Kennedy stars as Samuel Patrick Cavanaugh, a
San Diego police detective sergeant who decides to retire and enter the
priesthood after his wife is murdered. Sarge had initially studied for the priesthood prior to his police career, but his seminary studies were interrupted by military service in the
Marine Corps during
World War II. The series, which ran in 1971-72, was preceded by a
pilot titled
Sarge: The Badge or the Cross (February 22, 1971 airdate), which set the premise for the subsequent series. One week before the show's fall premiere, on September 14, 1971, Cavanaugh traveled to San Francisco because of the death of a friend and fellow priest. His investigation caused him to cross paths with the characters from
Ironside in a two-hour special that consolidated the two series' consecutive time slots. This has been subsequently seen as a TV-movie,
The Priest Killer. The series was set in
San Diego and the pilot movie was filmed primarily on location. However, when the series went into production, episodes were filmed in
Los Angeles. The parish church used was St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church on North Broadway in
Chinatown. George Kennedy's character was originally Sarge Swanson in the pilot movie. Starting with the
Ironside crossover episode, and for the rest of the series, his last name was changed from Swanson to Cavanaugh. Supporting actor
Ramon Bieri played Sarge's police contact. In the pilot, his name was Chief Dewey, but was changed to Lt. Barney Verick, chief of detectives, for the series. Sallie Shockley (Valerie) and
Harold Sakata (Kenji Takichi) reprised their roles from the pilot movie for the series.
Henry Wilcoxon as Bishop Andrade and
Dana Elcar as Father Frank Dismore also appeared in the pilot, as well as the series. ==Dan Cooper==