TOMA {TELEVISION MOVIE PILOT} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this detective series featuring a fictionalized version of the real-life detective David Toma, noted for his use of disguise and subterfuge.
Undercover police detective David Toma observes an illicit deal going on in a pawn shop. He goes across the street to the shop but on the way runs into Sam, a drug addict he arrested who has been recently released, claiming that he is now clean. David offers to help him get a job as either a roofer or a welder, and Sam is much obliged. He has to leave when he sees a shady individual emerging from the pawn shop and follows after him as he goes about various errands, running into Bags Roland, another criminal looking for honest work, on the way. He promises to meet with him that night for dinner. Eventually the criminal makes a drop-off and Toma immediately informs Inspector Spooner, his superior. Spooner orders him to arrest the criminal immediately, although Toma questions the wisdom of this course of action. They argue but Toma accedes to his orders. Another man drives off in the car where the drop-off was made and Toma follows behind him. He and a couple of backup officers chase down the man on foot into an alleyway and pin him down. Two men are standing in the alleyway and the backup officers shoot one of them down, and shoot the second one when he produces a gun. Toma is furious at their conduct despite having seized the arrested man’s bag of money.
Toma returns to the station and meets with Spooner, who inspects the bag of money. He already spoke with the other officers, who claim that the men they killed drew their guns first; Toma says it wouldn’t have happened if the officers were not with him, and blames Spooner for assigning them to him. Toma would prefer to be left alone to make his arrests, using disguise and subterfuge instead of violence. Spooner angrily responds that Toma should do the job that he is assigned, and should respect authority even though Spooner only took his position a week ago. Meanwhile, a pair of mob bosses decides to do something about Roland and his desire to get out of the organization. They send a pair of thugs to assault him at his apartment; they throw him down a flight of stairs, killing him. That evening Toma attends a family party and is greeted by his wife Patty. He tells her that he was supposed to meet Roland but was detained at the station and could not. At the party Toma learns that Roland is dead, and he immediately leaves to investigate the murder. He arrives at Roland’s apartment building and argues with the detective on duty there, who tells Toma to drop the case since it is relatively unimportant. However, Toma feels guilty about Roland’s death and notes that Roland was his friend, and he is determined to find out who killed him.
Spooner orders Toma not to pursue the case and leave it to the homicide division, but Toma argues that it is inexorably linked to his mob investigation and that he should be permitted to assist in it. Toma believes that the police are performing an ineffectual job by going after minor criminals instead of the heads of the mob, and that it reflects poorly on their image. He asks Spooner to allow him to infiltrate the mob until he can uncover its bosses and put a stop to their activities. He believes that he will be able to follow their trail of expenditures, as at they deal entirely in paper money and it would be simple to trace. Spooner reluctantly permits Toma to pursue his investigation. Using a variety of disguises Toma spies on various runners for the mob and charts their movements, figuring out the pattern and direction of their expenditures. He contacts Sam, who is not as clean as he was led to believe, and gets him a roofing job, allowing him to observe the mob runners from a nearby roof at their drop-off point behind a restaurant. Toma disguises himself as a health inspector to scope out the restaurant from the inside, and later adopts a priest disguise in order to discover details about the restaurant from a different angle. He concludes that the shipments made to the restaurant are pulled up an exhaust chute into the apartment above, occupied by the man doing accounting for the mob. Spooner believes they should bust the place now, unwilling to push further for fear of losing what they’ve learned, but Toma believes he can do more.
Toma goes on stakeout and sees the accountant throwing boxes of money into the exhaust system of a nearby laundry in the middle of the night. There it is packed up and taken away by one of the bosses who ordered Roland’s death. Toma follows him by car and sneaks in to an empty pickle factory to observe the drop-off in yet another disguise. When he is caught he deflects suspicion by acting like a wino. The next day he returns to the station and reveals the identity of the boss, Jerry Donzer, to Spooner. He is interrupted when he finds that Sam has been arrested and is being roughed up by another officer named Frank Barber. Toma breaks it up and Sam is quietly taken away, still claiming that he is trying to quit his drug habit. It turns out that Barber is actually an informant for the mob, and tells them that Toma found out about Donzer. His contact goes back to Donzer’s associate and tells him about Toma’s investigation. He believes Donzer is slipping up and may be trying to start his own independent operation, and wants to get rid of him. Toma stakes out Donzer’s drop-off point again and finds Donzer dead, apparently from gunfire. Patty is cornered on a bus by two mob enforcers, who threaten her and her children if she doesn’t get Toma to cease his investigation.
