But those came along decates later, in the era of smeary videotape and synthesizers, so they too prove inadequate as a point of comparison. Its star-hosted re-enactments of violent crimes have more in common with the Cheesy Recreation Theater aesthetic of America’s Most Wanted, Unsolved Mysteries and Rescue 911. But Lawbreaker looked and felt nothing like those shows. Like Day in Court or the early Divorce Court, it used actors to dramatize actual incidents. Like the earlier Dragnet and Highway Patrol, it venerated the work of the police in a stone-faced-to-the-point-of-hysteria attitude. Whatever its name was, it’s not like anything else that was on television in the mid-sixties. But the title that appeared on screen was singular, no article, and celebrity-possessory: Lee Marvin Presents Lawbreaker. The newspaper listings during its original run usually went with just Lawbreaker. The trade papers then, and the reference books now, call it The Lawbreakers. The series is so obscure that no one seems to agree even on its name.
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