Outsider, The

1 9 6 8 – 1 9 6 9 (USA)
26 x 60 minute episodes

This NBC crime drama series starred Darren McGavin as David Ross, an embittered ex-con who now worked as a private detective in Los Angeles.

Abandoned by his family as an infant and raised in a home for boys, Ross had served time for second-degree murder and – after he was pardoned – found himself something of a misfit in society. And so he became a private eye.

Ross had an office in Hollywood and lived in a moderately furnished apartment at 36841 Braxton. There was a refrigerator but no food (he seemed to survive on the one bottle of milk in it).

He made “less than $10,000 a year”, drove a beat-up sedan and should have looked dishevelled. But the opposite was true and he was, in fact, well dressed, charming and polite – or rugged and two fisted, depending on the situation.

Darren McGavin also provided the narration.

David Ross
Darren McGavin