Longstreet

From the 1960s and 70s, there were numerous detective series where the lead character had a unique characteristic: wheelchair-bound Ironside, trench coat-wearing Columbo, senior citizen Barnaby Jones, etc. In the case of the watchable series "Longstreet", James Franciscus played the New Orleans-based insurance agent whose was blinded by an explosion that killed his wife and is determined to continue investigating cases despite his affliction.

"The Way of the Intercepting Fist" (a literal translation of jeet kune do), by student Stirling Silliphant, offers us our first real glimpse into Bruce Lee's fighting philosophy and espouses his "no-nonesense" approach to hand-to-hand combat beautifully. (Pierre Burton would refer to this episode during his interview with Bruce Lee because it just so happens to be one of the finest presentations of jeet kune do ever committed to film.

I remember that for the fall of 1971 NBC moved "Ironside" from its longtime Thursday slot to Tuesday, and ABC decided that another show about a physically-challenged detective could fill the Thursday slot. As it turned out, "Ironside" ran into ratings problems against "Mod Squad," also on ABC, while "Longstreet" got as high as fifth in the Nielsen ratings.

I enjoyed Longstreet, which followed in the steps of Raymond Burr's successful Ironside TV series and was intended to give it competition. But this show was canceled after one season because it was decided--I believe wrongly--that Longstreet was not able to compete with Mr.

Longstreet was only on the air for one season. In my memory it stands out as a truly great series despite the fact it was short-lived, as sometimes happens with television.

I feel that I should mention first of all that apart from watching the movie-length pilot for this series recently, I never got the chance to watch the regular show, being much too young when it was first broadcast and the fact that Paramount seems to have permanently shelved the actual series. While I do think that the production was more than inspired by the TV show "Ironside" - another show about an investigator who was handicapped - from what I saw there was some promise.

This series was a cut above the rest of the TV detective series of the day but somehow didn't find an audience.The idea of a blind detective may not be totally new but added so much to the story.

A series that truly had depth and got you into the character more then any series today. Brilliantly scripted, directed and acted.

This was probably my favorite show of the 70's. I don't think I've ever seen an actor portray a blind person than James Franciscus.