I've often wondered if the trio of Ed, Mark and Eve lead to the "Mod Squad" casting of Pete, Link and Julie. Does anyone know if it actually did? I went to this Mod Squad site, but found no answer.
shareI would have to think that the "Ironside" casting was an influence. It does seem, however, that ideas float around the universe and and then land on dozens of folks at the same time.
"It's as red as The Daily Worker and just as sore."
this type of casting was cutting edge in the late 60s- if it were the 50s or early 60s and there was a team of cops they'd all be Caucasian men with the main differences being their hair color and different personalities (77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye etc). Blacks and women were groundbreaking in the late 60s.
shareNo this is not true. Squad came out exactly one year after ironside and Aaron Spelling says that the script for Mod Squad was written a couple years before it actually premiered because when it was first shopped to networks, no one wanted it. Aaron Spaelling also says the same about his show The Rookies, when it was first shopped no one wanted it. Besides we have to look at Aaron Spelling as the driving force because he is the one who came up with the concepts other than Quinn Martin as in Cannon, The F B I etc.
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I read that Mod Squad was proposed as a series in 1960. If this is true,does anyone know if the original intent was for a white male, black male and white female to be the cast. Compared to what was on in 1960 that seems highly unlikely so I think that the success of Ironside did play a part in the cast breakdown.
Funny how in Mod Squad the tag line was one white, one black and one blonde (so 40 years ago the de facto female cast member HAD to have platinum blonde hair). Also, the black male couldn't be light skinned- if you notice the blacks (especially the men) who were cast in shows in those days were nearly always clearly black with fairly dark skin. Latinos, asians and native Americans were extremely rare in regular roles on tv then (and in more than one case were played by actors who were of other ethnicities).