The Man and the City follows Thomas Jefferson Alcala, the long-term Hispanic mayor of a major but unidentified city in the Southwestern United States. Quinn's WASP deputy Andy Hays main role was to make sure that the well-meaning Mayor Alcala did not become so engrossed in aiding individual constituents with their problems that he failed to address the issues facing the city as a whole.
Mayor Tom Alcala is asked to intercede on behalf of a deaf couple faced with losing their seven-year-old adopted son because of their handicap. June Lockhart guest stars.
Mayor Alcala is given a chance to react as a man first, and a politician second, in this love story with an inevitable unhappy ending. Janice Rule is cast as a strong-willed member of the city council who opposes Mayor Alcala's proposed plans for a new water system. The two vivid personalities clash and fall in love — but there's a hitch — Miss Rule is a dying woman.
Christopher Connelly plays a young medical student and part-time city worker who comes to Mayor Alcala seeking help. The boy has performed an emergency tracheotomy on the victim of a car crash, saved the man's life, but now is being sued. Severn Darden plays the big lawyer handling the case. Henry Jones is the victim and Fay Spain plays his wife. A man named Booth, who donated a big sum into Alcala's campaign, wants the Mayor to do something about illegal workers.
Ed Nelson guest stars with Laurie Prange. — We learn tonight that Mayor Alcala (Anthony Quinn) plays the saxophone and gets his relaxation and enjoyment playing with the school orchestra. As a result, the mayor and the school's principal develop a close friendship. Mayor Alcala's school for gifted young artists is threatened when a harpist accuses the principal of causing her pregnancy. The future of the Thomas J. Alcala School of Music and Art, founded by Mayor Alcala, is jeopardized when principal Philip Eastman is accused by young harpist Janet Fields of causing her pregnancy. Mayor Alcala, who enjoys playing saxophone with the school's youth orchestra, believes in Eastman's innocence and realizes that a scandal could cut off funds for the school for gifted youngsters. While Janet's father, Alfred Fields, orders Alcala to get rid of Eastman, the mayor begins an investigation.
Mayor Alcala believes in his appointee for temporary police chief, even when the man overreacts under pressure and is determined to make his job permanent by solving a cop killing.
Anthony Quinn as Mayor Tom Alcala tries to find out from a contractor, played by Broderick Crawford, what really happened when a bridge under construction collapsed, killing a worker. An overpass collapses, killing a worker after Mayor Alcala insists that the city accept the low bid on a construction project.
Mexican-American Mayor Tom Alcala angers militant young Chicanos in his support of Sgt. Raul Alvarez, harsh with his own people and accused of beating one of them. The episode title refers to the phrase "Senor Pig" which is scrawled on the apartment door of an over-zealous Mexican-American cop who takes it very personally when one of his own gets into trouble. The mayor becomes involved after the policeman is charged with beating two robbery suspects and his ethnic identification with the cop creates an interesting sub-plot. Guest Henry Darrow and Anthony Quinn are two strong actors who can make such a situation believable.
The combination of a suspenseful story plus sexy Angie Dickinson as a gangster's girlfriend on the run, bolsters this entry. Anthony Quinn's concerned mayor finds himself the chief protector of a beautiful woman who could supply necessary information to put away a big time racketeer. Angie Dickinson's hard-boiled, used-up dame is well defined and her character makes a good foil for Quinn's earthy quality.
Star Anthony Quinn's youngest daughter, 18-year-old Valentine, appears with him in this episode as a member of a student committee that gets involved with an aging congressman seeking the youth vote. Alcala's friend, Congressman Lawton, wants the Senatorial nomination and fearing young voters, seeks rejuvenation treatments that include amphetamine injections.
Mayor Tom Alcala persuades a black ex-football pro, sidelined into real estate, to head youth sports clinics to combat juvenile delinquency.
Robert Foxworth is established as a good friend of Mayor Anthony Quinn. Neil Dana (Foxworth) is a man who has made money with a toy factory in the city, who treats his employees with fairness, who is generous with his money and loving to his wife (Laraine Stephens). In short, a fine citizen. But it turns out he's been a fugitive for many years and faces extradition. The show examines the questions thus brought up extremely well.
Mayor Tom Alcala tries to help a devoted but brain-damaged janitor keep his job at City Hall. A rift between a proud cabinetmaker and his mentally disturbed son. Guest star David McCallum (of UNCLE fame) plays a brain-damaged man faced with losing his job as janitor because he can't pass a written test for city employes. Mayor Alcala (Anthony Quinn) decides to help his loyal employee, but that doesn't work. Burgess Meredith, who plays McCallum's father, indignantly accuses Alcala of playing for publicity, but Alcala continues trying to save the Job for the janitor.
The Mayor tackles the problem of illegal, cheap labor from Mexico, including a pregnant Oriental seeking a Vietnam veteran, the father of her expected child.
Lois Nettleton plays a deranged woman who kidnaps a baby believing the child is her own. Mayor Alcala (Anthony Quinn) becomes involved because the baby was left in the care of his secretary (Mala Powers). Nettleton, a healthy, normal secretary who one day just picks up a baby, being cared for by Marian (Mala Powers), and takes it home as her own. Seems she's normal in every area but the one involving her own baby, which died at birth, a fact she has never been able to accept. It'll hold your interest.
The last story for the series concerns a hospital which has been a life's work for Alcala (Quinn), and a newspaper story that says corruption and thievery are going on there. Is the story true? And if so, who is the thief? Charles Aidman plays Alcala's old friend, a once great surgeon now confined to a wheelchair, and the hospital administrator. Carolyn Conwell plays his devoted wife, Peter Donat is a staff doctor and Dan Travanty is the investigative newsman, who's really not a villain — another good point for the script.
Complete episode guide for The Man and the City with detailed information about every season and episode including air dates, summaries, ratings, and streaming availability in United States.
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