Madigan

By Brian W. Fairbanks

One third of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie during the 1972-73 season, "Madigan" marked movie veteran Richard Widmark's only foray into series television. Daniel Madigan was a hard-nosed New York City police detective. Blunt, short-tempered, and fond of saying "yup" and "nope, " the character was introduced in a 1968 theatrical film directed by Don Siegel and starring Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, James Whitmore, and Harry Guardino.

The series consisted of six 90 minute episodes, half of which were filmed on location in the Big Apple. Remaining episodes took Madigan on assignment to London, Lisbon, and Naples. Widmark was initially signed to star in a series based on a two hour World Premiere movie titled "Brock's Last Case" in which he played a NYC detective who retires to an orange farm in California only to find crime there, too. Finding that premise less than promising, NBC and Universal asked Widmark to reprise Madigan.

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