Based upon a series of novels by Harry Kemelman, the series stars Art Carney as Police Chief Paul Lanigan, who fights crime in a small California town with the help of his best friend, Rabbi David Small (Stuart Margolin in the pilot, Bruce Solomon in the series). Small's ability in this area was attributed to his "rabbinic mind", and his Talmudic training. However, an added element for the David Small novels and the Lanigan's Rabbi series was that Small was usually trying to balance his crime-solving assistance to Chief Lanigan with synagogue politics, usually involving some congregants who would be happy to see the rabbi lose his position. Co-starring in the series was Janis Paige and Janet Margolin as Mrs. Lanigan and Mrs. Small, respectively. Another regular on the series was Carney's daughter, Barbara Carney.
After a successful pilot film based on Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, the first novel in the Rabbi David Small series, aired in 1976, Lanigan's Rabbi was produced as a series of 90-minute telefilms beginning in January 1977. For the series, Bruce Solomon replaced Stuart Margolin, who had played Rabbi Small in the pilot; the unrelated Janet Margolin played his wife. The series was broadcast on a rotating schedule under the umbrella title NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. Other series involved in the scheme were Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan (formerly McMillan & Wife). Lanigan's Rabbi was the last series added to the Mystery Movie format (it replaced Quincy, M.E. at mid-season when that series was spun off into a weekly program); in the spring, NBC cancelled all four series and discontinued the Mystery Movie format. As a result, only four Lanigan's Rabbi episodes were broadcast.
An Irish Catholic police chief and a Jewish rabbi join forces to solve the murder of a housekeeper whose body was discovered by the front entrance of the rabbi's synagogue. Lorraine Gary and Robert Reed guest star.
The recipient of a Man of the Year award is at a banquet in his honor when the lights suddenly black out and he's stabbed to death in the mêlée. There are no fewer than 200 suspects, the number of guests at the banquet, many of whom have motives. Rita Moreno, Milt Kamen and Brian Dennehy guest star.
Gunfire coming from the home of two elderly, eccentric brothers leads Lanigan to the dead body of the older brother, and the younger brother injured in a fall when he fired a revolver at the assailant while precariously balanced on a flight of stairs. The dead man was believed to have a huge fortune stashed somewhere in the house, which the younger brother denies. George Gobel, Steve Franken, Virginia Mayo and Anne Schedeen guest star.
Things look bad for Lanigan when he is accused of accepting a bribe - but they're even worse when he's framed for murdering his accuser. Howard Duff, Beverly Garland and Jackie Coogan guest star.
Arthur William Matthew Carney was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best known for his role as Ed Norton on the sitcom The Honeymooners (1955–1956).
Columbo is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 as one of the rotating programs of The NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo then aired less frequently on ABC from 1989 to 2003.
The NBC Mystery Movie is an American television anthology series produced by Universal Pictures, that NBC broadcast from 1971 to 1977. Devoted to a rotating series of mystery episodes, it was sometimes split into two subsets broadcast on different nights of the week: The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie and The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie.
A wheel series, wheel show, wheel format or umbrella series is a television series in which two or more regular programs are rotated in the same time slot. Sometimes the wheel series is given its own umbrella title and promoted as a single unit instead of promoting its separate components.
McMillan & Wife is an American police procedural television series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in episodes as part of Universal Television's wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in rotation with Columbo and McCloud. Initially airing on Wednesday night, the original lineup was shifted to Sundays in the second season, where it aired for the rest of its run. For the final season, known as McMillan, numerous changes were made that included killing off St. James' character of Sally McMillan.
Harry Kemelman was an American mystery writer and a professor of English. He was the creator of the fictitious religious sleuth Rabbi David Small.
Friday the Rabbi Slept Late is a 1964 mystery novel by Harry Kemelman, the first of the successful Rabbi Small series.
Father Dowling Mysteries, known as Father Dowling Investigates in the United Kingdom, is an American mystery television series first aired from January 20, 1989, to May 2, 1991. The series was preceded by the 1987 television movie Fatal Confession. NBC aired the first season, while ABC broadcast two additional seasons.
Stuart Margolin was an American film, theater, and television actor and director who won two Emmy Awards for playing Evelyn "Angel" Martin on the 1970s television series The Rockford Files. In 1973, he appeared on Gunsmoke as an outlaw. The next year he played an important role in Death Wish, giving Charles Bronson his first gun. In 1981, Margolin portrayed the character of Philo Sandeen in a recurring role as a Native American tracker in the 1981–1982 television series, Bret Maverick.
Janet Natalie Margolin was an American theater, television and film actress.
Lee Goldberg is an American author, screenwriter, publisher and producer known for his bestselling novels Lost Hills and True Fiction and his work on a wide variety of TV crime series, including Diagnosis: Murder, A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hunter, Spenser: For Hire, Martial Law, She-Wolf of London, SeaQuest, 1-800-Missing, The Glades and Monk.
Hec Ramsey is an American television series that aired on NBC from 1972 to 1974, starring Richard Boone. The series was created by Jack Webb's production company, Mark VII Limited in association with Universal's television productions. The series was first broadcast in the United States by NBC as part of the NBC Mystery Movie, a wheel series format.
Bret Maverick: The Lazy Ace is a 1981 American Western television film released as the 2-hour pilot episode of the series Bret Maverick, trimmed to a quicker pace and repackaged as a TV-movie for rerunning on local television stations. The 1981 show was based on the 1957 series Maverick, catching up with professional poker-player Bret Maverick. The film, written by Gordon T. Dawson and directed by Stuart Margolin, occasionally appears under the simpler title Bret Maverick.
Craig Rice was an American writer of mystery novels and short stories, described by book critic Bill Ruehlmann as "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction, she wrote the binge and lived the hangover."
I Love Trouble is a 1948 American film noir crime film written by Roy Huggins from his first novel The Double Take, directed by S. Sylvan Simon, and starring Franchot Tone as Stuart Bailey. The character of Stuart Bailey was later portrayed by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in the television series 77 Sunset Strip.
Bruce Peter Solomon, is an American film and television actor, best known for the roles of Sgt. Foley in the TV show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and Kenny Zuckerman in Beverly Hills, 90210.
Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet is a mystery novel written by Harry Kemelman in 1976, one of the Rabbi Small series.
Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model? is a 1977 American made-for-television mystery-crime drama film starring Barbara Eden, directed by Russ Mayberry from a teleplay written by Leslie Stevens and produced as a pilot for a proposed television series that was not picked up by the network. The film originally premiered as the NBC Movie of the Week on January 16, 1977.
The House Across the Street is a 1949 American comedy/newspaper film directed by Richard L. Bare and written by Russell S. Hughes. The film stars Wayne Morris, Janis Paige, Bruce Bennett, Alan Hale, Sr., James Mitchell and Barbara Bates. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 10, 1949. The story on which the screenplay was based, written by Roy Chanslor, was originally made as the movie Hi Nellie in 1936. The source material had also been reworked in Love Is on the Air (1937) and You Can't Escape Forever (1942).
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