For the People (1965 TV series)

For the People is an American legal drama that aired on CBS from January 31 until May 9, 1965. The series starred William Shatner as a New York City prosecutor. It was shot on location in New York.

Premise
In his first continuing starring role on TV, William Shatner played assistant district attorney David Koster in New York City.

Koster encountered conflicts with criminals and with his superiors as he sought justice with "obsessive dedication". His immediate supervisor, bureau chief Anthony Celese, admired Koster's passion but tried to keep him under close control. Detective Frank Malloy worked with Koster to bring criminals to justice. Besides his conflicts at work, Koster sometimes encountered conflicts with his wife, Phyllis. As a classical viola player, she had her own priorities in life.

The series went beyond legal matters and dealt with personal problems among the characters.

Cast

 * William Shatner as David Koster, an assistant district attorney
 * Howard Da Silva as Anthony Celese, a district attorney and Koster's boss
 * Lonny Chapman as Frank Malloy, a police detective
 * Jessica Walter as Phyllis Koster, David's wife

Production
For the People was broadcast on Sundays from 9 to 10 p.m. Eastern Time. It was "rushed on the air Jan. 31 as part of the network's sweeping realignment of programming" after having been scheduled to debut the following fall. The series was canceled after its first season. The cancellation left Shatner free to accept the role of Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek.

Herbert Brodkin was the executive producer, and Joel Katz was the producer. Directors included Tom Gries, Daniel Petrie, Stuart Rosenberg, Robert Stevens, and Sam Wanamaker. Writers included David Davidson, Harold Gast, Ernest Kinoy, Andy Lewis, Albert Ruben, Albert Sanders, Alvin Sargent, Leon Tokatyan, and Art Wallace.

The series was the first to use the "active camera" concept, in which the camera went beyond recording to participate in the action, providing "the effect of immediacy".

Cancellation
Brodkin and CBS programming executive Mike Dann had contrasting views about the series's cancellation after 13 weeks. Brodkin said that CBS initially asked him to prepare the show in six weeks to be shown either on Friday nights (replacing The Reporter) or on Saturday nights (replacing Mr. Broadway). "To our horror," Brodkin said, "we discovered that our time period was opposite Bonanza." He added that in that time slot "we didn't have a chance".

Dann refused to blame the time slot, noting that The Ed Sullivan Show was the lead-in, with Candid Camera following For the People. "People who usually stay right through that sequence of programming went to the trouble to switch it off," he said.