May 4, 1975 (1975-05-04) – January 9, 1976 (1976-01-09)
Barbary Coast is an American television series that aired on ABC. The pilot film first aired on May 4, 1975, and the series itself premiered September 8, 1975; the last episode aired January 9, 1976.[1]
With an 1870s setting,[2]Barbary Coast features the adventures of government agent Jeff Cable (played by William Shatner), and his pal, conman and gambler Cash ("Cash makes no enemies") Conover (Doug McClure; played by Dennis Cole in the pilot) who is the owner of the Golden Gate Casino. The title was taken from the setting, "a square-mile section of San Francisco called the Barbary Coast, a wide-open, rip-roaring district whose inhabitants ranged from flashy ladies to sourdoughs."[3]
Barbary Coast was broadcast initially on Mondays from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Beginning October 31, 1975, it moved to Fridays from 8 to 9 p.m. ET and stayed there for the rest of its run. Its competition included Rhoda, Phyllis, Big Eddie, M*A*S*H, and films on CBS. Competing shows on NBC were The Invisible Man, Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man.[6]
Because the show was broadcast during the Family Viewing Hour, on-screen violence was kept to a minimum. Reduction of shootings and visible deaths required revisions in scripts. At one point before it went on the air, ABC changed the title to Cash and Cable because "ABC decided the name conjured up a violent image," Shatner said.[7] After some testing, however, executives determined that people preferred Barbary Coast.[7]
Production was delayed for 10 days after Shatner's ankle was broken when a horse kicked him. After his return, rains collapsed tarpaulins that protected segments of the set, causing two crew members to nearly drown. Mosquitoes attacked the set "and a wide variety of illnesses appeared and spread from one worker to another."[8]
ABC had plans for a similar show seventeen years earlier. The trade publication Billboard reported in its January 20, 1958, issue, "ABC-TV — Set Barney Girard to produce and direct Barbary Coast, Adventure story laid in early San Francisco."[9]
Critical response
Alex McNeil, in the book Total Television, described the program as a "limpid" Western.[1]
John J. O'Connor, in a review in The New York Times, commented after the first episode that Barbary Coast and another show that premiered the same night "seem reasonable candidates for the disaster bin."[2] He specified that production was "bad throughout" and referred to segments that featured dancing girls in Cash's casino with the comment, "But the entire Bolshoi Ballet would have difficulty salvaging Barbary Coast."[2]
Alvin H. Marill, in the book Television Westerns, said the series "may or may not be considered a true Western" and went on to describe it as "an adventure/spy series".[10]
