energy and considerable weight into his new profession of private detective, eventually becoming well-known and well-respected among his peers, both public and private. Despite his bulk, though, he’s no armchair detective, à la Nero Wolfe. He’ll do his own legwork, thank you very much. He’d tool around town in his big ass Lincoln Continental, knocking on doors, taking down names, actually working his cases, unlike some TV dicks. He was a shrewd investigator, dedicated, clever and not afraid of getting physical if he had to.

Quite a good series, rising far above the gimmick of having a fat man as an action hero. Conrad excelled in the role, making people believe in Cannon. Some of the best writers and directors were involved in its production, and the guest star list is a veritable who’s who of Hollywood at that time. And the scripts themselves were often excellent.

The first season’s “Death Is A Double Cross” (December 7, 1971) was based on Every Bet’s A Sure Thing, a Mac novel by Thomas B. Dewey. The two-parter, “He Who Digs a Grave,” which kicked off the third season was adapted from a novel a novel by David Delman. The September 17, 1975 episode, “The Deadly Conspiracy,” involved Cannon’s efforts to investigate a large corporation’s activities. He enlisted the aid of an elderly private eye, Barnaby Jones, played by Buddy Ebsen. In fact, the conclusion aired as the premiere episode of the fourth season of Barnaby Jones.

The show proved to be very popular in its time, thanks in no small part to Conrad, who se take on Frank was pretty much pitch perfect, balancing genial bonhomie, down-to-earth compassion and a hard-boiled pragmatism that brought credibility to what could have been a ridiculous part. It was one of the bright spots of seventies television, but fairly overlooked now, if you ask me. And in retrospect, Cannon doesn’t seem all that fat — compared to today, he looks almost svelte.

There was even an attempt, in 1980, to revive the show, with a two-hour made-for-television movie, The Return of Frank Cannon, in which Frank is brought out of semi-retirement to look into the apparent suicide of a former Army Intelligence buddy.

Cannon was such a popular show, worldwide, that there were several novelizations and even original novels published, many of them only available in Great Britain. Most of those were written by Douglas Enefer under his Paul Denver pen name. Enefer was a British writer who had been responsible for a series of private eye novels featuring Michael Power back in the early sixties for a British paperback publisher, Consul.

The show’s creator, Edward Hume, is an American film and television writer, best known for creating and developing several crime and detective shows in the seventies , as well as for writing the highly acclaimed 1983 TV movie The Day After. During the week of April 21, 1974, four shows he had created (Cannon, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco and Toma) all appeared together in the Nielsen top twenty ratings.

You may want to read: William Conrad Died 73, TV Actor In ‘Cannon’ Series