When Jim, Toma’s son, goes missing, he and Patty become highly distraught. He tells her that this is simply a scare tactic by the mob and that Jim will not be hurt. Jim returns home safely, much to Toma and Patty’s immense relief. Toma wants to figure out how the mob found out about his family and talks to Spooner about it. Spooner wants to keep Toma off the case and assign officers to guard him and his family. Sam asks to speak with Toma and he tells Toma that during a drug deal he once saw Barber alongside a mob thug. They speculate that Barber has sold out to the mob. Barber attempts to shoot up in his apartment but Toma ambushes and attacks him. Toma threatens to kill Barber for informing the mob about him and putting his family in jeopardy. Barber reveals that he has been working for a mob lieutenant, Rudy Mallow, for the past seven years. Mallow runs a laundromat and took over after Donzer was murdered; Barber reveals that if anything happens to Mallow, he will be killed as well. Toma chooses not to kill Barber and leaves him on the floor bleeding.
Toma visits the laundromat in another disguise and catches a glimpse of the back room where the money ends up. He reports back to Spooner and says he will pursue the money trail despite being taken off the case. Mallow gets a call from the boss asking him to make the delivery immediately while Toma returns to his car and changes his disguise. He waits outside and follows Mallow in his car. Spooner pays Patty a visit and checks to make sure she is safe. There is a prolonged car chase as Mallow tries to lose Toma, but Toma manages to stay on him without being noticed. The chase ends in a parking garage, where Toma observes the money being loaded into the trunk of a parked car before the mobsters drive off. Mallow on foot and Toma follows him into a movie theater. Mallow goes into one of the theater’s offices and Toma reports his findings back to the station, asking the police to seize the money in the parking garage. He finds out the name of the theater manager, Prolaci, who is in reality the mob boss he has been looking for. Toma arrests the man guarding the car and lies in wait for Mallow and Prolaci, disguising himself as the guard. They arrive and Toma ambushes them and gets into a car chase with Prolaci through the parking garage. Eventually they collide and Toma arrests Prolaci.
Back at the station, Tom and Spooner celebrate Prolaci’s arrest and the seizure of hundreds of thousands of dollars of money. Toma hopes to continue doing this type of police work despite the many risks it poses for him. Spooner warns Toma about these risks, but also reveals that he is sending out a report detailing Toma’s methods, hoping that other officers can follow in his footsteps. For now, Toma is put back to work capturing small-time criminals. Sam is released and Toma checks up on him again as he makes another attempt to quit his drug habit and get a job. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:12:06
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:80935
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1973-1974
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Roy Huggins … Executive Producer
- Jo Swerling Jr. … Producer
- Steve Heilpern … Associate Producer
- Richard T. Heffron … Director
- Edward Hume … Writer
- Pete Rugolo … Music by
- Tony Musante … Cast, David Toma
- Simon Oakland … Cast, Inspector Spooner
- Susan Strasberg … Cast, Patty Toma
- Michael Baseleon … Cast, Tully
- Robert Yuro … Cast, Frank Barber
- David Spielberg … Cast, Mallow
- Ron Soble … Cast, Harrison
- Nicholas Colasanto … Cast, Prolaci
- Abe Vigoda … Cast, Donzer
- Philip Thomas … Cast, Sam Hooper
- Robert Phillips … Cast, Andretti
- Allison McKay … Cast, Angie Blythe
- David Mauro … Cast, Bags Roland
- Paulene Myers … Cast, Mrs. Bernard
- George Meyer … Cast, Proprietor
- Eugene Mazzola … Cast, Mark
- Laurie Ferrone … Cast, Box Office Girl
- Antony Carbone … Cast, Marty
- Cliff Carmel … Cast, Ted
- Paul Gleason … Cast, Drake
- Sean Manning … Cast, Jim Toma
- David Toma … Cast, Vinnie Cecca