Richie Brockelman, Private Eye

Richie Brockelman, Private Eye is an American detective drama that was broadcast on NBC for five episodes in March and April 1978, with Dennis Dugan in the starring role. The Rockford Files was used to launch the series via character crossover in a 2-hour episode at the end of the 1977-78 season.

Premise
The hour-long series focused on Richie Brockelman, a 22-year-old, college-educated private investigator with his own agency in Los Angeles, California. (Dugan was actually 31 at the time the series was made.) Also seen on the show were Barbara Bosson as Brockleman's secretary Sharon, Robert Hogan as Brockleman's police contact Sgt. Ted Coopersmith, and John Randolph as Richie's father. (The role of Richie's father was initially played by Norman Fell in the 2-hour pilot, and would be later played by Harold Gould on a crossover episode with The Rockford Files.)

Brockleman was consistently underestimated due to his extremely youthful, clean-cut looks, which were coupled with an innocent, nerdy but friendly and often overly polite demeanor. In actuality, Brockleman was a sharp, savvy operator, and people's mistaken impression of him was something he used to his advantage. Brockleman's main method in solving his cases was his ability to talk his way into or out of any situation—though not always completely successfully. Usually there was a woman involved in the plot that was in some kind of distress; in the end, Brockleman would solve the case, but would not get the girl.

Initially filmed as a pilot for a TV series in 1976 titled "Richie Brockelman: The Missing 24 Hours" it was not picked up by NBC. Stephen J. Cannell reworked the character into a two-hour episode of The Rockford Files titled "The House On Willis Avenue" as the last new episode of the 1977-78 season. Rockford and Brockelman join forces to solve the murder of a veteran PI who taught both of them the ropes. It was followed by a limited run of Richie Brockelman, Private Eye. NBC instantly picked up the series as a compensation by the producers for the cancellation of an aborted sitcom Off the Wall. Brockelman later appeared in another two-part episode of The Rockford Files, "Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job", at the end of the 1978-79 season.

The theme song, "School's Out," was written by Mike Post, Pete Carpenter, Herb Pederson and Stephen Geyer. An extended version of the song from Mike Post's Television Theme Songs appeared on iTunes and amazon.com for download. The song's performers were credited as Stephen Geyer & Herb Peterson and Mike Post & Pete Carpenter.

Cast

 * Dennis Dugan as Richie Brockelman
 * Robert Hogan as Sgt. Ted Coopersmith
 * Barbara Bosson as Sharon Deterson
 * Norman Fell as Mr. Brockelman (Pilot)
 * John Randolph as Mr. Brockelman (Series)

Cancellation
After its launch from The Rockford Files, Richie Brockelman, Private Eye initially performed well for NBC; however, after the five episodes were broadcast, the ratings were not strong enough for the network to order a full season of new episodes for the 1978-79 season. NBC was looking for hit shows at the time and Richie Brockelman needed to be scheduled as a follow-up after a strong lead-in, which the network did not have at the time.

The series was broadcast in England on ITV Anglia television during the summer of 1978. In the spring of 1979, a second two-hour episode of The Rockford Files was produced that ended the show.

When The Rockford Files went into syndication in the 1980s, the five episodes of "Richie Brockelman" were included as part of the package. Two of the episodes were later re-edited for syndication as a 90-minute Universal TV movie titled The Diary of Richie Brockelman.

Appearances on The Rockford Files
The character of "Richie Brockelman" appeared on two episodes of The Rockford Files; both episodes were two hours long:

When a fellow private investigator is killed on the Ventura Freeway, Jim Rockford and Richie Brockelman team up to find out if it really was an accident. This episode first introduced the Richie Brockelman character and was used as a spin-off episode for the series. In this episode, it is established that Richie Brockleman is 22 years old. Harold Gould plays the part of Mr. Brockelman, Richie's father. The elder Brockelman gets cheated out of his business and Richie enlists Rockford to help him run a con on the men who cheated his father.
 * "The House on Willis Avenue" (season four, episodes 21 & 22; original airdate February 24, 1978).
 * "Never Send a Boy King to Do a Man's Job" (season five, episodes 20 & 21; original airdate March 3, 1979).