Sun 9 Aug 2020
A TV Mystery Movie Review: THE JORDAN CHANCE (1978).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[11] Comments
THE JORDAN CHANCE. NBC, 2 hours. 12 December 1978. Raymond Burr (Frank Jordan), Ted Shackelford, James Canning, Jeannie Fitzsimmons. Guest Cast: John McIntire, Peter Haskell, Maria-Elena Cordero, Stella Stevens, George DiCenzo, Gerald McRaney. Teleplay by Stephen J. Cannell, based on a story by Roy Huggins (as John Thomas James) & Stephen J. Cannell. Directed by Jules Irving.
Chronologically, as far as Raymond Burr’s career is concerned, this failed pilot for another TV series for him came after Perry Mason, after Ironside, after the short summer season of Kingston: Confidential, but before the long run of Perry Mason movies. I called this particular endeavor a “failed pilot,†and I’m sure that the people involved were ready to go with it as another series, but there was a big, big reason why they didn’t. I don’t know what the ratings were for it, but the fact is is that it’s not very good.
I hesitate saying that it’s bad, but it’s an awfully close call.
Here’s the premise. After serving time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, lawyer Frank Jordan sets up a foundation, with himself as the head, whose directive is to come to the assistance of others who are have found themselves in jail while innocent but have used up all of their other options.
Such is the case of a Mexican-American maid who has been convicted of murder for only two reasons: one, that she’s Mexican-American, and two, because she was there on the scene, working in the dead man’s house and being the one who found the body. Once he’s convinced that she’s innocent, Jordan gathers up his crew of three assistants and heads for the small California town where the murder occurred.
And where he finds – no surprise here – that not only does the local sheriff not want him coming in and stirring things up again, but none of the local townspeople do either. I think we have all seen this before. Not personally, mind you, but in watching several dozen TV shows with much the same story line.
One problem here is that Jordan (Raymond Burr) is the whole show. His assistants are bland beyond belief, and then some. And the story’s so slight that at least twenty minutes is spent on watching cars squealing tires turning corners in city streets or chasing each other up and down rural roads, with the more than occasional sheriff’s helicopter hovering around overhead. Jordan does get roughed up a little, but once he convinces the sheriff to switch sides (I didn’t catch how this happened), the show’s over.
And so was any chance for a series. Not even a Jordan Chance.
August 9th, 2020 at 9:42 pm
Ironically the idea of starring Burr in a series that bore some resemblance to Gardner’s famous Court of Last Resort was a good one, but this had no energy and no charisma whatsoever. It made the somewhat bland team of the IRONSIDES years look downright charismatic.
Frankly this one played like an IRONSIDES plot they never got around to filming padded into something new.
Worse, the actors have no rapport with Burr, which was part of what kept IRONSIDES going even though that the series also turned mostly on Burr’s presence.
Whatever this needed it wasn’t cars careening around on dusty roads.
August 10th, 2020 at 9:38 am
Amen to that last line, David.
I caught the connection to THE COURT OF LAST RESORT — it’s quite obvious — but not Erle Stanley Gardner’s connection to that show and PERRY MASON. Duh.
One thing I see I neglected to mention in my review that I intended to, but didn’t, is Burr’s size in this movie. His well-tailored suits did their best to disguise it, but he looks as though he weighed 300 pounds.
August 10th, 2020 at 9:53 am
Maybe in the upper 3’s but not quite hitting 400 pounds. He also, in this thing, and the Perry Mason movies, needed to lose the beard. I absolutely loved him, Barbara and the two Bills in the Perry Mason series, but not much after that.
August 10th, 2020 at 9:56 am
How come Burr never got to play Nero Wolfe?
August 10th, 2020 at 9:59 am
I’m thinking the same thing, Ray.
August 11th, 2020 at 8:01 pm
Although they went out of their way to keep Ironsides active he did have some relation to a Nero Wolfe vibe.
August 11th, 2020 at 8:24 pm
I watched IRONSIDES when it was on, but not on a regular must see basis. Since posting this review, the urge to find a few episodes to watch has been growing. I remember the premise and the basic crew, but absolutely nothing about a single individual story.
August 13th, 2020 at 11:52 am
Time To Pick The Nits:
Everybody, please –
IRONSIDE.
No ‘S’ at the end.
OK, it’s a half-century plus after the fact, but still …
And I know almost everybody said that extra ‘s’ aloud (my mother was one), but that doesn’t make it correct …
That doesn’t remove the fingernail-on-the-blackboard effect, even after all this time.
August 13th, 2020 at 1:25 pm
Not a nit, Mike, but a major Fubar. I am hanging my head in shame.
September 24th, 2020 at 12:43 am
Here’s an interesting factoid. The house used as the exterior backdrop for the “Jordan Foundation” was located on a bluff at the northern limit of Laguna Beach, California. I say “was” because that house was completely torn down within the past 5 years and replaced with a completely different style home.
I had occasion to visit the house in the late 1970’s and walked the outside. I was never inside. However, I looked in the windows of the two-story octagon and it was filled with animal heads on the walls and there was a pair of elephant tusks standing upright on the floor.
September 24th, 2020 at 8:59 am
Interesting? Yes, I should say so. Thanks, Rich!