The golden oldie I picked to reread last month was The Bowstring Murders (1933), the only John Dickson Carr novel ever published under the byline Carr Dickson. I wouldn’t rank it among Carr’s top ten or even the top thirty but thought it was on the whole satisfactory, taking place almost entirely in an eerie 15th-century Suffolk castle full of the Poe-like atmosphere that the young Carr loved to generate.

   Is it truly golden? According to Doug Greene’s biography The Man Who Explained Miracles (1995), Carr wrote Bowstring in New York “at white-hot speed” after his English wife Clarice discovered she was pregnant and also in order to finance a long visit to England for the family.

   Greene calls the novel “badly flawed .. John Gaunt [the criminologist who solves the murders] is sharply drawn, but the plot…is unconvincing.” He correctly describes the explanation of the seemingly impossible murder of Lord Rayle as “a creative variation of the solution in [Carr’s first novel] It Walks by Night…”

   He was surprised by “how many mistakes Carr makes about England” but the ones he cites strike me as trivial: the servants “all speak a strange sort of Cockney” and after Lord Rayle’s murder the Bowstring footman fails to address the dead man’s son and successor to the title as “Your Lordship.”

   Greene also mentions “some sloppy lines” in the book but quotes only one, from Chapter 12: “With one gloved hand, he dived behind the body.” Does that sentence rise to the lofty heights of an Avalloneism? Personally, I don’t think so.

   What bothered me most about the plot (am I giving away too much here?) is that, in order for the crucial gimmick to work, a cowled “white-wool monk’s robe” of the sort which the “more than half-cracked” Lord Rayle wore while wandering around Bowstring must be concealed by the murderer in an ordinary briefcase.

   S. T. Joshi in John Dickson Carr: A Critical Study (1990), is no fonder of The Bowstring Murders than Doug Greene. He calls the novel a “confused and shoddily written work” and both the book and its protagonist “spectacular failures.” (Greene, as we’ve seen, disagrees with Joshi about John Gaunt.)

   Joshi’s main complaint is that “the solution depends vitally upon our knowing the exact plan of the house, which is not provided.” Obviously there was no such plan in whatever edition Joshi read, and there’s none in the only edition I have (Berkley pb #G-214, 1959).

   But there are several references to the local inspector making a drawing of Bowstring Castle, and I have a hunch that the sketch does appear in the original hardcover edition. If someone reading this column can tell me whether I’m right or wrong, please speak up.

   If anyone decides to read the novel on the strength of this discussion, they should first go here and download the detailed diagram of the castle that Wyatt James, 1944-2006 (known to Internet mystery fandom as Grobius Shortling) kindly prepared for Carr fans who don’t have a copy of that first edition. And, if my hunch is wrong, even for those who do.

   In my mailbox recently was a book that was sent from Japan but has an English as well as a Japanese title: The Misadventures of Ellery Queen. This 400-page anthology, edited by Yusan Iiki and published by Ronsosha Ltd. Of Tokyo, brings together a huge assortment of parodies and pastiches of the immortal EQ, written by such authors as Jon Breen, Ed Hoch, James Holding, Josh Pachter, Clayton Rawson and, if I may be so immodest as to say it, me. (Anyone remember “Open Letter to Survivors”?)

   The most recent story in the volume, and probably the finest Queen pastiche ever written, is “The Book Case” (EQMM, May 2007) by Dale Andrews and Kurt Sercu, in which Ellery at age 100 proves that his body may be feeble but his mind is sharp as ever.

   Years ago Josh Pachter put together an anthology, also called The Misadventures of Ellery Queen, but could never find a publisher for it. The appearance of this new volume, coupled with the failure of Pachter’s book to find a home, provides an excellent demonstration of how tall Queen still stands in Japan and how deeply he’s sunk into oblivion almost everywhere else.

   Thinking about the role of genetics in mystery fiction, we at once conjure up the DNA testing scenes in countless TV forensic series. But the subject has also figured in the Golden Age of the whodunit. In the 60-minute radio drama “The Missing Child” (The Adventures of Ellery Queen, CBS, November 26, 1939).

   Ellery’s solution hinges on his assertion that it’s impossible for two blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed child. That was a common belief at the time, and was also crucial to the solution in an Agatha Christie story of the same decade (“The House at Shiraz,” collected in Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective, 1934).

   But it’s flatly not true, as Fred Dannay and Manny Lee must have discovered sometime in the ten or eleven years following broadcast of the drama. How do I know? Because the fact of its falsity is central to one of the later EQ short stories, “The Witch of Times Square” (This Week, November 5, 1950; collected in QBI: Queen’s Bureau of Investigation, 1955).

   Genetics mistake and all, the original script is included in that indispensable collection of Queen radio plays The Adventure of the Murdered Moths (Crippen & Landru, 2005).

   In a column posted back in 2006 I waxed nostalgic for a paragraph or two about Boston Blackie (1951-53, 58 episodes), starring Kent Taylor in perhaps the earliest and certainly one of the finest action-detective TV series, most episodes featuring one or more elaborate chase-and-fight sequences shot on Los Angeles streets and locations.

   Eighteen of the 26 segments that made up the first season were directed by Paul Landres (1912-2001), whose action scenes, brought to life by master stuntmen Troy Melton and Bill Catching, were of eye-popping visual quality, especially considering that each episode was shot in two or at most three days.

   Until recently it’s been next to impossible to find decent VHS or DVD copies of Blackie segments, all of which have long been in the public domain. Which is why I was delighted to discover recently that at least twenty episodes are now accessible on YouTube — and that many of them were digitally restored last year.

   I especially recommend the earliest segments like “Phone Booth Murder” (#2), “Blind Beggar Murder” (#5), “The Cop Killer” (#6), and “Scar Hand” (#11), all directed by Paul, whom I met when he was in his mid-eighties and who was the subject of a book of mine that came out about a year before he died.

   Paul would have been 100 this month, and to celebrate his centenary I’ve prepared a DVD tribute that will be presented at the Mid Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Hunt Valley, Maryland on August 11.

   In one of the tapes I made with Paul he vividly described an accident that took place while he was shooting the climax of “Phone Booth Murder.” His description is now preserved on my DVD, accompanied by the climactic sequence itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ6voB6ADfE

   If any readers of this column check out this episode and are interested in what went wrong and how Paul responded to the crisis, I’ll include his comments in my September column.

   Not every fictional character has been blessed with a TV series. Many famous characters such as PHILO VANCE, NICK CARTER, and THE SHADOW have tried with only a failed pilot or two left behind. Iconic private eye SAM SPADE has never had a TV series due to politics and TV writers finding it cheaper to steal than pay for the real thing.

   The following are my top five choices of fictional characters I would adapt for a TV series. Feel free to add your own or make fun of mine in the comments (points awarded to anyone who has read any of all five (seven) characters’ books). While I focused on mystery novels, any characters from any genre of fiction and any format besides novels may be selected.

CYRIL “MAC” MCCORKLE & MICHAEL PADILLO. Created by Ross Thomas. Appeared in novels Cold War Swap (1966), Cast a Yellow Shadow (1967), The Backup Men (1971), and Twilight At Mac’s Place (1990).

   One of television’s programming quests is to find a successful light drama series featuring the team of an average person (for the viewers to identify with) and a top secret agent. McCorkle and his partner and feared ex-spy Padillo run Mac’s Place, a bar located in Washington D.C. and a favorite spot for political intrigue and power brokers.

ELDON LARKIN. Created by Vince Kohler. Appeared in novels, Rainy North Woods (1990), Rising Dog (1992), Banjo Boy (1994), and Raven’s Widows (1997).

