F.B.I.
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a
real-life federal agency, a division of the Department of Justice based at
Pennsylvania Avenue between 9th and 10th Street NW in Washington, D.C. charged
with investigating all violations of federal law, including espionage, sabotage,
kidnapping, bank robbery, civil rights violations and fraud against the
government.
The most popular television adaptation of this
agency in the 1960s was the successful ABC series THE F.B.I./1965-74, starring
the stylish Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as the dedicated government investigator
Inspector Lewis Erskine.
His support staff included: Philip Abbott as
Assistant Director Arthur Ward; Stephen Brooks as Special Agent Jim Rhodes;
William Reynolds as Special Agent Tom Colby; and Shelly Novack as Agent Chris
Daniels.
A few years later TODAY'S F.B.I./ABC/1981-82
starred Mike Connors starred as agent Ben Slater, a 20 year veteran with the
Bureau. His agents included Richard Hill as Al Gordean, a wiretap expert;
Joseph Cali as Nick Frazier, an undercover expert; Harold Sylvester as Dwayne
Thompson, a former Marine intelligence officer; and Carol Potter as Maggie
Clinton, a psychologist and skilled marksman.
In 1991, Pernell Roberts hosted reenactments of
real FBI cases on the police anthology F.B.I.: THE UNTOLD STORY/ABC/1991.
Actual newsreel and surveillance films were used to lend authenticity. In
2008, the FOX Network debuted a drama series entitled THE F.B.I. that
centered on an Iraq War veteran who is appointed as the new head of the FBI's
Critical Incidents Response Group.
