to any project based on The FBI Story. It was the longest-running of all of Quinn Martin's television series, airing nine seasons. Background Every detail of every episode of the series was carefully vetted by F.B.I. second-in-command Clyde Tolson. Actors playing F.B.I. agents, and other participants, were given background checks to guarantee that no "criminals, subversives, or Communists" were associated with the show. The premiere episode of the first season, "The Monster," about a handsome serial killer who strangled women with their own hair, so shocked Tolson that he recommended the show be cancelled. J. Edgar Hoover attempted to cancel the show on at least seven other occasions. Upon Tolson's direction, the violence in the show was severely curtailed in the final three seasons. Cast Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Inspector Lewis Erskine Philip Abbott as Arthur Ward William Reynolds as Special Agent Tom Colby Lynn Loring as Barbara Erskine (season 1) Stephen Brooks as Special Agent Jim Rhodes (seasons 1 and 2) Shelly Novack as Special Agent Chris Daniels (season 9) Dean Harens as Special Agent Bryan Durant Lew Brown as Special Agent Allen Bennett Anthony Eisley as Special Agent Chet Randolph Hank Brandt as Special Agent William Converse (recurring role) Episodes Nielsen ratings Season 1: Not in Top 30 Season 2: #29, 20.2 Season 3: #22, 21.2 Season 4: #18, 21.7 Season 5: #24, 20.6 Season 6: #10, 23.0 Season 7: #17, 22.4 Season 8: #29, 19.2 Season 9: Not in Top 30 Home media Warner Bros. (under the Warner Home Video label) has released all nine seasons of The F.B.I. on DVD in region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. These are Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases and are available through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. The ninth and final season was released on September 23, 2014. Similar series An updated and revamped version of the series, Today's FBI, executive produced by David Gerber for Columbia Pictures Television, aired on ABC from October 1981 through April 1982 in the same Sunday 8 p.m. time slot as its predecessor. A remake of the original series, produced by Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment for Fox, was set for air in Fall 2008, but it didn't materialise. In September 2018, a similar series, titled FBI, debuted on CBS; this series was co-created by Dick Wolf and Craig Turk for Universal Television. Unlike The F.B.I. and Today's FBI, however, the cases presented are largely fictional.