   Eldon is an average guy, a lovable loser with a talent for finding and solving murders. He is a reporter for the South Coast Sun that covers a small community in rainy coastal Oregon. Take the loony locale of a Carl Hiaasen, the off-beat characters of an Elmore Leonard, and the fun dialog of an Gregory Mcdonald and you have a slight idea of the late Vince Kohler’s unique talent.

HAP COLLINS & LEONARD PINE. Created by Joe R. Lansdale. Appeared in novels Savage Season (1990), Mucho Magic (1994), Two-Bear Mambo (1995), Bad Chili (1997), Rumble Tumble (1998), Veil’s Visit (1999), Captains Outrageous (2001), Vanilla Ride (2009), and Devil Red (2011), as well as novella “Hyenas (2011). (http://www.joerlansdale.com)

   Imagine what cable networks FX, HBO, or Showtime would do with these two characters. I can’t better describe them than Kevin Burton Smith did at his website Thrilling Detective. (https://www.thrillingdetective.com/hap.html)

CAPE WEATHERS. Created by Tim Maleeny. Appeared in Stealing the Dragon (2007), Beating the Babushka (2007), and Greasing the Pinata (2009). (http://www.timmaleeny.com)

   Former reporter now San Francisco PI, Cape is from the Robert Parker’s Spenser school of PIs, but lighter with less realism. His companions include Sally, an assassin raised from childhood by the Chinese Triads, a computer genius who is called Sloth for good reason and Sloth’s close friend Linda, a reporter whose hair has a life of its own.

INSPECTOR FRANCIS XAVIER FLYNN. Created by Gregory Mcdonald. Appeared in Confess, Fletch (1976), Flynn (1977), Buck Passes Flynn (1981), Flynn’s In (1984), and Flynn’s World (2003). (http://www.gregorymcdonald.com)

   While Fletch gets all the attention it is another Mcdonald’s character, Flynn that is best suited for a weekly TV series. Flynn’s secret past full of intrigue offers a nice series arc, while the weekly episodes featuring the eccentric and brilliant Boston homicide cop, following in the tradition of endless beloved TV detectives, using unconventional methods to solve crimes. Add his “perfect” family and his abused assistant Grover and you have a nice basis for a network weekly series.

“Maigret et l’affaire Saint-Fiacre” [English title: “Maigret Goes Home”]. An installment of Maigret (54 episodes, 1991-2005). Season 1, Episode 19. First broadcast: 20 October 1995. Antenne-2 / Ceská Televize / Dune / EC Télévision. In French with English subtitles. Bruno Cremer (Commissaire Jules Maigret), Jacques Spiesser (Comte de Saint-Fiacre), Anne Bellec (Madame Maigret), Claude Winter (Comtesse de Saint-Fiacre), Jacques Sereys (Le docteur), Pierre Gérard (Jean Métayer), Arno Chevrier (Le curé), Nicolas Moreau (Émile). Adaptation: Alexandre de La Patellière and Denys de La Patellière, based on the novel L’Affaire Saint-Fiacre (1932) by Georges Simenon. Director: Denys de La Patellière.

   Maigret and his wife are first seen driving along on a bright winter’s day. Their destination: Commissaire Maigret’s old home town.

   His interest has been piqued by an anonymous letter which says that a crime will be committed in the church of Saint-Fiacre during Mass. Madame Maigret reminds her husband that the police ordinarily discard such missives, but Maigret presses on.

   Attending an All Souls’ Day service the next day, Maigret and the congregation witness the Comtesse de Saint-Fiacre collapse and die in the church. The Comtesse and her late husband had been Maigret’s father’s employer when he was young — but like most teenagers Maigret couldn’t wait to escape small town life for the bright lights of the big city, which he did the first chance he got.

   The jaded and sarcastic doctor certifies that the Comtesse has died of a heart attack, and informs a skeptical Maigret that it had been a chronic condition with her for years.

   Nevertheless, Maigret senses something is amiss, especially when, belatedly, the Comtesse’s ne’er-do-well wastrel son shows up, characteristically broke and wanting money from her.

   Other people also fall under Maigret’s suspicion: the Comtesse’s “secretary” (a euphemism for her boy toy), the estate’s steward and his banker son, the local priest, and the secretary’s lawyer. Through the steward and his son Maigret learns that the Comtesse was nearly broke.

   Mysteriously, the missal (a prayer book) that the Comtesse had with her when she died disappears. In the event, this missing missal will prove not simply to be a CLUE to what Maigret is now convinced is a murder, he’s certain the innocent prayer book is actually the murder WEAPON….

   I’d hate to be the French judge tasked with determining culpability in this case; a charge of Murder One would likely never be upheld.

   It’s interesting that this story has the classic Golden Age gathering of all the suspects at the end, but differs in having someone else instead of the master detective doing the big reveal — but at Maigret’s direction, we hasten to add.

   The character of Maigret stands in proud second place to Sherlock Holmes when it comes to the number of film adaptations using him.

   The French-Czech Maigret series was originally scheduled to run to 104 fairly faithful-to-the-original stories, but the series’ star Bruno Cremer (1929-2010) fell ill roughly halfway through. Cremer, known in Europe for his tough guy roles, was cast against type as Maigret, but the public loved his portrayal. (Something similar has happened with Terence Hill, star of many violent spaghetti Westerns, who is currently playing a mild-mannered violence-averse Italian Father Brown-type in the Don Matteo series.)

   Other film versions of this story include “Maigret on Home Ground” (1992, one of a 12-episode English language series starring Michael Gambon) and Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case (a 1959 movie with Jean Gabin).

HARRY O. ABC / Warner Brothers. Season 1, Part 2. (January-March 1975). Cast: David Janssen as Harry Orwell, Anthony Zerbe as Lieutenant K.C. Trench, Paul Tulley as Sergeant Roberts. Created and executive consultant: Howard Rodman. Executive Producer: Jerry Thorpe. Producers: Buck Houghton and Robert Dozier. Associate Producer: Rita Dillon. Executive story consultant: Robert Dozier. Theme: Billy Goldenberg.

   For anyone who may have missed them, previous portions of this multi-part coverage of the Harry O television series may be found here (Intro) and here (Season 1, Part 1).

   The first half of the season was over and Harry O faced some changes. In Television Chronicles #10, executive producer Jerry Thorpe discussed the changes. To please ABC, the series tone was changed to more melodramatic. But Thorpe made a deal. He wanted the show to follow the path set by the first episode “Gertrude.” That meant more humor between the characters. Thorpe wanted to take advantage of Janssen’s untapped talent for humor.

   In “The Last Heir,” we still have the same opening theme, but we soon see a hint of the changes to come. Harry is driving his car through the empty vast California desert … and the car makes it without a tow truck.

   Harry is hired (he charges $100 a day plus expenses) by Jeff Mays (Clifford David), the nephew of rich, ill-tempered Letty (Jeanette Nolan) who lives alone in the middle of the desert. The nephew is worried she is crazy and will kill someone at the annual family meeting.

   Once the entire family is there, their cars are disabled, stranding all in the desert waiting for the supply truck to make its weekly visit in six days. Then one by one, family members begins to die.

   Next, “For Love Of Money” features a new musical arrangement of the series theme song with a more action feel. The visuals and graphics for the opening have been changed significantly. Gone are shots of Harry on the bus, walking, and sitting on his stranded boat. Now Harry is running, moving in chase scenes on foot, by boat and by car.

