Line #24 Series/CadesCounty


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cades_county.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Top row: Arlo. Bottom row, left to right: Sam, J.J. and Rudy.]]
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4	''Cade's County'' is a hybrid crime drama/Western that aired on Creator/{{CBS}} during the 1971–72 season, produced by David Gerber for [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century-Fox Television]]. It starred Creator/GlennFord, which made it part of a trend that had movie stars trying their hand at TV series.[[note]]Creator/ShirleyMacLaine had a sitcom entitled ''Shirley's World'' in 1970. Midway through the 1970-71 season, both Creator/HenryFonda and Creator/JamesStewart launched ''The Smith Family'' and ''The Jimmy Stewart Show'', respectively. The following season, 1971-72, saw Creator/RockHudson land a hit with ''Series/McMillanAndWife'', while Creator/AnthonyQuinn bombed with ''The Man and the City''. And in 1972, Creator/KarlMalden scored with ''Series/TheStreetsOfSanFrancisco'' and Creator/GeorgePeppard with ''Series/{{Banacek}}'', while Creator/RichardWidmark starred in a series based on his 1968 film ''Madigan''.[[/note]]
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6	Set in the southwestern desert town of Madrid (no state was ever specified), the series had Sam Cade (Ford), who grew up there, returning to be the Marshal of the area. Having served in Naval Intelligence and in the FBI, Cade was more than up to the lead lawman's job, whether investigating a simple robbery or murder or a missing person case that always seemed to lead to a larger conspiracy. Assisting him was Head Deputy J.J. Jackson (Edgar Buchanan), who may have looked like a doddering old man, but was a very shrewd law enforcer who knew the town (and everyone in it) inside and out. A team of deputies served under J.J., Arlo Pritchard (Taylor Lacher), Rudy Davillo (Victor Campos) and Pete (Peter Ford, Glenn Ford's real-life son). A pair of fetching Indian dispatchers, Sundown (Betty Ann Carr) and Little Bird (Sandra Ego), rounded out the team.
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8	Although it was well-produced and well-received, ''Cade's County'' lasted only a season, but when reran the following Summer on CBS, got higher ratings. By that time, Producer David Gerber had moved from 20th Century-Fox Television to Creator/ScreenGems (aka Creator/ColumbiaPictures Television), where he would score his biggest successes with ''Series/PoliceStory1973'' and ''Series/PoliceWoman''. Gerber and Ford would work together again, first on the unsold 1973 pilot ''Jarrett'' and later in a two-hour episode of ''Police Story''.
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10	!! J.J., have the boys go out and round up some of these tropes:
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12	* AmoralAttorney: In "Violent Echo", Cade thinks death row inmate Jody Ray Baker (Creator/JohnCalvin) was falsely convicted of murder and enlists the help of attorney Frank Leonard (Creator/WilliamWindom) to clear Baker before he's executed. However, Leonard turns out to be as amoral as an attorney can get, because [[spoiler:he's the real killer.]]
13	* BadgesAndDogTags: Cade served in the Navy during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar.
14	* BilledAboveTheTitle: Glenn Ford in... ''Cade's County''.
15	* CainAndAbel: In "The Brothers", we discover that Arlo's brother Jess (Creator/ChristopherStone), who was the favorite son when they were growing up, is now a criminal who's planning a kidnapping.
16	* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: In "Delegate At Large", Grover Curtis (Creator/LQJones) decides that he and his gang need a kidnapped J.J. alive to get across the border to Mexico. ''Then'' they'll dispose of him.
17	* CompilationMovie: Three of them...
18	** "Sam Cade", comprised of the episodes "Homecoming" and "The Fake".
19	** "The Marshal of Madrid", comprised of the episodes "Crisscross" and "A Gun For Billy".
20	** Additionally, the two-part "Slay Ride" was also made into a movie.
21	* TheCorpseStopsHere: All the trouble for illegal alien Esteban Sanchez (Creator/RichardYniguez) in "Crisscross" starts when he's found standing over the body of a guy who hassled him earlier that night, holding the knife that was the murder weapon.
22	* FirstNameBasis: Everyone, including the deputies and dispatchers calls Cade by his first name, Sam, and never Sheriff Cade or Marshal Cade.
23	* HeelFaceTurn: Sheila Curtis, the wife of villain Grover Curtis in "Delegate At Large", eventually helps to free J.J., who was kidnapped while at a law enforcer's convention in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles.
24	* IHaveYourWife: In "Ragged Edge", the young daughter of an old friend of Cade's is kidnapped to be exchanged for a drug pusher in Cade's custody.
25	* JurisdictionFriction:
26	** In "Delegate at Large", Cade goes to Los Angeles to look for his missing deputy J.J. and immediately clashes with Gifford, the LAPD Lieutenant in charge of the investigation.
27	** In the two-part episode "Slay Ride", UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Police Lieutenant Ed Kaprowski arrives in town to take Willie Ball, an Indian who's confessed to murder in Madrid. There has been a series of similar slayings in the Windy City, and Kaprowski is certain that Willie is the killer, but Cade is certain that he's only confessing to crimes to draw attention to the plight of Indians and asks the visiting cop to give him extra time to prove Willie innocent.
28	* LastNameBasis: Sundown and Little Bird are actually their last names (their first names are Betty Ann and Joannie, respectably), but everyone calls them by their last names.
29	* NewOldWest: The show had a Western setting and themes, but was set in ThePresentDay. [[{{Lampshading}} Lampshaded]] in "A Gun for Billy", in which the villain played by Music/BobbyDarin is under the delusion that he's UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid.
30	* OneWordTitle: "Homecoming", "Crisscross", "Shakedown", "Inferno", "Jessie" and "Blackout".
31	* PoliceProcedural: Albeit one with Western elements.
32	* ShortRunner: It lasted for one 24-episode season.
33	* WeaponsOfTheirTrade: In "Company Town", Sam has to do battle with a recalcitrant miner in front of a hostile group in a miners' bar with both of them using the supposed miner's weapon of choice, a pick hammer.
34	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never fully established where Madrid is located... is it in southern UsefulNotes/{{California}}? Maybe UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}} or UsefulNotes/NewMexico (where there is a town called Madrid, though they pronounce it with the emphasis on the first syllable, i.e., MAD-rid)? It might even be in UsefulNotes/{{Utah}} or UsefulNotes/{{Colorado}}! The series never gives the state away.

Context Series / CadesCounty