Trivia / The F.B.I.

• Cast the Expert: Singer Nancy Wilson plays a jazz singer whose daughter (Lynne Moody) is kidnapped by her deranged former manager (Hal Linden) in "The Confession".
• Colbert Bump: While it's a good show in its own right, modern (that is, from the late New '10s onward) audiences most probably found out that it exists because of its plot-important appearance in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
• The Danza: Phyllis Love as Phyllis Kenyon in "The Courier".
  • Tony Giorgio as M. Giorgio in "The Vendetta".
  • Norman Alden as Norman Frome in "The Wizard".
• Dawson Casting: Brooke Bundy, who was 25 at the time, played a high school student in "Death of a Fixer". This is a little odd, considering that the season before, she played a character closer to her own age in "Ring of Steel".
• Directed by Cast Member: Philip Abbott directed nine episodes of the series, starting with the final episode of the 1969-70 season, "The Quest", and ending with one of the series' final episodes in 1974, "Confessions of a Madman".
• Playing Against Type:
  • Don Grady, who played good kid Robbie Douglas on My Three Sons, played the irresponsible son of an architect who caused a near-fatal explosion on a Naval base in "The Witness".
  • Richard Thomas, that nice John-Boy Walton, wasn't so nice in "The Game of Terror"... he played one of the kidnappers.
  • The two-part episode "The Executioners" features two higher-ups in the Mafia, one a calm, level-headed type, the other more bloodthirsty. Telly Savalas played the calm one, while Walter Pidgeon played the vicious one.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Christopher George and his wife Lynda Day George appear together in the episode "Return to Power".
  • Jack Klugman and his wife Brett Somers play brother and sister in "Image In a Cracked Mirror".
  • John McIntire and his wife Jeanette Nolan appear together in "The Last Job".
• Similarly Named Works:
  • The titular character in the episode "The Natural" is a college basketball phenom and not a star baseball player.
  • There are two different episodes entitled "The Animal", neither of which features Rob Schneider.
  • "The Wizard" is in no way, shape or form related to the 1986 series starring David Rappaport or the 1989 movie starring Fred Savage.
• Tyop on the Cover: In the two-part episode "The Mastermind", actress Laura Lacey is billed in the end credits as Laara Lacey.
• What Could Have Been: Bette Davis was a huge fan of the series and was almost cast as the main villain in the second-season episode "The Courier", where she would have appeared opposite Gene Hackman as one of her co-villains. However, the real-life FBI vetted all main guest stars and rejected her after doing a background check. Apparently, it was due to Davis being a suspect in the 1938 murder of her then-husband. Although she was cleared of all charges, it still wasn't satisfactory enough for the Bureau, and she didn't get the role of philanthropist/spy Judith Sinclair, which went instead to Ruth Roman.
• You Look Familiar: Quinn Martin LOVED to use actors multiple times. Some of the more notable frequent fliers:
  • Scott Marlowe in ten episodes, including a two-parter.
  • Peter Mark Richman in eight episodes.
  • Bradford Dillman in six episodes, including a two-parter.
  • Steve Ihnat in seven episodes, including a two-parter.
  • Robert Duvall in six episodes, including a two-parter.
  • Jessica Walter in six episodes.
  • Tim O'Connor in six episodes.
  • Burr DeBenning in six episodes.
  • Don Gordon in six episodes, including a two-parter.
  • Roger Perry in five episodes.
  • Linden Chiles in five episodes.
  • John Milford in five episodes.
  • Arthur Hill in five episodes, including a two-parter.
  • William Windom in five episodes, including a two-parter.
  • Martin Sheen in four episodes.
  • Fritz Weaver in four episodes.
  • Jonathan Goldsmith in four episodes, billed as Jonathan Lippe.
  • Edward Asner in three episodes.

---