This pilot for the police procedural series The Rookies began as an ABC Movie of the Week airing on March 7th, 1972. Terry Webster (Georg Stanford Brown), Willie Gillis (Michael Ontkean), and Mike Danko (Sam Melville) go through rigorous training before being given their first assignments, which turn out to be not what they expected. The cadets' training sergeant was Eddie Ryker, played by Darren McGavin (who would be replaced by Gerald S. O'Loughlin in the TV series). The Rookies tried to better humanize the character of a police officer and show the struggles that new, younger men and women faced in their lives as law enforcement persons sworn to serve and protect the public.