User Reviews

"Slow March Up a Steep Hill" is an episode of "The FBI" that is chock full of daddy issues! First, Inspector Erskine is horrified when he learns that his daughter is planning on marrying his partner, Rhodes. The pair have only been dating a few months and Lewis wants her to first get her college degree. Second, a string of bizarre copycat bank robberies have been occurring. The masked robber is imitating a famous robber of the 1930s...such as the same clothes, the same bank, etc....but it can't be the famous robber, as he's a sad wino now. What's really happening here? Perhaps some more daddy issues??

I have seen dozens of episodes of "The FBI" but none from the first season up until now. When I began watching them yesterday, I was surprised that so much of the episodes in the beginning were about Erskine....with women throwing themselves at him (in this case, Lee Merriwether), troubles with his daughter as well as trauma he's experienced being a widower. None of this is bad....just a surprise. As far as this episode goes, it's solid and entertaining from start to finish.

When this show premiered in September, 1965 I missed the first three episodes so I've always considered this one as the first one for me. Here Erskine's age is indirectly revealed to be about 37-38 during a heated talk with his 19 year old daughter (Lynn Loring) While some feel that too much is delved into his personal life here, it's not really that much time & I don't have that problem when it involves the main characters but when it concerns guest stars and it goes way out of anything to do with the story then I'll often fast forward thru those parts. At 46, Efrem Zimbalist Jr easily does pass for a 38 year old (he looked remarkably younger even in his 80s) Zimbalist's father lived to be 95. This show would have never lasted as long as it did without him. This won't be the first time that he has to show his boss Arthur Ward (Phillip Abbott) that solving cases often relies on instinct as Erskine probably has some of the best in any human being. We also find that Erskine is a workaholic staying up at all hours to figure a case. Excellent dialogue with Harold Gould and Dabney Coleman (as fellow FBI agents) and the rest of the cast in this simple bank robbery episode. Pete Duel's only dialogue is behind a mask. I only wish the dvd sets had the original Ford commercials but since they are still an active corporation they likely wouldn't have allowed it.

I don't believe in all of Quinn Martin's many TV series that there was an episode without any mentioned guest stars at the opening of the show except this one! I'm surprised that Lee Meriwether and Harold Gould did not get Guest Star status in this episode. Truly an atypical episode!