Thu 23 Apr 2020
A TV Episode Review: BURKE’S LAW “Who Killed Cable Roberts?†(1963).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[14] Comments
BURKE’S LAW “Who Killed Cable Roberts?†ABC, 04 October 1963 (Season 1, Episode 3). Gene Barry (Captain Amos Burke), Gary Conway, Regis Toomey, Leon Lontoc. Guest Cast: Mary Astor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Paul Lynde, John Saxon, Lizabeth Scott, Chill Wills. Writers: Gwen Bagni, Frank D. Gilroy Director: Jeffrey Hayden.
The gimmick in the series, as I imagine almost all of you already know, is that Amos Burke is a millionaire cop who solves crimes while being chauffeured to the scene in his Rolls Royce. The title of the series comes from his way of coming up with some pearls of wisdom to pass along to his underlings at the appropriate times. Example: “Never ask a question unless you already know the answer. Burke’s Law.”
And let’s not overlook a third major factor in the show. Amos Burke is absolutely irresistible to women, no matter their age or martial status. The only reason Gary Conway and Regis Toomey (his underlings) are on the show are to exchange knowing looks and fake commiseration for Burke’s plight whenever the latest female guest star flings herself upon him.
Cable Roberts, the victim in this, the third episode of the first season, is one of those legends of the western world who combine being a writer, a big game hunter and a producer of documentary films with being as unlikable a man as he can possibly be. He’s also rich, or does that go without saying? Rich enough to have a lithe and very limber wife like Lizabeth Scott and a maid with the strikingly exotic looks of a Zsa Zsa Gabor, not to mention a personal secretary (Paul Lynde) and a son (a very young John Saxon) whom he is very definitely on the outs with.
Plenty of suspects, that is one thing that is for certain, and all the screenwriters have to do is pick one of them to be the killer, and then figure out a way for Captain Burke to put the finger on him or her with only a few minutes to go. The end result is pleasant way to spend the better part of an hour, but also very much forgettable after that. Except, that is, for Lizabeth Scott.
And more than that, no one could ask.
April 23rd, 2020 at 9:51 pm
The most memorable episode featured a host of detectives vying with Burke to solve the mystery of who killed Burke’s boss including Ed Begley Sr. as a Hercule Poirot type, Carl Reiner as the Sherlock Holmes, J. Carroll Naish a cross between Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan, and Burke playing Archie Goodwin to Thomas Gomez Nero Wolfe stand in Caligula Bear. Zza Zza was a Russian female cop too.
At least two episodes were written by Harlan Ellison including one that rather shockingly for the time featured a fairly clearly lesbian murderess.
Among the women guest stars were Joanna Barnes, Carolyn Jones, Anne Francis (as Honey West), Elizabeth Montgomery, and Yvonne Craig. Most of the guest stars were the ones you would expect at the time, but once in a while you got something a bit more off beat like Fess Parker.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:55 pm
I never watched the show when it was on. I was away at college and had no time for TV, and even if I did, I was way up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in a town nowhere near an ABC station. But after browsing through some of the episodes of BURKE’S LAW available online, I can see your point about the multitude of well-known guest stars, mostly female and mostly curvaceous.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:46 pm
I didn’t think much of the series, but I did think that Dick Powell, the original Amos Burke, was lights out. Who Killed Julie Greer.
April 23rd, 2020 at 10:57 pm
Not too surprisingly, Barry, “Julie Greer” is very high in my queue of what TV showS to watch next.
April 24th, 2020 at 12:07 am
I am a big fan of this version. Yes, the 60s sexism makes its dated but its humor and style is one of the reasons I enjoy 60s TV detectives/spies so well.
The two Elizabeth Montgomery episodes with her being at her best as the likable naughty girl remain my favorite episodes.
ABC made a major mistake in its attempt to cash in on the James Bond craze and turned the series into AMOS BURKE, SECRET AGENT – my review is here https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=17089
BURKE’S LAW was remade during TV’s remake craze of the 80s-90s. Barry was the star and his partner was his son played by Peter Barton (eye candy for the women and appeal to young viewers as Gary Conway did in the originals series). This version had less humor and more Aaron Spelling chessyness. The entire two seasons are on youtube.
The 60s was an era in TV when serious social drama series shared the schedule with mindless fun. I miss shows such as early BURKE’S LAW.
