The Outsider (1968–1969) User Reviews (11)

A sleeper that should be better known

[tony-woodward · 7/10 · 10 August 2009]

I haven't seen this show since it first appeared, but it still stands out in my memory of the 1960s so it must have been good.

There's one scene I remember vividly and it encapsulates the "loser" aura of McGavin's character in the show. He is looking out of the window of a tall office tower and sees someone in the parking lot far below backing into his car. He watches helplessly as the driver gets out, writes a note and slips it under his windshield wiper. Later, when he gets back to his car he reads the note. I can't remember the exact words after 40 years but it says something like "Sorry I dented your car. There are people watching and they think I'm leaving my name, address and insurance company. But I'm not!" I still grin at the memory of that scene, and it sums up the character's life. You have to feel for him and when he manages to solve a case you have to rejoice for him. Our natural support for the underdog is one of the main reasons for watching this series.

I can understand why I love this show, because the Rockford Files is another of my favourites and they are similar except that Jim Rockford has family and friends (some of them false). But David Ross doesn't seem to have anyone. To that extent The Outsider is what the title announces it to be, and to that extent it's a bit bleak. But it has some wonderful moments - at least in my memory. Faced with the rubbish that is on TV today I am dying to see it again.

Darren McGavin is always able to inject cynical humour into a part. Like Vincent Price you can always detect that he as a real person is relishing his role. This is why he is one of my favourite actors of the period. I think he was sadly underused, and when I caught up with him later he always seemed to be playing superior villains in roles which restricted him. As an aside I may be the only person alive who never saw him in The Night Stalker.

Truly an Outsider

[skoyles · 23 September 2003]

McGavin, tired, depressed, alone and lonely drinking milk from the carton: an image seared in the mind from 1968. I did all I could to watch every episode of this high point in the skilled acting of Darren McGavin. The atmosphere, the ethos, of "The Outsider" captured its title exactly. While I am sure that no reference to Camus' "L'Etranger", so frequently translated as "The Outsider", was meant, nevertheless there were resonances of the existential anti-hero of the famous book.

Precurser to "The Rockford Files"

[ronzom · 10/10 · 19 August 2017]

Roy Huggins, creator of "77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, and The Fugitive" made this series in 1968 but had no takers. It totals one pilot movie and 26 episodes. It was a very different detective show for the time. Huggins later recycled aspects of this series in creating "The Rockford Files". Matt Ross, like Jim Rockford, was a private detective who had spent time in prison. Neither used a gun when they could help it. Neither was trusted by the police. Rockford kept hid gun in a cereal box. Ross kept his gun in the refrigerator. Rockford's office was in a trailer. Ross's was in a run down building. Both men had the persona of a wistful loser. Darren McGavin, the lead was excellent in the role. Probably the difference in success for the two series was that Matt Ross was a loner with no family or close friends. Rockford's family and friends added a layer of warmth to the series.

Everyman's Justice

[jim_altman · 10/10 · 16 May 2008]

Roy Huggins, Darren McGavin, and "The Summer of Love" combined to give us a classic, though short-lived, everyman hero of truth, justice, and the American way. David Ross didn't get the girl or the reward or fame or wealth. He got beat up regularly and his clunker Plymouth usually received another undeserved dent, but he had ethics and he knew sh** from shinola. When he was reincarnated a few years later as Jim Rockford, the endings got happier (and more contrived) but for David Ross the calvary didn't come over the rise in the nick of time and the villain didn't always get his just desserts. That's the way real life is. I'm only sorry that the world didn't have David Ross to kick around for a few more seasons.

I'll bet you're wondering how I got into a mess like this!

[masonj-1 · 10/10 · 17 July 2009]

When I was a child and watched this show, I looked forward to those words every week. The show would start with a cliffhanger followed by "My name is David Ross and I'll bet you're wondering how I got into a mess like this!"

When became aware of the genre this show grew out of, I came to believe that it (the show) was an homage to Raymond Chandler. I can think of very few others that captured the spirit of those detective novels so well. Of course this is looking back in memory and it has been many years.

I would love to see how this series stand the test of time. If this were available I would buy it in a minute. Does anyone know if it is available or if it soon might be?

I was probably the only one to watch this show regularly, ? No!

[rogerscorpion · 6 March 2006]

No, GMR-4--you weren't. I watched it, too. I LOVED McGavin.

In fact--'The Rockford Files' WAS a reworking of 'The Outsider'. You listed some of the similarities, but left out the fact that they were BOTH ex-con P.I.s. David Ross had served his time & was paroled. That's why he carried a hidden pistol on his ankle. Rockford had been pardoned. They gave him family, too. This softened some of the cynicism of the lead.

See--Roy Huggins created both shows. After 'The Outsider' failed--he later pitched the idea to---Stephen J. Cannell! They reworked it, lightened it & created 'The Rockford Files' together. The reformulated show was a smash.

This used to be my dad's favorite show...

[richard-s-swol · 27 February 2006]

While the plot lines and stories escape me...I was pretty young then...I remember the show.

