Lanigan's Rabbi

Lanigan's Rabbi
Lanigan's Rabbi promotional photo, with Bruce Solomon and Art Carney.
Genre	Crime drama
Written by	Gordon Cotler Norman Lessing Don Mankiewicz Robert Pirosh Karl Tunberg Terence Tunberg
Directed by	John Astin Joseph Pevney Leonard B. Stern
Starring	Art Carney Stuart Margolin (pilot) Bruce Solomon (series)
Composer(s)	Don Costa
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	4
Production
Executive producer(s)	Leonard B. Stern
Producer(s)	Gordon Cotler Don Mankiewicz David J. O'Connell
Cinematography	Isidore Mankofsky
Running time	90 mins.
Release
Original network	NBC
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	January 22 – April 24, 1977
Chronology
Related shows	NBC Sunday Mystery Movie

Lanigan's Rabbi is an American crime drama series that aired on NBC during the first half of 1977.

Based upon a series of novels by Harry Kemelman, the series stars Art Carney as Police Chief Paul Lanigan, who fights crime in a small California town with the help of his best friend, Rabbi David Small (Bruce Solomon). Small's ability in this area was attributed to his "rabbinic mind", and his Talmudic training. However, an added element for the David Small novels and the Lanigan's Rabbi series was that Small was usually trying to balance his crime-solving assistance to Chief Lanigan with synagogue politics, usually involving some congregants who would be happy to see the rabbi lose his position. Co-starring in the series was Janis Paige and Janet Margolin as Mrs. Lanigan and Mrs. Small, respectively. Another regular on the series was Carney's daughter, Barbara Carney.

After a successful pilot film based on Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, the first novel in the Rabbi David Small series, aired in 1976, Lanigan's Rabbi was produced as a series of 90-minute telefilms beginning in January 1977. For the series, Bruce Solomon replaced Stuart Margolin, who had played Rabbi Small in the pilot; the unrelated Janet Margolin played his wife. The series was broadcast on a rotating schedule under the umbrella title NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. Other series involved in the scheme were Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan (formerly McMillan & Wife). Lanigan's Rabbi was the last series added to the Mystery Movie format (it replaced Quincy, M.E. at mid-season when that series was spun off into a weekly program); in the spring, NBC cancelled all four series and discontinued the Mystery Movie format. As a result, only four Lanigan's Rabbi episodes were broadcast.