The Partners
| The Partners | |
|---|---|
Don Adams and Bruce Gordon in Two in a Pen
|
|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Written by | Earl Barret Bruce Howard Laurence Marks Ed Simmons |
| Directed by |
Don Adams Earl Bellamy Richard Benedict Gary Nelson |
| Starring |
Don Adams Rupert Crosse |
| Composer(s) |
Richard Hazard Lalo Schifrin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Arne Sultan |
| Producer(s) | Arne Sultan Lee Wolfberg |
| Cinematography | William Cronjager Meredith M. Nicholson |
| Running time | 26 min. |
| Production company(s) | Don/Lee Productions Universal Television |
| Distributor | NBCUniversal Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 18, 1971 – September 8, 1972 |
The Partners is an American sitcom that aired on September 18, 1971 through September 8, 1972 on NBC.
The program featured Don Adams and Rupert Crosse as bumbling detectives (Adams' Lenny Crooke being the more inept of the two). Veteran actor John Doucette played the exasperated Captain Andrews, a character not unlike "the Chief" portrayed by Edward Platt in Adams' earlier Get Smart. Dick Van Patten (who later gained fame as Tom Bradford on Eight Is Enough) played the sycophantic desk Sergeant Higgenbottem. Adams' real-life cousin, Robert Karvelas (best known as Agent Larabee from Get Smart) had a recurring role as Freddie, a character who compulsively confessed to crimes he did not commit.
The pilot featured guest appearances by Joey Forman (Adams' Crooke mistakenly bursts into his apartment while Foreman is showering and orders him to "drop the soap"), Art Metrano and Yvonne Craig (best known as Batgirl from ABC's Batman).
Unlike many television programs of its day, The Partners eschewed a traditional opening title sequence. The opening credits were merely interspersed during the first few minutes, akin to the technique that has become quite commonplace today. The theme music, which accompanied the closing credits and occasionally popped up during the program itself, was composed by Lalo Schifrin, best known for the theme to Mission: Impossible.
Unlike many other sitcoms of the 1960s and 70s, there is no family seen in the show. There are not many characters altogether.
Detective Lennie Crooke: (Don Adams) Det. Lennie Crooke is a slightly inept police detective, a bit similar to Adams' previous character on Get Smart, Maxwell Smart. Details on his life and family are very sparse. He has mentioned on one or two occasions that he has acrophobia, the fear of heights, and he was never in Korea, according to his statement in the pilot episode, Here Come The Fuzz. He has a likelihood to forget things that no other sane detective would forget, including his pants. He is not married and we do see inside his apartment on one or two occasions. It appears to be very neat with every personal item in its own place. He isn't too intelligent and is prone to get everyone in a room confused in his attempts to carry on an intelligent conversation. He tends to dislike the desk sergeant Higgenbottem, who in turn doesn't seem to like Lennie. The two will argue about anything, such as how "It's not true that George let me escape but it is true that I locked George in the closet, so when I said it was true, I was referring to how it wasn't true that that was true" or how "They stole 13 cars in the last two weeks and that makes 14 if you count our car, but then they stole our other car which would make it 15 but then the car we found in the driveway takes it back to down to 14." To which Higgenbottem will reply, "No, I'm counting both your cars and that car because whether you found it or not it was originally stolen and I'm also counting the Rolls Royce so that makes 16." And then Lennie will continue to argue that he had forgotten the Rolls Royce and that made it 15 again, and so they would go on until Captain Andrews put a stop to it. The two seem to rather enjoy these comical arguments, in fact. Lennie was in every episode.
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