IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A_Different_Drummer Don't forget, TV was a new medium. They needed to muck about to see what worked.. and what did not. In Ringo, the hero used a gun that shot 6 normal cartridges ... and also a shotgun load. Most if not all of the episodes ended with the bad guys walking up to Ringo, all smiles because he was out of ammo ... ka-pow -- no more bad guy. (Based on a real gun, made in France, BTW). In Have Gun Will Travel the hero had a derringer hidden in his belt. Time and again poor Palladin would be captured and forced to turn over his gunbelt .. only to palm the derringer. In Wyatt Earp, Hugh O'brien had a custom gun with an extra long barrel, designed by Ned Buntline. Episode after episode, the baddies would challenge him to a gunfight and he would distance himself from them so that, ultimately, only his gun had the proper range. (Same gimmick used effectively in several Lee Van Cleef films later on). In WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, McQueen could swivel aim and fire his weapon without the need to actually clear the holster, buying him precious seconds, and always winning the contest. And here in Tightrope, a series best remembered for launching Connors to Mannix fame, almost every single episode ended with the main character going for that pistol strapped to his back (a trick re-used decades later by no less than Bruce Willis in one of the Die-Hards). No disrespect to any of the earlier reviewers who loved the show -- IT WAS A FUN SHOW, and Mike was great -- but mainly it was about the gimmick.

Zipper69 I was a spotty 17 year old in London when this series first turned up on British TV. Few of the first generation of American cop shows (like "Dragnet") got much airing in Britain (I think the powers-that-be assumed we scruffs would be inspired by the tough, gun toting bad guys portrayed). so Tightrope had the field pretty much to itself. The "unique selling point" was the character's wearing his pistol in a holster in the small of his back - OHMIGOD! Who would ever think of looking there? (I wonder if this was the inspiration for the "pat-downs" seen today that run the hands all over the body and down the legs?). Anyway...the shows were fast paced, Connors was smart and savvy and believable as a tough, no nonsense undercover cop (even THAT was a new concept) and the regular fistfights were a cut above the Brit style "left hook and He's down!" even though muted by the Production Code.This was at the time that the James Bond books were THE big seller and talk was of a film (imagine!) and I remember thinking that Connors, with his dark, good looks, stylish dress sense and even the errant lock of hair that fell across his forehead was exactly as described in Fleming's books. An American as Bond? Well, they've had a Scot, an Irishman, and an Australian so it's not such a leap - I'll bet Connors could have done the accent, too!!

mike rice The show was fine. Mike 'Touch' Connors had been a B movie actor in the early fifties who couldn't get arrested in a decent film. Then he came along and did this immaculate TV series. I just went looking for this series and another with Frank Lovejoy, Meet McGraw, on Netflix, with no luck.In the early days of TV, the opening billboard sequences of TV shows were often better than the shows. But with 'Touch' Connors behind the voice, the ultimate film noir voice-over had been met and joined with the premiere of this show.I would die just to hear Connors do the opening sequence to the show, let alone get DVD copies.Connors played an undercover cop who wore his .38 stuffed in a holster in the small of his back. He wore a black suit in every episode, and was as cool as a TV detective can get. The series was as noir as TV could manage. The suit was always dark, so was Touch's hair, the rooms were dim and dingy, but the night was bright with dark promise.In that opening Billboard, Touch would recite the litany of the undercover man walking that tightrope, and my brother and I would be writhing with excitement from the effect, in our chairs. Then the show would come on and it would be something of a letdown. But Tightrope was a good show as fifties detective shows go.Later, Connors would get a bigger TV show called Mannix, which was not as good, and become famous for the sense of parody he brought to the voice-over. I'm not sure he intended that, but years later, after Mannix was ancient history, the effect was saluted in an episode of Murder She Wrote. Connors played a disembodied voice, whose recording was used to illustrate his own murder. A little like William Holden in Sunset Boulevard, only trashier.It was great. Elizabeth Ashley played a down-at-the-heel waitress in the episode, and Connors' voice-overs were wittier than a dead man should be, and funny.But its the Tightrope Series that I long for. Could some of the others among you try to help start a drumbeat for this series to appear on DVD? Just write to Sony and beg them to produce a DVD series.TV and movies today are now so boring that the old stuff is bound to come back on DVD.Besides, someone has to try and bring this marvelous series back. Someone has to walk that tightrope and that someone is you!

skoyles A fine if formulaic series. The star's escape as the police closed in was the high point of suspense. He also wore his .38 in a distinctive position - behind his back. If "Tightrope" were to be issued on DVD I would buy it in an instant.