My dad used to love this series. I remember him being pretty amused by the credits where Darren opens his fridge and slugs down some milk only to discover it had gone over.

The show and actor were soon, and forever, nicknamed "Sour milk" in our house.

Later I caught the premiere of the "Night Stalker" movie. I was hooked.

Darren presented himself in most of his characters, in such a way that you wish that you could have known him personally. He was the irascible uncle with the heart of gold.

Darren passed away this last weekend. The world is poorer for his passing.

Outsider favorite line

[beguna · 14 August 2010]

Ross had been sent money to meet with a rich client who turned out to be dead. The only clue as to what he was being hired for was a telescope in the dead man's yard looking at the backyards of his rich neighbors. So Ross started investigating the neighbors. After cross examining a frustrated neighbor at a country club, Ross is walking out of the fenced in area and the rich neighbor screams thru the fence.... "leave us all alone". Ross looks up thru the fence for a moment and laughs and starts walking away. Neighbor screams out thru the fence...."what's so funny?". Ross replies, looking at the neighbor standing behind the wrought iron bars of the fence looking frustrate, "ever been to a zoo?".

Just missed greatness

[Cheyenne-Bodie · 15 September 2007]

Producer Roy Huggins, who created both "77 Sunset Strip" and "The Fugitive", sort of mixes the two concepts here.

In "The Outsider" Huggins imagines what would have happened if Richard Kimble had gone to prison for a long period and then been pardoned.

I think Huggins was looking for an actor similar to David Janssen to play ex-con private eye David Ross. Jack Lord, who was in the David Janssen mold, was first offered the role. He would have been perfect casting, but Lord astutely chose "Hawaii 5-0" instead. (When Huggins remade "The Outsider" as "The Rockford Files", he cast James Garner, who was also reminiscent of David Janssen.) Janssen and Huggins had worked together three times, the first time being way back in 1957 on "Conflict".

Huggins had written a superb and original character in David Ross, but casting the role was critical. I would have considered Robert Lansing, Pernell Roberts (without toupee), George Maharis, Stuart Whitman, John Saxon, Bradford Dillman or Rip Torn. Or maybe Huggins could even have got David Janssen with a sweet enough offer.

Darren McGavin was one of the greatest television actors of his generation, but he wasn't in peak form here. He had already brilliantly played private detective Mike Hammer, so he wasn't the freshest casting. McGavin was forced to wear a toupee as Ross, and the toupee made him less interesting looking. McGavin didn't project the great soulfulness and weariness that David Janssen might have and that could have been appropriate for a man who spent a long period in jail and was a lifetime outsider.

Huggins wasn't able to find a way to properly exploit the ex-con aspect of his hero. Maybe Ross should have been trying to find the person who committed the crime he went to jail for.

"The Outsider" made too much use of tired old Universal sets and there was little location shooting. Also Pete Ruggolo's music was way too reminiscent of Huggins' "Run For Your Life". The sets and the music were really disappointing. The cinematography didn't give a distinctive noir look to the show. There should have been more night for night shooting. And Huggins didn't seem to spend as much on each episode as Leonard Freedman did on "Hawaii 5-0" and Quinn Martin did on his shows. "The Outsider" seemed to be done on the cheap.

But Huggins' basic conception for this show was near brilliant. Huggins tried to turn all the TV private eye conventions on their head (conventions "77 Sunset Strip" helped introduce). David Ross didn't live in a magnificent apartment with a view of the city, he didn't have a leggy secretary, he didn't drive a sports car, he wasn't highly educated (actually he wasn't even a high school graduate), he didn't have a close pal on the force (the police treated him like scum), he didn't have handsome partners who were like brothers, he wasn't a great humanist who took cases for free, he wasn't rich (actually he was poor), he didn't refuse divorce cases on principle....

Even with a less than perfect execution, "The Outsider" is one of television's finest examples of the private eye genre.

The hit private eye movie "Harper" (1966), where Paul Newman played a version of Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer, also appears to have been a strong influence on "The Outsider". I think Huggins got the name of his hero David Ross by combining the first names of David Janssen and Ross Macdonald.

I was probably the only one to watch this show regularly

[gmr-4 · 4 September 2000]

Flash in the pan in spite of a strong star.

It was O.K., but frankly fell into the species (genus?) of L.A. P.I., not the most original idea. In a way, however, THE OUTSIDER may have anticipated the wildly successful ROCKFORD FILES, with its small-time and financially struggling sole proprietor, but the latter was far more lively, stocked with interesting characters, and had a whimsical touch. The T.V. movie which preceded THE OUTSIDER, if I recall it accurately after more than thirty years, promised more than the series subsequently delivered. Too bad, because Darren's good.

Wish I could get my hour back

[TC-4 · 25 August 2001]

I had never seen this show when it was on the first time as I was working 2 jobs at the time. This show was on one of the cable channels over the weekend. The only reason I watched it was the fact that I like Darren McGavin. This was not the tough Darren that played Mike Hammer or Kolchak but a very toned down character with no bite. The story line was awful and right out of the private-eye tv show cookie-cutter scripts of the time. I will never bother watching another episode again.