Vincent Bagetta, more accustomed to playing scum, often "connected," is the good guy this time around, a lawyer taking cases his boss (Ken Swofford) doesn't want, or doesn't want done that way. It's like a police show where the policeman bucks his superiors (or Kolchak without the panache or the ghoul-of-the -week or the incredibly talented Darrin McGavin).
They gave Bagetta's Capra all the usual baggage: a secretary like Perry Mason's Della Street, a kid assistant who'd been fired from the firm yet still did Capra's leg work, etc. . . . But somehow, the show didn't gel.
Capra was more detective than lawyer, determined to find his clients innocent before trial to avoid public confessions as in "Perry Mason."
Eddie Capra was so up to date to the late 1970s it looks like an antique today. As opposed to another short-lived show, "Ellery Queen," which had a period late-1940s setting (though with 1970s sensibilities and stars) and so doesn't look these days like a relic of its time.
Frankly, I came of age in the 1970s. I was a Junior in high school when this show aired and had other things on my mind than sitting home watching TV. I didn't like the 1970s then and I have no nostalgia for it. But these days I try to catch up on things I missed and Eddie Capra fell into my lap accidentally after 45 years of never hearing about it. It's worth watching once, but despite a lot of promise I thought the show was ultimately special. Sorry.