   Harry travels to Los Angeles. A woman (Mariclare Costello) in Los Angeles needs help. Her family in San Diego hires Harry to act as go-between for her and her employer (Joe Silver).

   Her boyfriend (Fred Beir) had convinced her to “borrow” $25,000 in bonds from her boss’ safe. She wants to return them but Harry finds the boyfriend and the bonds are gone. When the employer discovers half a million dollars of bonds are missing instead of just $25,000 he calls the cops.

   While working on this case Harry rents an apartment in Santa Monica near the beach. His neighbor is a young beautiful stewardess Betsy (Katherine Baumann). Harry’s manners have not changed and he is blunt and grumpy around Betsy who mothers him. Betsy has a boyfriend Walter we will never see but enjoy Harry’s fear-inspired descriptions of him.

   The mystery, as with most of this group of episodes, is unremarkable with more attention paid to action and characters than clues. The bullet in Harry’s back disappears allowing for more fights and chases.

   This episode also introduces Harry (and us) to Lieutenant K.C. Trench and his quiet sidekick Sergeant Roberts (Paul Tulley). There is an on air chemistry between Janssen and Zerbe that is magic from the very beginning. The two feed off the other, not only as actors, but the characters do as well. It is obvious both respect, like and trust the other.

   San Diego’s Lieutenant Manny Quinlain was played well by the talented Henry Darrow, but both the character and the actor’s style were too similar to Harry and Janssen. The conflict between Harry and Trench gave the series its humor and made the series more entertaining to watch.

   Quinlain played straight man to Harry, while Trench had his own sense of humor. Trench was given this quality due to the underrated character of Sergeant Roberts. Roberts existed as a straight man for Harry and Trench, anchoring the scene as the PI and cop playfully had at it to the delight of the viewers.

   In “Confetti People,” we watch Jack (John Rubinstein) shoot and kill his drunken artist brother (Scott McKay) who was beating his wife (Diana Hyland). Betsy finds Jack wandering on the beach and brings him to Harry, who is still in Santa Monica for some unknown reason, and convinces Harry to help Jack.

   Harry calls the cops and takes Jack back to the murder scene only to find Jack’s sister –in-law and still alive brother denying anything happened. Jack had just been released from a mental hospital, so everyone writes it off except Harry who is worried about his client.

   It is interesting to compare how this melodrama handled mental illness when compared to the nourish drama of the San Diego episode “Shadows At Noon.”

   Trench learns as we have, “Orwell, you have a way of getting involved with some pretty bizarre people.”

   â€œSound Of Trumpets” gives Harry a reason to stay in Los Angeles. Harry learns they have torn down his San Diego home to put up a high-rise. He likes the people and the area so he follows Betsy and Walter and moves to a beach house in Santa Monica. Harry’s unfinished boat, “The Answer” joins him at the beach house. Harry finds a new mechanic, Clarence (Hal Williams) for his car.

   Lovers of Jazz music will enjoy this story of a former great horn man Art Sully (Julius Harris) just out of prison with a secret someone doesn’t want him to live to tell.

   Harry saves his life when Art falls off the pier. When Art disappears with Harry’s car, Harry is back using the bus and not happy about it. Some great jazz and R&B music highlight the episode that has a more active Harry fighting and chasing bad guys.

   â€œSilent Kill” was an “issue” episode, but the heavy-handed new style of the series weakened the message. Harry agreed to help a deaf woman (Kathy Lloyd) clear her deaf mute husband (James Wainwright) of setting a fire that killed three people. Despite a script drowning in pathos, director Richard Lang effectively illustrated the struggles of the deaf by turning off the sound and forcing the viewer to see through the deaf mute’s eyes.

   â€œDouble Jeopardy” is another “issue” episode that would have worked better without the melodrama. Harry witnesses a murder and sees a young man, Tom (Kurt Russell) leaving the scene. Tom is arrested, but let go for lack of evidence.

   In an ironic twist the female victim’s father (Will Kuluva) is an ex-mobster who was successful in San Diego for over twenty years before retiring to Los Angeles. The justice system he had manipulated to stay out of prison seems unfair to him now as he watches the man he believes killed his daughter go free. So he hires some men to kill Tom.

   Harry believes Tom is innocent and tries to keep him alive long enough to find the real killer.

   Exit Betsy and Walter to Hawaii as a married couple. Enter Harry’s most remembered neighbor, Sue Ingram (Farrah Fawcett-Majors) and her large dog Grover (who hates Harry).

   â€œLester” features our first meeting of Lester Hodges, wannabe criminologist and Harry Orwell fan boy, who would return in the second season. College student Lester notifies the police about a missing woman. His rich family learns of it and sends a lawyer to protect Lester.

   The lawyer hires Harry. Every clue Harry finds points to Lester as the killer of the woman. The lawyer is not pleased, but Lester can’t stop smiling. The last scene between Harry and Lester is a Harry O classic.

   In “Elegy For A Cop,” Manny travels to Los Angeles in secret to retrieve his niece (Kathy Lloyd) who is a drug addict. What happens next has Harry going after a drug broker (Sal Mineo) in one of the most dramatic stories of the entire first season.

   Howard Rodman’s script and David Janssen’s talent were the reasons this episode worked despite the fact it was created for budget reasons and recycled several scenes from the original pilot Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On.

   In this episode we learn both of Harry’s parents were dead and he has no brothers or sisters. All he has left is his friends.

      WARNING: SPOILERS. FEEL FREE TO SKIP DOWN TO EPISODE “STREET GAMES.”

   The new local drug broker uses Manny’s niece to set him up as a dirty cop that gets killed in a payoff. The broker shoots Manny and leaves him for dead with “bribe” money in Manny’s pocket. Before he dies, Manny is able to mail the money to Harry.

   According to the article in Television Chronicles #10, this episode was one of the first times a regular character on a TV series was killed off. The series Nichols (NBC, 71-72) had done it, and a month after this episode aired, Henry Blake would die in M*A*S*H.

   Poor Manny, he had to die to get a backstory. He was 37 and married with children. Both of his parents were alive, as well as his brother Jesus, unknown number of sisters, and his niece.

            END OF SPOILERS.

   In “Street Games,” a waitress (Claudette Nevins) at a place Harry eats hires him to find her sixteen-year-old daughter (Maureen McCormick). Mom has reason to worry, as her daughter is a junkie and now on the run after witnessing the local dealer gun down her boyfriend. What follows is the expected twists and turns until we reach a happy ending.

   Harry O’s first season offered a wide range of quality programs, from the comedy mystery of “Gertrude” to the nourish drama of “Eyewitness” to the character comedy of “Lester” to the emotional drama of “Elegy For A Cop.”

   Yet it would be the relationship between PI Harry Orwell and Santa Monica cop Lieutenant Trench that elevated this series to one of television’s most fondly remember shows.

   The ratings for the second half increased from the first half of the season. Harry O ending the season tied for 38th place (out of 70).

   So next: Season Two.

NOTE: Thanks to Randy Cox for a copy of Television Chronicles #10 and the article by Ed Robertson.

BANYON: WALK UP AND DIE. NBC World Premiere Movie, 15 March 1971, Monday at 9-11pm. NBC World Premiere Movie / Warner Brothers Television. Cast: Robert Forster as Miles C. Banyon, Darren McGavin as Lieutenant Pete Cordova, Jose Ferrer as Lee Jennings, Anjanette Comer as Diane Jennings, Herb Edelman as Harry Sprague, Ann Randall as Linda. Written and Produced by Ed Adamson. Executive Producer: Richard Alan Simmons. Director: Robert Day.

