Buy Cannon: Season One, Vol. 1

Description: The weekly adventures of Frank Cannon, an overweight, balding ex-cop with a deep voice and expensive tastes in culinary pleasures, who becomes a high-priced private investigator. Since Cannon's girth didn't allow for many fist-fights and gun battles (although there were many), the series substituted car chases and high production values in their place.

Amazon.com: William Conrad became television's first plus-sized detective in this Quinn Martin production that ran for six seasons. His girth makes him the butt of snide comments. In the episode, "Salinas Jackpot," a good 'ol boy invites Cannon to shoot a game of pool. Referring to The Hustler, he says, "Ever since I seen that movie, I've always wanted to take on a champion fat man." In the pilot episode, a little boy bluntly asks him, "How'd you get that fat?" But the balding, pipe-smoking Cannon has a style all his own (check out his boating shorts in the episode, "A Lonely Place to Die."). Fleeing miscreants may be just as surprised as viewers at just how fleet he is on his feet in a chase. The pilot episode fleshes out Cannon's backstory: He is a former Los Angeles cop-turned-private insurance investigator. He is introduced in his swank apartment (that comes complete with personal firing range), but the rest of the episodes find him in outlying locations that are at odds with his bon vivant lifestyle. Though expensive and "the best," he does handle desperate personal cases, as in the pilot episode, in which his investigation of a Korean War buddy's death leads him to "a town that reeks of bad money." Cannon is nothing but intuitive. He tracks down the bar from which a threatening phone call was made by noting the sound of a phone booth ceiling fan's faulty bearing. His imposing size, gruff manner, and blunt talk do not win him many friends. "Go back where you came from" is a representative greeting from those who don't want to be bothered by "the fella with all the questions." Among the most compelling episodes include "Death Chain," in which a married man turns to Cannon when his mistress is murdered, and "Stone Cold Dead," in which he defends a Viet Nam veteran falsely accused of murder. Cannon has no sidekick or office staff to banter with, but Conrad deftly carries the show on his hefty shoulders. Guest stars of note include Vera Miles, Earl Holliman, Keenan Wynn, and John "Tigger" Fiedler in the pilot, Tom Skerritt as a killer disguised as a rodeo clown in "Jackpot," and a pre-Star Wars Mark Hamill as a farm boy in "Country Blues." While Cannon may not rank in the pantheon of TV detectives, it's good to have him back pounding the beat on DVD. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews:

S U P E R B ! November 29, 2008
I have waited many years for this series to come out on DVD. Played the first disc already, it's a shame they dont make them like this anymore! Superb Cannon series. Picture quality is very good. Looking forward to compleing the whole series on DVD.

Good old P.I. William Conrad (1 of 1 Found this Helpful) October 25, 2008
'CANNON' was a TV-hit in the Netherlands during the first half of the 70ies.
Because of his impressive figure good old William Conrad (who sadly is no longer with us) made 'CANNON' different from all the other P.I.-shows at
that time. Now finally the fans can enjoy the series all over again on DVD
and allthough I was only a 14 year old, back in 1971, today it still is fun to watch the episodes again and to see, besides Mr. Conrad, all those 'special gueststars' from that era.

Enjoying TV shows from the past. (1 of 1 Found this Helpful) October 12, 2008
My Husband and I are in our sixties and although we do enjoy many shows that are currently on TV, we also like to take an occassional walk down "Memory Lane". The old detective shows from the early seventies were great. We purchased CANNON, Season One - Volume One. from Amazon.com. The set includes 4 discs. Each one has 3 shows on it...They are great! The story lines are pretty tame compared to what we see today on TV, but they are still fun to watch. You will find some familiar names on the guest star list for each episode....like Joan Van Ark, Tom Skerritt, Kim Hunter, and more. The only negative that we found is that the night scenes are very dark. The technology has progressed over the years, but I guess that those scenes can't be lightened up. Other that that, these old shows are great and when the next one is issued in December....I'll order it.

Cannon Lives Again (2 of 2 Found this Helpful) September 28, 2008
William Conrad has been one of my favorite actors since his days on radio and film after retiring from active duty in the US Air Corps. His characters have always been powerful and his delivery intelligent and natural. He had the most convincing ability to express terror or grief with restrained stoicism of any actor I have ever seen. With those qualities in mind, I naturally enjoyed watching William Conrad in the Cannon series. I think the Cannon character was the real William Conrad. The technical quality of the DVD is like that which existed existed on broadcast television when the shows were made. This was before the comb filters that extracted a little more resolution from color television came out in the eighties. Other than that, the tape to DVD transfers have been made with utmost care and there are no noticable visual or audio changes or losses from the original recordings. Also, notice that Quinn Martin used the techniques of Film Noir. I'm looking forward to the complete Cannon series appearing on DVDs. Bart Brown. bartbrown@cruzio.com

Buy this today! September 22, 2008
Short, fat and balding, William Conrad is such a bizarre leading man for a tough-guy detective series, he's impossible not to enjoy! And listen to the score on these shows: funky, cool and corny all at the same time. Incredibly entertaining. I also love the QM Productions format of a Prologue followed by Acts I-IV. I would love to see FBI come out one of these days. These shows are actually better than I remebered! William Conrad, looking like a fatter version of Truman Capote with a bushy moustache, is never convincing in his short, always out of breath fight scenes (in one shot, they actually speed up the film to make it look like he's running), but he's got that awesome voice and personality to spare. Buy this, you'll love it!

Cannon: Season One, Vol. 1

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