The Andros Targets (partially found newspaper drama series; 1977)

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The Andros Targets.png

Mike Andros (James Sutorius) and Sandi Farrell (Pamela Reed) in a black and white still photograph sourced from CBS' still archives.

Status: Partially Found

The Andros Targets is a newspaper drama series that was produced by Worldvision Enterprises and originally aired on CBS from January 31st, 1977 to May 16th of the same year. Reruns of the show aired on CBS up until July 9th, and the series was even broadcast as late as the early to mid 1980's when dubbed episodes of the show were broadcast on networks such as Canal 9 in Argentina as well as TV3 in Catalonia in their Spanish and Catalan dubs respectively.[1]

The series was based on the experiences of Nicholas Gage, a former investigative journalist for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Associated Press, and The Boston Herald[2] who led both investigations against the Mafia, as well as former Vice President of the United States, Spiro Agnew, who later resigned due to corruption that was exposed in Gage's reports.[3] Gage was also the first journalist who listened to any of the Nixon tapes following the Watergate scandal.[4] In the intro for The Andros Targets, Gage is listed as a "journalistic consultant" for the series.

Premise

The show follows Mike Andros (James Sutorius), an investigative journalist who works to uncover crime and corruption within New York City along with his close partner Sandi Farrell (Pamela Reed), and other staff of the "New York Forum". With the exception of the portioned episode Requiem for a Stolen Child, each episode featured its own independent investigation, with the story of each episode being written by Jerome Coopersmith and another co-writer. Among these co-writers were Irving Gaynor Neiman, George Bellak, Frank Cucci and Tim Maschler.[5]

Availability

Only two video segments of the series exist online, one being of the intro which was seemingly sourced from Argentina's Canal 9 by the text overlay,[6] and another CBS promo of the show.[7] Scripts of the show are scattered; some being up for sale on Amazon[8] while others are available for research in archives across the United States.[9] One of these scripts claimed to be for an episode of The Andros Targets titled The Blue Angels doesn't have a corresponding episode according to online sources.[10] This raises the question as to whether or not the series had episodes that were cancelled after the series ending in May of 1977.

The series was under the ownership of Worldvision Enterprises[11] up until 1989 when the company merged with Spelling Productions to become the Spelling Entertainment Group. Ownership then transferred to Paramount Domestic Television in 1999, a subsidiary of Viacom, and, after the breakup of CBS and Viacom, ultimately to CBS-Paramount Television in 2006 and to CBS Television Distribution in 2007, where it remains today.[12]

Though the series received mixed reviews from television audiences and critics, it was nominated for an Edgar Award for "Best Episode in a TV Series" in 1978 for the episode In the Event of my Death.[13]

Gallery

The Andros Targets intro.

The Andros Targets CBS promo.

References