"The Outsider" follows the exploits of David Ross, an orphaned ex-con, framed for a murder he did not commit. Ross is a loner, living in a world that loathes him, as he plies his trade as a Los Angles private investigator, trying to ease his financial woes while solving other people's problems.

This scenario is strikingly similar to both the 1970s drama-comedy series "The Rockford Files" and the 1957-1962 Western series "Maverick", and the protagonists of all three share the same basic heroic archetype - the misunderstood knight-errant who is wrongly perceived as dishonest. Across the trilogy, the Mavericks, Ross and Rockford all typically find themselves weighing a financial windfall against a moral dilemma, with their consciences (almost) always trumping their wallets.

Not surprisingly, all three were created by producer-writer Roy Huggins.

Followed by Anatomy of a Crime (1969)