   NBC World Premiere Movie began in 1966 as a means for the network and the studios (it was an idea of Universal Studios) to profit from pilots for possible television series. When Banyon aired in 1971, the movie series had all ready produced twelve series for NBC, and even the failures were profitable for their studios in syndication.

   A note about the title: the movie was called Banyon, but in syndication to separate it from the series it was also known as Banyon — Walk Up and Die.

   The problem with TV Movie pilots is telling the best story is not the primary goal. Instead you need to establish premise, setting and characters for the possible weekly series while hopefully providing an entertaining drama or comedy.

   For example, several scenes were forced into this story to establish the series’ comedy relief in the form of Banyon’s secretary. Banyon’s office was down the hall from Peggy Revere’s secretary school. Banyon “confesses” his passion and love for the much older Peggy (Hermione Gingold). She is not sure if he is kidding or needs a psychiatrist. They have an agreement for him to use one of her students whenever needed. This gave the young secretary-to-be some experience, and Banyon got his secretary for free.

   The opening titles attempted to establish the time (1933-1938) with newsreel photos and art. The theme by Leonard Rosenman (Combat) sounded more generic 70s than something suitable for a hardboiled PI mystery set in the 30s. However it was better than the series theme by Johnny Mandel (M*A*S*H) that only reminded us the series was a Quinn Martin Production. (Quinn Martin had no involvement with this TV movie pilot, but more on that later.)

   Irene (Deidre Daniels) is told her ex-boyfriend, mobster Victor Pappas (Ray Danton) is out of prison. Because of her involvement in sending him to jail, she fears for her life. A friend sends her to a guy who can help her. She has to introduce herself to the guy who pulls out a gun and kills her. The killer leaves, removes the fake sign on the door that had covered the office sign of Miles C. Banyon, PI.

   Meanwhile, Miles finishes another case and is sulking because he hates his job as a PI. He enters his office and finds Lieutenant Pete Cordova (Darren McGavin) waiting with the dead body. Miles barely reacts. Cordova notes the murder weapon was Miles’ gun. The Lieutenant is ex-cop Miles’ former partner and tries to play nice, but Miles still holds a grudge against Cordova and offers him no help.

   A few years before, Miles had gone undercover as a cop-on-the-take to get the evidence that convicted Pappas. But there had been a political mess involving the department at the time and Miles had been picked to be the fall guy. Worried about how he would support his family without his job, Cordova had helped the department frame bachelor Miles.

   Miles arrives at home only to find his best friend and legman Harry (Herb Edelman) drunk and asleep. Harry is avoiding his wife Ruthie (Leslie Parrish). Before Harry and Ruthie married, she had dated Miles. Now Harry is convinced she wants Miles because he is a broke loser working for others as a legman and Miles is a disgraced ex-cop turned sulking PI. And all three know Harry is right.

   Miles sends Harry home, has some China tea (he doesn’t drink liquor) and begins to work on the only thing that makes him smile, his erector set. Sadly, he is interrupted by a phone call from Pappas who invites Miles to his place to talk. Miles agrees to meet with the man who swore revenge against him and others who had put him in jail, others such as the dead ex-girlfriend Irene.

   Miles finds no one in the apartment. He looks around and finds and plays a record with music (“Remember When”), followed by the voice of powerful radio gossip Lee Jennings (Jose Ferrer) informing his listeners he is upset over Pappas parole and brags about his role in getting the mobster behind bars, then the record cuts to Pappas’ voice threatening Miles.

   The cops arrive and haul Miles off to the police dungeon where Cordova takes away Miles licenses to be a PI and carry a gun.

   Miles is summoned to meet the all-powerful Lee Jennings who wants Miles to find Pappas and stop him from killing anyone else (especially him). Banyon says no and humiliates the bully in front of his lackeys and his popular wife (with all the men).

   Miles is not afraid of Jennings because he had nothing that Jennings can take…except Harry. When Jennings threatens to ruin Harry, Miles agrees to work for Jennings. After another killing or two, Miles, with the help of Harry, finds Pappas.

   Banyon was the creation of writer Ed Adamson who had written the script specifically for actor Robert Forster. Adamson had written in radio for several series including That Hammer Guy (Mike Hammer). In TV his resume featured such series as Richard Diamond, Wanted Dead or Alive, and Mannix.

   Adamson’s script had its flaws, the most serious of which was it lacked any reason for the viewer to care about Miles C. Banyon. On the plus side the movie has a final act that makes Banyon — Walk Up and Die worth watching.

   The Oscar-nominated actor Robert Forster (Jackie Brown) is a rare disappointment. Usually the highlight of anything he does (Kate Sisco, Hollywood Harry, Alcatraz), he played the self-pitying Miles with a dull disinterest through most of the movie. He does redeems himself in the final act as he finally brings Miles to life.

   With the focus on Miles, the story, and setting up the weekly series, there was little time left for developing the rest of the characters. The cast did what they could with their clichéd one-dimensional characters.

   Director Robert Day (The Avengers, Murder by Natural Causes, The Man with Bogart’s Face) made some odd choices, most noticeably during the scenes of violence. Twice, Banyon knocks out someone while the camera focused on another character’s reaction. All deaths took place off camera. Perhaps caused by Congress continued pressure on the networks over violence on television, but this visual style soft-boiled the hard-boiled PI.

   The vintage clothes, the use of 30s music and radio shows such as Fibber McGee and Molly, as well as vintage automobiles driving a few feet along the studio lot 1930’s street gave Banyon — Walk Up and Die less a sense of the real 30s and more a 1930s movie feel.

   While I was unable to discover what exactly was on television opposite of this TV Movie, ABC was scheduled to run ABC’s Monday Night Movie, while CBS was scheduled to air Mayberry RFD (9pm), Doris Day (9:30pm) and The Carol Burnett Show (10pm).

   NBC liked this pilot and considered ordering it as a series for a possible 1971 -72 mid-season replacement. Someone else liked the movie, Quinn Martin. QM Productions was one of the top independent TV Production companies of the time and had never had a series on NBC. NBC offered Banyon to Quinn Martin, creating a behind the scenes turmoil between Ed Adamson and the QM people forced on him.

   The first episode of the NBC series aired September 15, 1972 and had a ratings share of over 30 and finished 31st out of 65 shows. Broadcasting (September 25, 1972) sampled reviews of the first episode from various critics who were near united in their disappointment.

   The next week’s episode dropped to low 20 shares and from then on the series would finish each week in or near the bottom ten. It aired Friday night at 10pm opposite CBS Friday Movie and ABC’s Love American Style.

   On October 2, 1972, Ed Adamson (58) died of a heart attack. His dream TV series Banyon would soon follow with its last original episode airing January 12, 1973.

For more information about the series, check out this post on The Rap Sheet blog.

For a updated link to sample the book Quinn Martin, Producer by Jonathan Etter:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5k7Z31qKsZ0C&lr=

Other source: “Broadcasting” Magazine

September-December 1974; Thursday at 10-11pm. ABC / Warner Brothers. Cast: David Janssen as Harry Orwell, Henry Darrow as Lieutenant Manuel “Manny” Quinlan. Recurring Cast: Tom Atkins as Sgt Frank Cole, Mel Stewart as Roy Bardello. Created by Howard Rodman. Executive Producer: Jerry Thorpe. Producer: Richard E. Thompson. Associate Producer: Rita Dillon. Executive Story Consultant: Robert Dozier. Theme by Billy Goldenberg.

