Wed 15 Feb 2023
A Mystery TV Episode Review: BURKE’S LAW “Who Killed the Lifeguard?â€
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[8] Comments
BURKE’S LAW “Who Killed the Lifeguard?†CBS, 25 May 1995 (New Season 2, Episode 6). Gene Barry (Chief Amos Burke), Peter Barton (Detective Peter Burke), Dom DeLuise. Guest Cast: Downtown Julie Brown, Samantha Eggar, Catherine Hicks. Director: Jefferson Kibbee. Currently available on YouTube.
This is an episode from the second incarnation of the popular TV mystery show Burke’s Law, or maybe the third. After a successful two years on ABC from 1963 to 1965, it changed focus nearly 180 degrees and retitled itself to become Amos Burke Secret Agent, which had viewers across the entire country yawning with disinterest. The series was revived, literally brought back from the dead, for two seasons on CBS (1994-1995), with Gene Barry once again playing the role of the millionaire homicide detective with a tendency for quoting various “laws†as the cases he is investigating moved along.
In this later version, a son played by Peter Barton was added. From the one episode I’ve seen, his presence was only minimally involved, but he was a young actor with a lot of “hunk†appeal, and maybe he helped boost the number of young teenyboppers watching the show.
As this episode goes along, the number of suspects involved in the death of the titular lifeguard grows and grows. There are at least four, perhaps five. The Burkes’ method of investigation is to question each of them in turn, and each in turn accuses the next one, sometimes looping back to someone for another round of questions. This may be unique to only this episode, but perhaps it was a standard procedure for the entire series. This also may be true for the final scene in which all the suspects are gathered together, and … well, you know the drill.
And perhaps only incidentally, whenever the action takes the Burkes to the beach, which is often, there are also quite a few bikini-clad beauties strolling back and forth across the screen. It sometimes made it difficult to follow the actual story line.
Not essential viewing by any means, but still fun to watch. Quite a few episodes can be found currently on YouTube.
February 15th, 2023 at 6:02 pm
Anne Francis HONEY WEST had its pilot as an episode of BURKE’S LAW on its first run and she shows up in at least one episode of the second series.
The gathering of the suspects was new to the series. It was not how many (if any) of the original run ended, though the multiple guest star suspects was the gimmick the show was based on, and the business of each interview casting suspicion on the next was how the series usually was structured.
For most of its first run the series largely revolved around Burke and his team (Gary Conway as Tim and Regis Toomey as Les) meeting increasingly eccentric suspects and eventually uncovering the killer (not always the best known actor in the episode like some other series using this gimmick).
Harlan Ellison wrote two notable episodes, and at least one series entry (not by Ellison) had Burke investigating the murder of his police chief at a detective’s convention that included Carl Reiner as a Sherlock Holmes clone, J. Carroll Naish a cross between Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan, Ed Begley Sr. as Hercule Poirot, and Thomas Gomez as private detective Caligula Bear aka Nero Wolfe.
As mysteries they were no great value, but the series was slick (Aaron Spelling producing) and long time mystery fan Frank D. Gilroy (NERO WOLFE) wrote and supervised the scripts. A bit of atmosphere was usually accompanied by Burke’s surprisingly tough and sardonic take on the character reflecting how Dick Powell had portrayed the character in the pilot from FOUR STAR (that also featured Conway, but not Toomey).
Guest stars varied from staples of the small screen to more exotic ones and included Fess Parker, John Ireland, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carolyn Jones, Ricardo Montalban, Laraine Day, Mickey Rooney, Zza Zza, Burgess Meredith, Ed Wynn, George Nader, and more most episodes starting with Burke having to stand up his beautiful date to investigate a murder — explaining his usual annoyance with his team.
The wealthy policeman with a society background wasn’t all that new. Both Rufus King’s Lt. Valcour and C. Daly King’s Michael Lord were policemen with a background of money and position on this side of the Atlantic, while the British had such gentlemen of the Yard as Roderick Alleyn, Sir John Meredith, and John Appleby.
February 15th, 2023 at 8:16 pm
The Amos Burke I enjoyed most was played by Dick Powell in the pilot, Who Killed Julie Greer?.
February 15th, 2023 at 11:19 pm
February 16th, 2023 at 3:30 am
Although John Appleby was knighted during his career, he originally came from quite a humble background (we are told this in “There Came Both Mist And Snow”).
February 16th, 2023 at 11:02 am
In re Burke’s Law:
– First off, Frank Gilroy’s involvement ended when he sold the “Julie Greer” script to The Dick Powell Show; In order to do the Burke series, Four Star had to sign an agreement with Gilroy where they ceded certain rights of ownership, which they promptly ignored when the series development began – resulting in over a decade of litigation (my source for this is Gilroy’s 2007 memoir Writing For Love And/Or Money).
For the record, Frank Giltoy had no involvement whatsoever in the original Burke’s Law series at the production or writing levels.
– Just so we know, which two of the four Harlan Ellison Burke scripts is David referring to as the “notable” ones?
– Hate to nitpick – again – but Thomas Gomez’s fauxWolfe was Caligula Foxe (I watched the DVD again just to be sure).
February 16th, 2023 at 9:23 pm
The two Ellison episodes that stood out to me were the Playboy one with Suzy Parker, Diana Dors, John Ireland as a Hef stand-in, and Burgess Meredith as a Jack Cole style cartoonist and the one about witchcraft. The solution to the Playboy episode ends with a surprisingly frank sexual motive for television of the time.
Not surprising for Ellison, but surprising to make it onto episodic television in the era.
Sorry, I assumed Gilroy had more input as his name is prominently displayed in the opening credits, but his presence or not someone tied to the show knew the genre fairly well. In the scene with Carl Reiner’s Inspector Homes he seems a bit of a buffoon until a canny deduction at the endof his interview leads Barry to quote the line “though he might be more humble there’s no police like Homes (sic)” attributed to E. W. Hornung.
Been a decade since I saw the Gomez episode though I understand it is available on YouTube, or was.
February 17th, 2023 at 2:15 pm
No comparison in the lead performance. Thanks, Steve.
February 18th, 2023 at 11:22 am
Once again, I’m noting that you didn’t include a credit for the episode’s writer – who in this case turns out to be the Co-Executive Producer, James L. Conway (also the head writer here, FWIW).
Mr. Conway had a considerable career in film and TV, mainly with another Aaron Spelling series, Charmed (the original version – you know, the good one).
Mr. Conway aged out of the TV business and started writing novels; he became an object of my jealousy for his 40+ year marriage to one of my crushes, Rebecca Balding, who sadly passed on last year (but that’s another story …).