American TV series or program
My Friend Tony is an American crime drama that aired on NBC starting on January 5, 1969.[1] The last rerun episode aired on September 28, 1969.[2] The pilot was broadcast as an episode of the anthology series The Danny Thomas Hour on March 4, 1968.[3]
Synopsis
The series features Enzo Cerusico as the title character, Tony Novello, and James Whitmore as John Woodruff, a professor of criminology who served in Italy during World War II. As a child, Novello had been a street urchin who survived as a pickpocket, with Woodruff being one of his intended victims.[1] Woodruff kept in touch with Tony, who later became one of his students.[4]
The premise of the series was that the adult (and reformed) Novello had emigrated to the United States and joined Woodruff in a private investigation team. Novello handled the legwork and physical side of the investigations while Woodruff conducted painstaking analysis of the most obscure clues.[1]
NBC slotted My Friend Tony in the 10 p.m. Eastern timeslot on Sundays, following Bonanza.[1] The network ended production of the series after 16 episodes[5] but continued airing reruns of the show through that summer. The program aired for the last time on September 30, 1969.[1]
Reception
Despite having the highly successful Bonanza as its lead-in, Sheldon Leonard — who developed My Friend Tony and was its executive producer — attributed the program's low ratings to its timeslot.
"First, the 10-to-11 P.M. time spot didn't take full advantage of Enzo's youthful audience, as shown by his flood of fan mail, which exceeds anything in our experience," Leonard told TV Guide. "Second, because of the one-hour length and the network's commitment to 27 new projects all demanding air time, there was no 8 or 9 o'clock spot into which to move it,"[5]
Some critics gave a poor review to My Friend Tony, calling the series "hackneyed and confusing" ... "the kind of minimal fare that has been ground out ad nauseam" ... "mundane" and "bilge."[5]
Others found the series enjoyable. One reviewer praised the acting of the two stars, plus the low amount of violence shown onscreen, during a time when many groups were concerned about TV violence.[4] Another mentioned the "pleasantly convoluted plots."[6]
Newspaper columnist Clarke Williamson reported that viewers liked the series, but found it difficult to watch regularly since it was often preempted.[7]
Original TV Tie-In Novel
In 1969, Lancer Books published an original novel by William Johnston, named for the series. Because it was meant to be available shortly after the show's January, 1969 debut, Johnston had to write it without having seen an episode, basing his interpretation on pre-air materials (which may have included some combination of a press kit, a show bible, a sample script and/or production photos). Subsequently, the novel is a fair approximation of the TV series, but lacks any reference to the WWII backstory that brought John Woodruff and Tony Novello together as well as Tony's Italian accent.
