McClain's Law

McClain's Law is an American made-for-TV police procedural directed by Vincent McEveety and broadcast on November 20, 1981. It is structured as a two-hour pilot episode for James Arness' police detective series McClain's Law which broadcast 14 one-hour episodes Friday nights on NBC between November 27, 1981 and March 20, 1982. Plot Jim McClain's friend Sid Lammon is murdered In Southern California's San Pedro Bay, on the morning of selling their boat and retiring, fishing boat co-owners Jim McClain and Sid Lammon are taking it for a farewell run around the bay. They meet the buyer and his lawyer Wheeler at the dock and, while receiving separate checks, are observed by three fishing boat owners, Julio Salvi, Rudy Petrovic and Joe Victor who says that his boat is better, but is not for sale and Julio laughs bitterly that, "every fishin' boat in this harbor's for sale". McClain is looking forward to sleeping late, but wakes up as usual at 4 am the next morning, goes to the dock and finds Sid watching their boat heading away to more productive fishing waters in Alaska. They go to the Flatfish Café run by their old friend Vangie Cruise who complains that the neighborhood is going downhill. Sid takes out ten thousand in cash to show her and the money attracts the attention of bar patron Starkey, one of two unsavory members of a work crew assigned to pave the dock. When McClain returns to his apartment house, police officers are waiting for him to identify Sid's body. During questioning by police detective in charge, Harry Gates, McClain displays his badge, identifying him as a retired member of the San Pedro police department and tells him that Sid was his longtime friend as well as fishing business partner and that he intends to find the killer. Sid had planned to take his family to a new life on an Iowa farm and, when McClain goes to comfort his widow Annie and two teenage sons, there is a "SOLD" sign in front of the house.