Barbary Coast (TV series)

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Barbary Coast was a TV movie and short-lived (13-episode) series on the American network ABC that featured the adventures of 19th century government agent Jeff Cable (played by William Shatner), and his pal, conman and gambler Cash Conover (Doug McClure). The movie first aired on May 4, 1975. The series premiered September 8, 1975; the last episode aired January 9, 1976. This was Shatner's first attempt at a live-action series since Star Trek (also produced by Paramount Television). While on the college lecture circuit in the late 1970's, he said the show "lasted about five minutes."

The show was inspired by a similar 19th century spy series, The Wild Wild West, and like the earlier program, Barbary Coast mixed the genres of western and secret agent drama.

In their battle against various criminals and foreign spies, Cable and Conover operated out of the latter's saloon and casino located on San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast. Cable frequently donned outré disguises in the course of his investigations, a la Wild Wild West's Artemis Gordon, and the writers worked hard trying to create a James West/Artemis Gordon-type friendship/partnership in the Cable/Conover pairing, but there simply wasn't the same chemistry. The producers also undisguisedly modeled the show's byzantine plotlines/conspiracies on the Mission: Impossible paradigm (in fact, they hired a number of Mission: Impossible's writers), but again failed to coax lightning into striking twice. Other regulars on the series included recurring Wild Wild West villain actor Richard Kiel as Moose Moran and Dave Turner as Thumbs.