# Petrocelli (1974)

> A Harvard-educated Italian-American lawyer trades big-city practice for a sleepy Southwest town and keeps defending accused murderers from a trailer in the country.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/10859

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 44
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Sidney J. Furie
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Barry Newman, Albert Salmi, Susan Howard, David Huddleston, Robbie Rist, Julie Kavner, Kenneth Tobey, Paul Koslo
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071032/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: earnest, measured, wry, grounded

## Synopsis

Petrocelli (1974-1976) is an American legal drama created by Sidney J. Furie for NBC, a two-season run of 44 hour-long episodes. Barry Newman plays Anthony J. Petrocelli, an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who abandoned the fast money and frenetic pace of big-city practice to work in a quiet city in the American Southwest. He lives with his wife Maggie (Susan Howard) in a trailer out in the country while their new house is built, and the couple gets around in a battered old pickup truck. Each episode is a self-contained courtroom case, with Petrocelli taking on a new client accused of murder, facing prosecutors and police in a region that seems too calm for the violence that keeps finding him. Albert Salmi as Pete Ritter and David Huddleston as Lieutenant Ponce give the courtroom and investigative sides their recurring friction. The tone is measured and earnest, with a 1970s network sensibility that favors character, wry domestic moments, and the steady rhythm of trial work over flashy spectacle. Fans of Perry Mason and The Defenders will find resonance in its principled lone attorney and its case-by-case moral pressure. The show is grounded in its rural Southwest setting and reads as a classic example of the era's lawyer-centered network drama.

## Shows like Petrocelli

- [Baretta (1975)](https://ember.film/tv/3058)
- [Trial & Error (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/60733)
- [The Practice (1997)](https://ember.film/tv/2901)
- [Jake and the Fatman (1987)](https://ember.film/tv/4301)
- [Dragnet (1967)](https://ember.film/tv/41051)
- [The Lincoln Lawyer (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/97231)
- [Perry Mason (1957)](https://ember.film/tv/3971)
- [Quincy, M.E. (1976)](https://ember.film/tv/2067)
- [In Justice (2006)](https://ember.film/tv/2340)
- [Have Gun, Will Travel (1957)](https://ember.film/tv/10215)

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