April 24th, 2020 at 6:55 am
My parents caught my sister watching Burke’s Law and even at the time they were offended by the sexism. After that we weren’t allowed to watch. One of the independent stations {METV?} showed a full weekend of Burke’s a couple of years ago. The first thing I did was let my sister know.
April 24th, 2020 at 10:05 am
A great story, Mark. Thanks for sharing!
April 24th, 2020 at 9:31 pm
Incidentally the suspects in that episode I mention were Suzy Parker and Diana Dors in a murder about a Hugh Hefner type with Burgess Meredith pretty clearly playing a cartoonist based on Jack Cole the early PLAYBOY cartoonist and creator of Plastic-Man.
The sexism and smarm are part and parcel of the era, no better or worse than most of the shows of the period though there is a suggestion that those dates of Burke’s that are always getting interrupted weren’t going to end with him escorting the young lady to her door before breakfast the next day.
The Powell pilot has a twist they couldn’t do on the series, though it might have made for a great episode if they had.
Regis Toomey was one of those character actors who had almost flirted with being a leading man and worked with almost everyone in Hollywood at one time or another. He was in the pilot and had been a regular on the Powell episodes of Dante’s Inferno as his police friend/adversary.
April 25th, 2020 at 12:24 am
That episode with the dead girlie magazine owner was “Who Killed Alex Debbs?” and can be found here:
https://www.solie.org/alibrary/BurkesLaw_106AlexDebbs.html
And in regards to Regis Toomey, I just watched a B-movie form 1944 in which was the villain. Look for my review of it soon.
April 25th, 2020 at 1:42 am
Like David mention season one had four episodes written by Harlen Ellison – Who Killed … Alex Debbs, Purity Mather, Andy Zxgmunt, and one half of Glory Lee.
Two women wrote for the show – Edith R. Sommer and (sometime alone) Gwen Bagni (sometime with) Paul Dubov. Bagni and Dubov developed HONEY WEST from a spinoff from BURKE’S LAW.
Season Two featured three scripts by William Link and Richard Levinson during their studio days. Episodes were Who Killed… Everybody, Merlin the Great, and Mother Goose.
My favorite episode was Who Killed Mr X with Elizabeth Montgomery (Season 1 e2). She also did Who Killed the Royal Highness.
Rumor was the eye candy women had to please Aaron Spelling. The rumor was similar to requirements Playboy bunnies were alleged forced to do. Truth in that era about women’s virtue were often based on men’s wishful thinking.
The first two seasons are good and accurately represent life for men and women in 1963-65.
You can also see why ABC thought Burke as a spy would appeal to Bond fans.
The remake lasted nearly two seasons (1994-95) and no longer reflected its time.
Here is an example involving a PI – Who Killed Nick Hazard?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ED_c6GHAwk
April 25th, 2020 at 11:38 am
In 1941, in a movie called You’re In The Army Now, Regis Toomey and Jane Wyman shared a screen kiss that lasted three minutes and five seconds – a Guinness-verified record, unmatched before or since.
April 26th, 2020 at 1:56 pm
I know a lot of people over the years are and have been interested in the personal lives of movie stars, but you can count me among those who are not. There are others who feel the same as I. This recent sequence of comments has also gone far out of the scope of the original review, that of the TV show BURKE’S LAW. With everyone’s kind permission, I’m going to quash this line of discussion here and now. If you’ve been following along as well as participating, I hope you understand!
April 26th, 2020 at 2:41 pm
For a long overview of Toomey’s career, so here:
http://shebloggedbynight.com/2013/regis-toomey-for-the-what-a-character-blogathon/
The kiss comes up for a lot of discussion, including whether or not it happened at all. The scene has apparently been deleted from the version of the film that was released for TV stations. and that may be the one that TCM was showing at one time.
April 26th, 2020 at 2:45 pm
I know that over the years a lot of people have been interested in the personal lives of movie stars, and many still are, but you can count me among those who are not. There are others who feel the same as I. In this regard I also believe that this recent sequence of comments has gone far astray from the scope of the original review, that of the TV show BURKE’S LAW. With everyone’s kind permission, I’m going to go ahead and delete these comments, with my apologies. If you’ve been following along as well as participating, I hope you understand!