Barbary Coast (TV series)

Barbary Coast is an American television series that aired on ABC. The pilot film first aired on May 4, 1975 and the series itself premiered September 8, 1975; the last episode aired January 9, 1976.
"Barbary Coast" was inspired by a similar 19th-century spy series, "The Wild Wild West", and like the earlier program, "Barbary Coast" mixed the genres of Western and secret agent drama.
Synopsis.
"Barbary Coast" features the adventures of 19th century government agent Jeff Cable (played by William Shatner), and his pal, conman and gambler Cash ("Cash makes no enemies") Conover (Doug McClure; played by Dennis Cole in the pilot) who is the owner of the Golden Gate Casino. This was Shatner's first attempt at a live-action series since "" (also produced by Paramount Television).
In their battle against various criminals and foreign spies, Cable and Conover operated out of the latter's saloon and casino located on San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast. Like "Wild Wild West's" Artemus Gordon, Cable frequently donned disguises in the course of his investigations.
The producers modeled the show's Byzantine plotlines/conspiracies on the "" paradigm (in fact, they hired a number of "Mission: Impossible's" writers). Other regulars on the series included recurring "Wild Wild West" villain actor Richard Kiel as Moose Moran and Dave Turner as Thumbs.
Home media.
The series was released on DVD and Blu-ray in June 2014.
Awards and nominations.
The pilot episode, an ABC Sunday Night Movie, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Art Direction for Jack De Shields and set decorator Reg Allen.
Cultural references.
The "Mad Magazine" "Star Trek" musical satire "Keep on Trekkin'" (1976) depicts William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on the bridge of the "U.S.S. Enterprise" singing a version of "Send in the Clowns" that includes the lyric "Look at me now/At my old post/Happy that I can forget "Barbary Coast"!"