Thankfully, the show was produced by Desilu Productions – the last series to hold that distinction – and Lucille Ball herself made a personal plea for the drama to stay on the air.
And so it did, after a bit of reworking, and it remained there for seven more seasons.
Eight years later, Mike Connors made his big debut as CBS’ Joe Mannix, a bit of an everyman who was toughened up by his past as a prisoner of war in Korea, and the show was memorable for putting Mannix through some hellish physical altercations.
The series started off with a before-its-time focus on bringing computers into the police force, which didn’t help to win over audiences, and the show was almost canned that early in its run.