   While the two pilots Such Dust Dreams Are Made On and Smile Jenny, You’re Dead were set in Los Angeles, the first thirteen episodes of Harry O were set and filmed in San Diego. ABC was last in the ratings and decided to try a “non-L.A. look” with some of their new shows. Seattle and Hawaii were considered, but San Diego was finally chosen (Television Chronicles #10. Thanks to Randy Cox for sending me Ed Robertson’s wonderful article.)

   When we last left Harry O, we had seen the series first episode, “Gertrude” and had visions of Rockford Files dancing in our head. Those visions disappeared with the next episode “Admiral’s Lady” as Harry O quickly returned to the dark depressing dramas found in the pilots.

   Where “Gertrude” was a mystery with eccentric characters and humor, what followed in the next several episodes were stories focused on damaged people with troubled souls.

   The mystery mattered less than its effects on the characters. Harry’s narration was used for his introspective thoughts rather than exposition of the plot. Humor was as rare as hope in these early episodes, while it would slowly resurface over time it did not returned to the levels of the episode “Gertrude.”

   The drama was strong and thought provoking, and there were no happy endings, only people left trying to recover and make it through the day.

   In the series second episode “Admiral’s Lady,” a much-honored Admiral, (Leif Erikson) refuses to believe his missing young wife (Sharon Acker) is dead and hires Harry to find her. Harry discovers a killer may be looking for her as well. This is more than just another episode about a serial killer on the loose. It is a story about the pain caused by love and betrayal.

   Next, “Guardian At The Gates” features brilliant architect Paul Sawyer (Barry Sullivan) who is a monster as a human being. Harry is hired to find out who wants him dead. During the case Harry falls for Sawyer’s emotionally abused daughter, Marian (Linda Evans). The story is less a mystery than an examination of a genius without humanity, the price of such genius and the suffering it causes others around him.

   â€œMortal Sin” is about two men’s loss of faith, one a priest and the other a killer. Father Paul Vecchio (Laurence Luckinbill) and Harry are friends and have discussed the priest’s growing doubts. So when a man confesses that he has killed and will kill again, Father Paul turns to Harry, but then refuses to break the rules of the confessional. It is up to Harry to find the killer, and the priest to find his place in the church.

   â€œCoinage of the Realm” offers a rare appearance by Harry’s car. The car repeatedly breaks down and is used as comic relief from the darkness of the story of a dying child (Dawn Lyn) who needs her father, Don (Kenneth Mars) to donate his kidney to save her life. The problem is he is on the run from the mob and has disappeared. Two gay hitmen (David Dukes and Granville Van Dusen) are hoping Harry will lead them to Don.

   In “Eyewitness,” the nurse (Rosalind Cash), who had helped Harry recover from the shooting that left a bullet in his back, needs his help. Her son has been arrested for murder. Harry returns to a primarily African-American neighborhood where he had once worked as a cop. Not much had changed with old friends still just trying to survive the day. One of those friends is now drug free hooker (Margaret Avery) trying to raise her blind teenaged brother who may be the only witness to the killing. This has a typical Harry O ending, the bad guy is stopped but the victims are left with little hope of life getting better.

   In “Shadows At Noon,” Harry comes home to find a woman named Marilyn (Diana Ewing) hiding in his small beach house. She has escaped from a mental hospital but claims to be as sane as he is. Mystery plays a minor role in this psychological drama about what is sanity. Harry poses as a patient in the mental hospital to find out if the girl is telling the truth. When he is betrayed and trapped there, Harry fights to keep his own sanity. The bad guys are caught in almost a dramatic afterthought as the story focused on the terrible cost to the girl and to Harry.

   In “Ballinger’s Choice,” Margaret (Juliet Mills) hires Harry to find Paul, her cheating husband (Paul Burke). Harry shifts through all the lies from everyone and uncovers a disturbing twist and then murder. The mystery plays a more typical role in the plot of this morality play.

   â€œSecond Sight” has another damaged broken person enter Harry’s life. After an automobile accident turned Fay Conners (Stefanie Powers) into a blind psychic, she wrote three mysteries where the details of the crimes would later come true. She had warned a Doctor he was going to be killed. The doctor turned to Harry to be his bodyguard and Harry said no. When the doctor is killed, Harry feels guilty and tries to find who killed the Doctor and why. This is Harry O, so “why” is more important than “who.” Harry’s humor is beginning to surface again.

   â€œMaterial Witness” begins when Dr. Noelle Kira (Barbara Anderson) sees mobster Joe Kiley kill a man. But witnesses against Kiley have a habit of dying or refusing to testify. Captain Jaklin (James Olson) is convinced someone in the department is tipping off Kiley about where the witnesses are being kept. He asks Harry to be the Doctor’s bodyguard for 24 hours until he can get men he trusts in place. The series is beginning to shift to more typical TV crime stories. This episode has some interesting twists and a more typical TV PI show ending.

   â€œForty Reasons To Kill – Part One” begins with a friend of Harry and a Harvard graduate lawyer turn Hippie, George found dead with cocaine on his body. The cops think it is a drug deal gone wrong. Harry’s search for the truth takes him to small Vardero County where he meets rich spoiled Glenna (Joanna Pettet) who becomes his lover. She had sold George 40,000 acres of land. It was a tiny piece of what she owns but it upset her over protective “uncles” (Broderick Crawford and Craig Stevens) who control the land trust and source of Glenna’s wealth. Harry is beaten up, bribed, and then framed for the murder.

   â€œForty Reasons To Kill – Part Two” has Manny arriving to help Harry. The audience knows something Harry doesn’t, who is behind it all. Glenna pays his bail and Harry is out and quickly learns what is behind the plot and murder. Now Harry has to stay alive long enough to prove it. The episode suffers from too much padding for a story that would have worked better as a single episode.

   â€œAccount Balanced” was the last episode shot in San Diego. An ex-girl friend (Linda Marsh) comes to Harry to find out if her husband (Robert Reed) is cheating. Harry is unhappy when he discovers the husband with another woman. But when that woman is found dead the next day of an apparent suicide, Harry realizes the husband’s secrets may be even more serious. It also featured some funny character byplay between Harry, Manny, and Manny’s less than bright assistant Sgt Cole (likably played by Tom Atkins).

   Harry Orwell is a romantic seeking true justice with all wrongs corrected and the guilty punished. The resulting disappointments caused by reality has left Harry a weary grumpy man with a sardonic sense of humor.

   He is honest and blunt to the point of rudeness. Harry is introspective and private, content to be alone with his thoughts. Harry admits that he hates to talk about himself or his past. Once a client caught him alone singing and playing his banjo and he reacted shyly as if she had discover a hidden secret of his.

   He has little interest in material things or wealth. He may have wine but no wine glasses when paper cups will do. He dislikes mystery fiction and guns, and enjoys fishing and running on the beach alone. Little is known about his past beyond an ex-wife and that he was a Lieutenant on the San Diego Police force and has some experience in the homicide department.

   Harry’s primary motivation to get involved is not money but a sense of responsibility, duty, and/or guilt. In “Material Witness,” when the Captain asks him to protect the witness, Harry asked if this was a paying job or a favor to the department. The Captain wondered what was the difference. Harry replied he could turn down a job.

   Janssen is a joy to watch act. Perhaps the best example of his talents is in the jail scene from Part Two of “Forty Reasons To Kill.” Harry, who has been framed for murder, is laying face down on the cell cot when Manny enters.

