Switch

Switch is an American action-adventure detective series starring Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert. It was broadcast on the CBS network for three seasons between September 9, 1975, and August 27, 1978, bumping the Hawaii Five-O detective series to Friday nights. Background Switch was inspired by the 1973 movie The Sting and was similar to The Rockford Files, which had debuted a year earlier. It was created by Glen A. Larson; Donald P. Bellisario was also one of the writers. In his memoir, The Garner Files, Rockford Files star James Garner accuses Larson of essentially rewriting Rockford scripts without authorization for use on this show. After intervention by the Writers Guild of America, the first season episode "Death by Resurrection" was deemed to have been a rewrite of the Rockford episode "This Case Is Closed", and was (as broadcast) credited solely to the writers of the original Rockford Files episode. The series focused on two main characters, Frank MacBride (Eddie Albert) and Pete Ryan (Robert Wagner). MacBride was a retired bunco cop who once arrested Ryan, a con man. After Ryan's release from prison, the two men opened a detective agency in Los Angeles. Their speciality involves the use of confidence tricks to trap criminals into revealing evidence of their guilt. Assisting them is another reformed con man, restaurant owner Malcolm Argos (Charlie Callas), and Maggie Philbin (Sharon Gless), Mac and Pete's naive-but-competent receptionist and assistant. The series pilot for CBS aired on March 21, 1975, as a 90-minute made-for-television movie. During the second season, the series became more serious in tone and more of a traditional crime drama. William Bryant joined the cast as Lt. Shilton in season two, and Mindi Miller and James Hong joined the cast in season three. In the third season, Pete moves into an apartment above Malcolm's bar.