The Equalizer is an American action crime drama television series, originally airing on CBS from September 18, 1985, to August 24, 1989, which was co-created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. It starred Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a retired intelligence agent with a mysterious past, who uses the skills from his former career to exact justice on behalf of innocent people who find themselves in dangerous circumstances, while sometimes also dealing with people from his past in covert operations who want to pull him back in or settle old scores. In the years after its cancellation, the show became a cult classic
His contacts were also prone to human foibles that ranged from egoism to domestic problems.
| April 8, 1986
| 10.8
| 1985–86
| 63
| 12.6
| May 27, 1987
| 13.4
| 1986–87
| 36
| 15.4
| May 4, 1988
| 11.9
| 1987–88
| 54
| 12.8
| August 24, 1989
| 8.2
| 1988–89
| 66
| 11.0 However, for People, Jeff Jarvis wrote, "The plot’s confusing and the show’s as erratic as a pacemaker on low batteries".
Awards and nominations
|-
! scope="row" | 1986
| 38th Primetime Emmy
| Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
| Edward Woodward for playing Robert McCall
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|
|-
! scope="row" | 1986
| 2nd Artios Award
| Best Casting for Dramatic Episodic Television
| Lois Planco
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|
|-
! scope="row" | 1987
| 39th Primetime Emmy
| Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
| Edward Woodward for playing Robert McCall
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|
|-
! scope="row" | 1987
| 3rd Artios Award
| Best Casting for Dramatic Episodic Television
| Lois Planco
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|
|-
! scope="row" | 1988
| 40th Primetime Emmy
| Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
| Edward Woodward for playing Robert McCall
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|
|-
! scope="row" | 1989
| 41st Primetime Emmy
| Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
| Shirley Knight for playing Kay (Robert McCall's ex-wife) in "Time Present, Time Past"
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|
|-
! scope="row" | 1989
| 5th Artios Award
| Best Casting for Dramatic Episodic Television
| Lois Planco
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1990
| 42nd Primetime Emmy
| Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
| Edward Woodward for playing Robert McCall
|
|
Home media
On February 12, 2008, Universal Studios released Season 1 of The Equalizer on DVD in Region 1 (US only). was released on September 1, 2023.
2021 television revival series
In November 2019, CBS announced that a reboot was in development with Queen Latifah in the lead role as Robyn McCall. Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller were named as showrunners with Latifah herself as an executive producer. On January 27, 2020, CBS issued a pilot order for the new version.
The series was among the 14 pilots ordered by CBS in February 2020 and was fast tracked to series the following March, as they are unable to film their pilots where Universal Television was shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On May 8, 2020, CBS picked up the series and they added Chris Noth as William Bishop, a quirky ex-CIA director who is the opposite of Latifah. It premiered on February 7, 2021, after Super Bowl LV.
Literature
Michael Sloan wrote a series of novels about the character. The first is The Equalizer, published in 2014, followed by Killed in Action: An Equalizer Novel, released in 2018. The novels are a modern reimagining of the original series and focus on McCall leaving The Company and eventually becoming a private investigator in New York. They feature a number of original recurring characters from the television series such as Mickey Kostmayer, Control, and Scott McCall. A third novel, Equalizer: Requiem was released in 2020.
See also
- Callan, a TV spy series in which Woodward played a character similar to that of The Equalizers Robert McCall.
References
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