   Usually this is a scene that calls for anger and great emotions. Janssen plays it with an understated whimsy that was as entertaining as it was surprising. Henry Darrow followed Janssen’s lead and played his normally under control stern cop Manny with a lighter touch. Harry and Manny are friends and trust each other. This scene showed it without the need to say it.

   Lieutenant Manuel “Manny” Quinlan is a career cop, and little is known beyond that. Not unlike Harry, Manny never discusses his personal life or past. He is a tough no nonsense boss to all he commands, which made dealing with independent Harry difficult for Manny.

   The ratings were mediocre at best but good enough for ABC who had bigger problems with its schedule (it cancelled six shows and moved four more at midseason). Harry O was given the go ahead to shoot the rest of the first season’s episodes, but both ABC and Warners wanted changes.

   The series with its slow-paced inner conflict drama and its fatalistic view of social injustice was not the action PI with car chases ABC wanted.

   San Diego gave Harry O some wonderful background scenery especially the view of the ocean and city skyline from Harry’s small beach house, but the cost overruns from filming on location and the series’ ratings (not a hit like Streets of San Francisco) made Harry O’s move to Los Angeles necessary.

   The Harry O episodes in San Diego (minus “Gertrude”) surprised me by their darkness. The mysteries were less about who did it than the cause and effects of the crime on the characters. Every day was a struggle to survive not only from the outside forces of our lives but the inner demons those forces leave behind.

   I have over thirty hours of the series left to view, so while I will be reviewing other shows these coming weeks, I will return to Harry O as soon as possible. Next in this series of reviews on Harry O I will examine how the series changed after the move to Los Angeles.

NUMB3RS. CBS. Two episodes: “Jacked.” Season 5, Episode 12. First broadcast: 16 January 2009. “Con Job.” Season 6, Episode 9. First broadcast: 20 November 2009. Regular cast members: Rob Morrow (FBI agent Don Eppes), David Krumholtz (math genius Charlie Eppes), Judd Hirsch (Alan Eppes), Alimi Ballard (FBI agent David Sinclair), Dylan Bruno (FBI agent Colby Granger), Navi Rawat (computer whiz Amita Ramanujan), Sophina Brown (FBI agent Nikki Betancourt), Aya Sumika (FBI agent Liz Warner), Peter MacNicol (Dr. Larry Fleinhardt). Guest star: Fisher Stevens (John Buckley). Writers: Don McGill (“Jacked”); Cheryl Heuton & Nicolas Falacci (“Con Job”). Directors: Stephen Gyllenhaal (“Jacked”); Ralph Hemecker (“Con Job”).

   You might remember uber-conman Lewis Avery Filer from two episodes of Hawaii Five-O, reported on here.

   Evidently the producers of Numb3rs felt that a brilliant but warped mind like Filer’s shouldn’t go to waste and used a similar character twice in the show’s final two seasons: John Buckley, an absolute genius at the con. Like the Five-O episodes, the results were a lot of fun.

   It would be unfair to relate too much of what happens in these two episodes, since both are replete with twists and turns, crosses and double crosses and triple crosses, so minimalism will be our watchword here.

   In the opening credits of “Jacked,” we see the following: “24.9 million tourists per year” / “128 bit encryption key” / “18 million dollars” / “4 hours.” All of these do come into play during the course of the show.

   A busload of tourists has been kidnapped by a vicious John Buckley (Fisher Stevens) and his handpicked team. Buckley wants a ransom from the FBI, or he’ll start shooting people — and he proves he means it by killing one of his hostages at random.

   But what lead FBI agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) doesn’t know going in is that he’s dealing with a con artist of the highest caliber — and absolutely nothing is what it seems.

   Despite all the potentially lethal firepower the authorities could bring to bear in this situation, Buckley survives but winds up in prison.

   Buckley turns up again in “Con Job,” which opens with: “3 gunmen” / “16 million dollars” / “26 hostages” / “1 con.”

   Nearly a year has elapsed when a gang of heavily-armed criminals takes over a diamond exchange with dozens of hostages. The methodology this bunch uses reminds Agent Eppes of Buckley, so Eppes enlists his assistance.

   Buckley admits he confided some of his secrets to one of his cell mates, including the diamond exchange takeover — and the security cameras confirm the leader of the gang is that very individual.

   Working closely with the FBI — and ingratiating himself with everyone in sight — Buckley helps Eppes & Co. plan how to foil the robbery.

   While he is suspicious of Buckley’s motives, Eppes seems to have a handle on the situation, but the truth is that from the very beginning — in fact, even before the robbery took place — things have been completely out of his control….

   Some actors can steal every scene they’re in, and Fisher Stevens (born 1963) is one of them.

   Numb3rs ran for six seasons on CBS (2005-2010, 119 episodes). The premise of using mathematics to solve crimes might be unique. Except for PBS’s Mathnet (“The story you are about to see is a fib, but it’s short. The names are made up, but the problems are real”), if anyone knows of other math-based mysteries, please inform us.

“The Venus Microbe.” An episode of A Man Called Sloane. NBC / Woodruff Productions in association with QM Productions. Season 1, Episode 6. Saturday, 27 October 1979, 10-11pm (Eastern). Cast: Robert Conrad as Thomas Remington Sloane III, Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Torque, Dan O’Herlihy as The Director, Michele Carey as the voice of Effie. Guest Cast: Monte Markham, Morgan Fairchild, Darrell Zwerling, Rita Wilson, Karen Purcill. Created by Cliff Gould. Teleplay by Peter Allan Fields, Jack V. Fogarty and Gerald Sanford. Story by Marc Brandel. Executive producer: Philip Saltzman. Producer: Gerald Sanford. Directer: Winrich Kolbe.

   Earlier, I reviewed this series’ pilot TV-movie Death Ray 2000 that starred Robert Logan as Sloane. The character Torque, who was a bad guy in the pilot, was changed to Thomas’ partner for the series. I found the pilot more fun to watch, yet the series had its over the top moments as well.

   A Man Called Sloane is not good enough to be called a James Bond wannabe nor can it be called a Man from U.N.C.L.E wannabe. At best this series is a Eurospy wannabe.

   The Eurospy film was a sub-genre of spy films made mainly in Europe during the 60s to take advantage of the Bond craze. Over the top plot, bad acting, a mess of a script, car chase, gadgets, beautiful women, evil villain, mad scientists, femme fatale, fights, it is all here in this single hour TV episode.

   The plot of this episode features the theft of a deadly microbe brought back from the planet Venus. It is stolen by one of the scientists examining the microbe and sold to Cambro (Monte Markham) of Kartel, an evil organization out to take over the world.

   In the paint-by-numbers script, Thomas and his sidekick Torque arrive to check out a tip that the microbe is about to be stolen. The two work for UNIT, an “elite counter force reporting directly to the President,” with its office hidden in a retail store called “The Toy Boutique.”

   The theft happens while they are there so our heroes get to have a car chase and use some gadgets. The femme fatale (Zacki Murphy) and adulterer-traitor-scientist (Alex Henteloff) escape, while Thomas and Torque are occupied with a pursuing fake ambulance that has some gadgets of its own.

   Meanwhile, two scientists are unconscious in the contaminated lab. They can keep them alive by pumping oxygen into the lab, but they have only twenty-four hours before the mix of oxygen and microbe will cause the lab to blow up. Conveniently, there is an antidote but the traitor scientist (who did not create the formula) has the only copy of the formula.

   And the plot holes are just beginning as the episode continues in an unrelenting stream of formulaic scenes until Thomas finally saves the girl, escapes the death trap and foils the villain’s evil plans. In fact, the script tries to jam too much into one episode. The villain having the deadly microbe is jeopardy enough. There is no need to add the sub-plot of twenty-four hours before the scientists die or the lab goes boom.

