"Cutter" TV Pilot Intro

This is the main title sequence from "Cutter," a 1972 TV pilot film for what its developers hoped would become a new “NBC Mystery Movie” segment. Scripted by Dean Hargrove and directed by Richard Irving, this 90-minute feature starred Peter DeAnda as Frank Cutter, a black Chicago private eye very much in the John Shaft mode, who was hired to track down a missing football quarterback. Former "High Chaparral" regular Cameron Mitchell guest-starred, along with Barbara Rush, Robert Webber, Janet MacLachlan, and ex-vaudevillian Stepin Fetchit.
The character Cutter came off as cool, sophisticated, but with street toughness when he needed it. He had an answering service, but no office. His seeming preference for white women added a daring-for-the-time element to the story, and an ambulance pursuit in the dénouement marked at least some difference from the usual TV car chase scene.
While I enjoy watching this film as a cultural artifact, I can’t imagine a follow-up series succeeding alongside “Columbo,” “McMillan & Wife,” and “Banacek.” Apparently, NBC executives were of a like mind, for they passed on "Cutter" in favor of “Tenafly,” another show about an African-American gumshoe (played by James McEachin), but one who was rather less courageous and successful.
The "Cutter" theme music was composed by Oliver Nelson.

[@vincentfisher4748]

I remember watching that NBC pilot movie back in 72 . Most definitely a TV version of Shaft .

[@richardrileysr4694]

A really good show, unfortunately only the pilot episode aired. It was never picked up for a series.