Vegas (stylized as Vega$) is an American private detective crime drama television series that aired on ABC from April 25, 1978, to June 3, 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series (with the exception of special episodes filmed in Hawaii and San Francisco) was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The show stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird convertible, working for a wide variety of clients, helping solve crimes, and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike.
Video Vegas (1978 TV series)
Plot
Dan Tanna is a Las Vegas private detective whose many clients include Phillip Roth (Tony Curtis), a.k.a. "Slick", the owner of multiple hotel casinos, including the Maxim Hotel and Desert Inn Hotel & Country Club, in Las Vegas. Tanna is called often to investigate criminal cases or more absurd situations, such as a nun who claims to own the land on which the Desert Inn stands.
Tanna lives on the Las Vegas Strip next to Circus Circus Hotel/Casino, in the theatrical props warehouse owned by the Desert Inn Hotel and Country Club, which he converted into his living quarters. The design of Tanna's pad allows him to park his T-bird in his living room. Tanna also uses gadgets that were very high-tech for the time, such as a car-phone and an answering machine that physically picks the phone up off the hook and into the microphone of a tape recorder). Tanna is a veteran of the Vietnam War. His past in Vietnam is illustrated through flashbacks in various episodes.
Maps Vegas (1978 TV series)
Episodes
Supporting cast
Phyllis Davis played Beatrice Travis, Tanna's assistant, who is a single mom and a former showgirl. There is evidence that she was married before, but her husband had died. Although she and Tanna made a dashing couple, their relationship seemed to be purely platonic. Greg Morris played Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Lt. David Nelson. Nelson was a no-nonsense Metro cop who often had Tanna's back in his cases, and vice versa. While Nelson was never one to breach protocol, he often secretly assisted Tanna in cases Metro Police couldn't officially touch.
Naomi Stevens played police sergeant Bella Archer, who also assisted Tanna and Nelson. Archer was used more extensively in the first season. Bart Braverman played "Binzer", a part-time hotel pool boy who did Tanna's leg work and usually provided comic relief. In the beginning of the series, Binzer was a petty thief who fled to Vegas to escape his former partners in crime from back east, as described in one episode, where his real name is revealed to be Robert Borso. Tanna seemed to have taken him under his wing and used his knowledge and connections of the street. Judy Landers played Dan Tanna's other assistant, Angie, who was also a showgirl, but unlike the savvy Beatrice was usually an airhead and would sometimes get things screwed up. She appeared only during the first season. Despite being initially billed as a co-star, actor Tony Curtis appeared infrequently during the first season, and only made a few appearances in subsequent years. Catherine Hickland played Dan Tanna's older sister, Julie, in the pilot.
Crossovers
In the season 3 premiere of Charlie's Angels titled "Angels in Vegas", Robert Urich does a cameo as his Vegas character Dan Tanna at the end of the episode. This episode aired the week before the Vegas series premiere.
Syndication
Vegas was one of the first shows to air in off-network syndication on FX when it began in 1994; FX ceased airing episodes around 2000. Vegas is now airing on the Decades network as of July 2015.
DVD releases
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released all three seasons of Vegas on DVD in a Region 1 box set on May 2, 2017. In Region 4, Madman Entertainment has released the first season on DVD in Australia.
References
External links
- Vegas on IMDb
- Vegas at TV.com
- Review of 1st Season DVD set and production history of series
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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