   Cambro can destroy the world. Does Thomas need to have a more personal motive to stop him than that? But they briefly mention then never explore the past history between Cambro and Thomas, when the two battled three years before and a woman Thomas cared about was killed. Why couldn’t the writers save a cliché or two for next week’s episode? Three years, Thomas? Yes, obviously the woman meant a great deal to you.

   Acting, as every Eurospy film fan knows, is not the sub-genre’s strong point. While certainly an improvement over Logan from the pilot, Conrad has never played more than a version of himself. At times that can be entertaining enough, but here Conrad lacks his usual charm.

   Fairchild was great as a blonde but not so much as the wannabe PI on the trail of the cheating husband aka traitor scientist. Markham’s evil madman was the standard bland TV villain.

   Bad acting, formula writing and an unbelievably stupid plot and you had a way to spend a mindless hour on Saturday night, if that is your idea of a productive way to spend your Saturday nights.

   The series debuted September 22, 1979. It was scheduled against two other new shows, ABC’s Hart to Hart and CBS’s Paris (which debuted September 29th). The ratings were good in the first three weeks with A Man Called Sloane winning its time slot two of those weeks and tied with Hart to Hart the other week.

   Sloane and Hart both benefited from the ratings disaster of Paris. The ratings for September 29th had Sloane winning the time period with a 34 share, Hart to Hart a 33 share, and CBS’s Paris a 22 share. However, an early warning sign was the ratings were slowly dropping for Sloane.

   Then ABC moved Fantasy Island to Saturday at 10pm (where it had aired the season before) and it was the beginning of the end for A Man Called Sloane. The ratings for the first matchup had Fantasy Island at a 38 share, with Sloane a 28 share and a CBS rerun special Body Human – The Sexes at 20.

   For this episode, “The Venus Microbe” had a 24 share compared to Fantasy Island 38 share and Paris 25 share.

   In the ratings for the period of September 17 thru November 4, 1979, A Man Called Sloane finished 51st out of 73 series.

   The series had a total of 12 episodes filmed and the last original episode aired December 22, 1979.

   This episode is currently (but who knows for how long) available to watch on YouTube. The series itself is available on DVD only in the collector-to-collector’s market.

         SOURCES:    Broadcasting magazine

“Gertrude.” An episode of Harry O. ABC/Warner Brothers Television. 12 September 1974 (Season 1, Episode 1). Thursday at 10 pm., 60 minutes. Cast: David Janssen, Julie Sommars, Henry Darrow, Michael McGuire, Les Lannon, Mel Stewart. Written and Created by Howard Rodman. Produced by Robert E. Thompson. Executive Producer and Director: Jerry Thorpe.

   Harry O remains high on every TV private eye fan’s DVD wish list, while the second pilot “Smile Jenny, You’re Dead” is available as a Made On Demand DVD from WB Archives Collection, the series shows no signs of ever being released on official DVD.

   Harry O was a series that went through many changes over its two-season run, beginning with two separate pilot movies. Rather than review the entire series at once, I plan to randomly return and review single episodes that were important in the series evolution.

   Normally, I would start with the pilot but the first pilot “Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On” (73) is difficult to find. The second pilot, “Smile Jenny, You’re Dead” (74), was an average predictable humorless psychological thriller featuring a stalker killing off the men in his victim’s life and a story of Harry reuniting a homeless child and her mother. Certainly nothing like I remember the series.

   So I start with the premiere episode, “Gertrude.” Even the theme song and opening changed over time. Here is the opening to “Gertrude” as it appears on YouTube:

   â€œGertrude” was the Harry O I remember, funny, off beat with an interesting mystery and entertaining interaction between the characters. The episode was not perfect, suffering from an occasional minor plot hole or two, but the story was entertaining enough for such complaints to be quickly forgiven.

   No actor on television has been more convincing as a PI than David Janssen. In this episode Janssen is at his best, not only as the television PI he did so well in Richard Diamond, but as a character that is as eccentric as his clients.

   Harry Orwell is a former police detective in San Diego who, after one police case left him with a bullet in his back and on full disability, tries to enjoy a simple lifestyle while taking cases as a PI only when he is in the mood.

   The Harry in this episode solved the mystery by figuring out the clues and using his experiences as a cop. His humor was playful with non-sequiturs as well as typical PI wisecracks. He is passive, patient, doesn’t talk much, and prefers to travel his own path at his own pace. His methods were as effective as they were odd and a source of irritation to other law enforcement people.

   If Harry O must be labeled it should be as ABC’s version of NBC’s The Rockford Files. But there are too many differences between Harry and Rockford for the label to hold up beyond both series being hour-long mysteries that make fun of the clichés of the PI.

   For example, Harry enjoys taking the bus. In this episode the government agent (Michael McGuire) has to follow Harry who is riding the bus. The scene where the agent in his car is trying not to be spotted while following a bus certainly is in contrast to and more entertaining than the typical TV PI car chase.

   The story opens on the beach in front of Harry’s home. He is working on his broken boat named “The Answer.” The phone begins to ring. Harry ignores it, explaining in his PI narration that he doesn’t want to answer the phone he wants to be in Idaho with the circus. But on the eighteenth ring, Harry answers figuring anyone who would let the phone ring eighteen times must really want to talk to him.

   It is a woman named Gertrude (Julie Sommars) who wants Harry to find her missing brother, Harold (Les Lannon), who the Navy says is AWOL. Harold had sent Gertrude a clue, one civilian left shoe. Harry thinks that is an odd thing for a sailor to send, and he likes the sound of Gertrude’s voice, so he takes the case.

   Ditzy teetotaler, virgin Gertrude finds the confessed immoral drinker Harry confusing, while Harry tries hard to prove he is in fact a gentleman who does not want her “to cheat the man she marries” either.

   Two Shore Patrolmen arrive and demand all of Harold’s property. (Gertrude had all ready sold all the furniture to get the money to pay Harry.) Harry runs them off and realizes they are not from the Shore Patrol.

   The first stop on Harry’s search for Harold is the airport, where he uses the baggage scanner to see if there is anything hidden inside the shoe Harold sent his sister (there isn’t).

   Neither Harry nor the Navy are too open with the other, so Harry asks his police contact Lt. Manny Quinlan (Henry Darrow) to find out the answer to two questions, does Harold play poker and what is Harold’s shoe size. This is where the show plays fair as Harry recaps the clues and what we know up to this point for Manny and the detectives among the viewers.

   Howard Rodman received a well deserving Edgar nomination for his witty script. The combination of Rodman’s script, Jerry Thorpe’s quality direction, Janssen’s acting and Billy Goldberg’s soundtrack all came together and rose one scene from its typical filler status to memorable.

   When Harry visits the Navy Commander to ask about Harold the missing sailor and brother, he is lead down some corridors. There is a Navy Officer leading the way and a uniformed Shore Patrolman just behind Harry. Meanwhile the soundtrack is playing a military drum march over the theme song. Surprisingly, this usually filler type scene is entertaining and has a story driven reason behind it.

   Harry and the Navy finally work together and Harold and the two posing Shore Patrolman are found. But that was not the end of this entertaining mystery, there is still a twist or two left before all is answered.

   If you have watched “Smile Jenny, You’re Dead” and wondered why anyone remembers Harry O, it is because of episodes such as “Gertrude.”

   Broadcasting (September 23, 1974) ran the ratings of the week as well as excerpts from critic’s reviews around the country of new series such as Harry O.

