Even though Capra didn't spend much time in the courtroom, he made being a lawyer look very fun - he was much more of a private eye in his methods and daily routines, however.
This was one of the best, and unfortunately short-lived, series on the NBC roster in the Fall of 1978. The only other one that I recall was David Cassidy: Man Undercover (following the excellent Police Story episode the previous Spring). But Cassidy wanted that show to end as he hated being back in a TV series.
The rest of the slate - all of them - were cancelled by Fred Silverman when he was hired to revamp NBC's Prime Time programming, so instead we got Supertrain and Hello, Larry in the Spring of 1979 and Capra only ran just 13 episodes through to early January. There were some very good episodes, featuring the usual roster of current character actors appearing in many shows produced by Universal Studios, as well as a smattering of semi-retired or washed up has beens getting one more paycheck to bolster their retirement expenses.
Some have criticized the casting of Baggetta as the lead, but I always thought he was a compelling actor, having guest starred all over the place in the 70s, and with a later very memorable role on Hill Street Blues as a vicious detective.
Anyway, Eddie Capra got cancelled, and I became a cop, not a lawyer, after a stint as a private eye myself. But real life is much different than television. Yet, the Capra series was a brief flight on what could have been a long-running mystery/detective show in much the same vein as Columbo, except that we were tasked with figuring out the murderer(s) along with Eddie. A shame it disappeared so quickly.
This was one of the best, and unfortunately short-lived, series on the NBC roster in the Fall of 1978. The only other one that I recall was David Cassidy: Man Undercover (following the excellent Police Story episode the previous Spring). But Cassidy wanted that show to end as he hated being back in a TV series.
The rest of the slate - all of them - were cancelled by Fred Silverman when he was hired to revamp NBC's Prime Time programming, so instead we got Supertrain and Hello, Larry in the Spring of 1979 and Capra only ran just 13 episodes through to early January. There were some very good episodes, featuring the usual roster of current character actors appearing in many shows produced by Universal Studios, as well as a smattering of semi-retired or washed up has beens getting one more paycheck to bolster their retirement expenses.
Some have criticized the casting of Baggetta as the lead, but I always thought he was a compelling actor, having guest starred all over the place in the 70s, and with a later very memorable role on Hill Street Blues as a vicious detective.
Anyway, Eddie Capra got cancelled, and I became a cop, not a lawyer, after a stint as a private eye myself. But real life is much different than television. Yet, the Capra series was a brief flight on what could have been a long-running mystery/detective show in much the same vein as Columbo, except that we were tasked with figuring out the murderer(s) along with Eddie. A shame it disappeared so quickly.