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'''The D.A.''' was a half-hour legal drama aired in the United States by NBC (now NBC/Universal Studios) as part of its lineup for the 1971-72 season.
''The D.A.'' starred Robert Conrad as Deputy District Attorney Paul Ryan, a tough-minded, hard-hitting prosecutor in Los Angeles County who was assisted by criminal investigator Bob Ramirez (Ned Romero). He prosecuted all types of cases under the watchful eye of his supervisor, Chief Deputy District Attorney "Staff" Stafford (Harry Morgan). His opponent was usually Public Defender Katherine Benson (Julie Cobb). During the courtroom segments Ryan also provided a voice-over narration (like Dragnet), which brought the audience in on legal jargon and court procedures and allowed there to be less exposition in the dialogue, which was necessary due to the program's brevity as most legal dramas have episodes twice the length of that of ''The D.A.''.
This program, however, is probably less known for its own storylines than for the fact that it was cancelled at midseason in order to make way for one of the 1970s biggest comedy hits, ''Sanford and Son''.
It was produced by Jack Webb's Mark VII Productions and Universal Studios. The series was spun off from an episode of Adam-12 in which officers Malloy and Reed made an arrest and Ryan then handled the eventual prosecution.
In 1990, producer Dick Wolf dusted off the half-investigation, half-trial format of ''The D.A.'' and modified it for his hour-long detective drama ''Law & Order'' by eliminating the narration but utilizing instead a ''Dragnet''-style dialog between characters. ''The D.A.'' was not the first broadcast network series to use the format: ''Arrest and Trial's 90-minute episodes predate ''The D.A.'' by eight years.

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References

★ Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows'' (2003) ISBN 0-345-45542-6

★ ''TV Guide Guide to TV 2006'' (2006) ISBN 0-7607-7572-9

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