   Critics at the time were divided over the script. Cecil Smith of the LA Times wrote, “…The dialogue is as sharp as a switchblade, the characters solidly drawn…and the mystery itself continually absorbing.” While John J. O’Connor of the NY Times wrote, “The script is third-rate…”

   Most found Janssen better than the script with such comments as Kay Gardella of the NY Daily News, who wrote, “…An actor with charisma and a good track record can take a mediocre property and make it look a lot better than it is. That’s what David Janssen does with Harry O.” But John Carmody of the Washington Post worried “…the viewer is never sure whether Janssen is wise-cracking or just proving he’s still awake.”

   â€œGertrude” aired on premiere week of the 1974-75 fall season. The Thursday lineup on ABC began with The Odd Couple followed by Paper Moon then Streets of San Francisco and Harry O at 10pm. CBS had a two hour Waltons followed by Perry Como Summer of 74 at 10pm. NBC’s lineup began with Sierra followed by Ironside and Movin’ On at 10pm. (Thanks to TVTango.com and David Bushman’s TV Guide.)

   Ratings were good as “Gertrude” was one of only three shows ABC had in the top 30 (the movie Fiddler on the Roof and Streets of San Francisco were the other two). For its time slot Harry O finished ranked twenty-fifth with 19.6 and 34 share. Movin’ On’s rating was 19.8 and a 34 share and CBS’s Perry Como finished with a 32 share. In an era when shows often enjoyed 50 shares and higher, and under 30 meant you were in trouble, the most positive ratings news for Harry was how bad the rest of the ABC schedule was doing.

   Will future episode maintain the high standards of “Gertrude”? I am looking forward to watching and find out.

“The Ghost Goes East.” CBS. An episode of The Hunter, 24 September 1952, Wednesday 9:30 – 10:00 pm. Cast: Barry Nelson, Nita Talbot, Iggi Wolfington, Tiger Andrews, Henry Lascoe, Hy Anzel, Helen Penwell. Written by Phil Reisman, Jr. Produced by Edward J. Montagne. Directed by Oscar Rudolph.

   The Hunter is another series with a wacky backstory. It is a history that features two networks, two stars, and two different court cases. But before we get to the history, let’s examine the episode.

   And let’s not bury the lead. This episode was awful. The Hunter was a Commie-bashing spy series. Nita Talbot was the single highlight of this episode, while the rest of the cast, including lead Barry Nelson, did a poor job with Phil Reisman’s terrible script that was burdened with weak dialog and a plot full of holes.

   â€œThe Ghost Goes East” opens in the middle of a stakeout by the FBI. Being outdoors, and in a 1950’s TV-Film show, there was no dialog, just the camera to show what was happening. Director Oscar Rudolph told the story well with some dramatically effective camera angles. We watched as the FBI closed in on the Commie spies only to have one of them escape.

   The setting changes to inside some airport, aka typical 50s cheap generic set. Rudolph was never able to overcome the limitations of the cheap interiors sets to come close to the drama of the opening. He also failed to play fair with the two, granted lame, visual clues.

   Our hero’s (Barry Nelson) contact, Jane (Helen Penwell) arrives at the airport. He is watching a mysterious man watch him. He whistles his code sign “Frere Jacques.” While Jane updates our hero, the man disappeared. She tells him the Red spy is still on the loose and has passed his information to a Commie courier named William. While they don’t know what William looks like, they somehow know what plane he will be on as he heads east to pass the information to the Commies in East Berlin.

   The thirty-minute episode lacked the time for any characterization of our unlikable hero. On “The Ghost Goes East” no name was revealed for our Hero until he checked his passport, one for Jack Hunter, and when asked Hunter claimed his job was “exterminator.”

   He boards the plane and meets his fellow passengers, aka suspects. They include the man who had been watching him and a traveling showbiz troupe headed overseas. The troupe is made up of people who barely know each other, but the man-hungry half of a sister act (Nita Talbot) and the troupe’s leader and comic (Iggi Wolfington) happily gossip and do the exposition.

   Of course there is a murder during the flight. The twist at the end might have worked in 1952, but not today. In the final scene, after Hunter has saved America, the group notices Hunter has disappeared. As the dumbfounded characters wonder out loud where Hunter went, we hear him whistling his signature tune “Frere Jacques.”

   This episode is very easy to find on DVD. It appears on Lost Detective Classics from the Vault (Alpha Home Entertainment).

   The series’ backstory began when sponsor R. J. Reynolds wanted a summer replacement series for their CBS series Man Against Crime, a PI series starring Ralph Bellamy. The William Esty Agency handled the creative side of Man Against Crime and had producer Edward J. Montagne and writer Phil Reisman, Jr. do the same for the summer replacement series, The Hunter.

   The series began July 3, 1952, Thursday at 9pm. But Lucky Strike was able to push R. J. Reynolds off that time slot. CBS moved The Hunter to Wednesday at 9:30pm, a time slot held by Embassy’s series The Web. Embassy tried to stop the move and sued CBS for damages. The court refused to stop CBS.

   The Hunter on CBS starred Barry Nelson and 13 episodes were filmed. It was filmed in New York at the financially troubled Pathescope Studios. Ratings were not bad with the show ranked 22nd nationally by American Research Bureau during the week of August 1-7 and seen in 3,480 homes and 50 cities.

   Nielsen, for the two weeks ending 7/26/52, had The Hunter ranked 7th in number of homes reached (3,746), and 6th in percent of TV Homes reached in program station areas. At that time there were 65 markets, 110 stations, and 18,317,528 estimated TV sets in use in the entire United States.

   CBS’s The Hunter was opposite NBC’s Kraft Television Theatre and ABC’s Wrestling from the Marigold in Chicago (a series that also aired Saturday on the DuMont network). At the end of the summer of 1952, CBS let the series go. But that was not the end of the series, and in the summer of 1954 The Hunter returned to the air.

   But before that, in the summer of 1953 R. J. Reynolds decided to film 13 more episodes of The Hunter. Barry Nelson was now starring on My Favorite Husband, so Keith Larsen took over the lead. These episodes were kept “under wraps” with hopes there might be a demand for them in the future.

   Then R. J. Reynolds sold the CBS episodes with Barry Nelson to NBC as a summer replacement series that aired Sunday at 10:30 starting July 11, 1954. NBC then bought the never-shown episodes with Keith Larsen and aired them in the fall starting October 3, 1954. The Keith Larsen episodes would run once and then NBC replaced The Hunter on January 2, 1955, with The Bob Cummings Show (aka Love That Bob).

   In July 1955, Official Films sold the syndication rights for the 26 episode series to sponsor Tafon Distributors, and The Hunter made its syndication debut in 1955. Tafon, a maker of a “miracle” diet tablet, claimed the series would soon be in 250 markets (of the current 285 in the entire country).

   It is doubtful The Hunter ever came close to that number of markets. The series rarely found itself in the top rated programs in any market, and with just 26 episodes to air the series faded away.

   Official Films sued Tafon in September 1957 claiming Tafon owed them $97,169.37. They also claimed that no payments had been made since November 1956, and $100,000 remained to be paid from the original sale price of $234,000.

         SOURCES: (the usual suspects)

Billboard:   Accessible at http://books.google.com

Broadcasting:   http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Broadcasting_Individual_Issues_Guide.htm

TVTango.com

Editorial Comment:   “Rendezvous in Prague,” a second episode of The Hunter is currently available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67VJF74itw

    The opening four minutes of a third (no title provided):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doLXwU14_Tw