The nephew of a tycoon commits suicide, but he suspects foul play and hires Cannon to investigate.The nephew of a tycoon commits suicide, but he suspects foul play and hires Cannon to investigate.The nephew of a tycoon commits suicide, but he suspects foul play and hires Cannon to investigate.
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Nancy Kovack
- Charlotte Frawley
- (as Nancy Mehta)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFinal acting role for Nancy Kovack.
Featured review
Cannon digs through a lot of dirt to find a secret that you really couldn't say out loud in 1976 (on TV, that is)
The other two reviews cover the bvasics of the plot, I won't repeat them here. I was kind of fascinated by some of the first and last connected with the episode. This was Priscilla Barnes first credited role. She plays the blonde who screams when Michael Narak dives to his death. At that same time she was the Penthouse Pet on the newsstands, although no one probably put the two together. That would change five years later when she was hired to replace Suzanne Somers on Three's Company, and Penthouse tried to republish her photos using her real name instead of the alias in the magazine (where she was presented as a British lass of means who like to travel the world). She sued to block it, which she won, but the publicity of the trial meant that everybody knew who "Joann Witty" really was. This was also an early role for unknown Robert Hays who plays the doomed son, the center of the story, but who had only a few lines before dying. (Some characters die without ever uttering a single word.) Just before he jumps to his death, a guy tries to talk him out of it. That guy is played by Leslie Moonves, who would give up acting (he never was much of a success at it) move into management and later become the head of CBS (the network that broadcast Cannon). There's some kind of connection there...
This would also be the last role ever for Nancy Kovack, who had married symphony conductor Zubin Mehta, and had apparently decided that it was a better life to be a New York society figure. It's a shame too, since she is absolutely radiant here, and now that she was 40, never more beautiful, much more so than she was in the '60s. There really is no other reason to watch this episode except for the moments she appears on camera. It's kind of interesting that no one mentions something fairly obvious, in that she is much older than her husband (Hays was 12 years younger than her). The Old Man, who blames her for his death, only seems to care that she is an actress and is only interested in her career, and never complains about the age difference. Even Cannon doesn't ask any questions about it. (Of course if the man is 12 years older than the woman then nobody cares about that...)
The other significant point here is the great big secret that no one openly says but may in fact be something that only Cannon knows about. For those who weren't around then, you couldn't really say the H word, as it was still rather taboo. (Interestingly, The Rockford Files would also have a similar story, where a mob boss couldn't accept that his son, who was supposed to take over the family business, was gay). Not long after this Cannon, the TV series SOAP would come around, and for the first time, have an openly gay character as part of the cast (played by a then unknown Billy Crystal). And so it goes...
One last point. Mob families are traditionally shown as Italian, but this is clearly a Greek family. Were they trying not to use the usual stereotypes, and figured why not use some a Greek family for a change? (Or could it have something to do with the then controversal marriage of former First Lady Jackie Kennedy to a Greek businessman twice her age?) I guess we'll never know....
This would also be the last role ever for Nancy Kovack, who had married symphony conductor Zubin Mehta, and had apparently decided that it was a better life to be a New York society figure. It's a shame too, since she is absolutely radiant here, and now that she was 40, never more beautiful, much more so than she was in the '60s. There really is no other reason to watch this episode except for the moments she appears on camera. It's kind of interesting that no one mentions something fairly obvious, in that she is much older than her husband (Hays was 12 years younger than her). The Old Man, who blames her for his death, only seems to care that she is an actress and is only interested in her career, and never complains about the age difference. Even Cannon doesn't ask any questions about it. (Of course if the man is 12 years older than the woman then nobody cares about that...)
The other significant point here is the great big secret that no one openly says but may in fact be something that only Cannon knows about. For those who weren't around then, you couldn't really say the H word, as it was still rather taboo. (Interestingly, The Rockford Files would also have a similar story, where a mob boss couldn't accept that his son, who was supposed to take over the family business, was gay). Not long after this Cannon, the TV series SOAP would come around, and for the first time, have an openly gay character as part of the cast (played by a then unknown Billy Crystal). And so it goes...
One last point. Mob families are traditionally shown as Italian, but this is clearly a Greek family. Were they trying not to use the usual stereotypes, and figured why not use some a Greek family for a change? (Or could it have something to do with the then controversal marriage of former First Lady Jackie Kennedy to a Greek businessman twice her age?) I guess we'll never know....
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- A_Dude_Named_Dude
- Nov 5, 2022
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