Petrocelli

Petrocelli
Format	Legal drama
Created by	Harold Buchman Sidney J. Furie
Directed by	Irving J. Moore
Starring	Barry Newman Susan Howard Albert Salmi David Huddleston
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	45
Production
Executive producer(s)	Edward K. Milkis Thomas L. Miller
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	48 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 11, 1974 (1974-09-11) – March 31, 1976 (1976-03-31)

Petrocelli is an American legal drama which ran for two seasons on NBC from September 11, 1974 to March 31, 1976.

Plot

Tony Petrocelli was an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who grew up in South Boston and gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a sleepy city in the American Southwest called San Remo (filmed in Tucson, Arizona). He and his wife Maggie lived in a trailer in the country while waiting for their new house to be built, and travelled around in a beat-up old pickup truck. Tony hired Pete Ritter, a local cowboy, as his investigator.

Format

Petrocelli worked as a defense lawyer, and each episode followed a similar format, with the client apparently certain to be convicted of a crime of which they were innocent until a late emerging piece of evidence allowed the protagonist to suggest to the jury an alternative possibility. These alternatives were never established as absolute fact, and there was never any indication of a trial of the person onto whom Petrocelli turned the accusation, but the doubt raised was sufficient to secure the release of his client.

An interesting technique used in the TV series was showing the actual crime in flashbacks from the perspective of various people involved. The flashbacks, naturally, differed depending on whose recollections were being shown. In order to maximize the drama the prosecution's version was always the first flashback shown (i.e. what supposedly happened), then the client's version was presented (what they remember happening), then finally after finishing his investigation Petrocelli would present his version (generally meant to be what actually in fact occurred). This final flashback would always contain elements of the prosecution's and his client's versions, but with his newfound evidence it would show both the client's innocence and an explanation as to how and why the prosecution and client's versions differed. In other words, neither side was ever meant to be corrupt or lying, rather without Petrocelli's new information both previous versions appeared to be accurate from their points of view.

Adaption

Newman created the role of Petrocelli in a 1970 movie, The Lawyer, which was loosely based on the Sam Sheppard murder case. Susan Howard co-starred as his wife, Maggie. Produced by Leonard Katzman, Howard was later cast as Donna Culver Krebbs in Katzman's prime-time soap Dallas.

Cast

Actor	Role
Barry Newman	Anthony J. Petrocelli
Susan Howard	Maggie Petrocelli
Albert Salmi	Pete Ritter
David Huddleston	Lt. John Ponce

Guest stars

• Harrison Ford
• Ron Foster
• Lynn Borden
• Mark Hamill

External links

• Petrocelli at the Internet Movie Database
• Petrocelli at TV.com
• Petrocelli at epguides.com