Wed 14 Jun 2023
A TV PI Episode Review: THE OUTSIDER “Periwinkle Blue†(1969).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[7] Comments
THE OUTSIDER “Periwinkle Blue.†NBC, 02 April 1969 (Season One, Episode 24). Darren McGavin (PI David Ross). Guest cast: Lois Nettleton, Ellen Corby, Douglas Dick, Bill Quinn, Richard Benedict. Series created by Roy Huggins (as John Thomas James). Teleplay by Edward J. Lakso, based on a story by Gene Levitt. Directed by Richard Benedict. Currently streaming on YouTube (see below).
For beginners, if you’ve never read Michael Shonk’s overview of the series, or you haven’t in a while, let me steer you there first before you read on back here.
This, however, is an excerpt from his first two paragraphs:
Actually no show has had a rougher time of it in the anti-violence climate than the Universal Television–Public Arts Production of The Outsider. It was bought by the network and in production long before the [Bobby] Kennedy assassination.
The shooting death of Bobby Kennedy is what had happened between the showing of the pilot episode, which Michael reviewed here, and the TV networks were under fire for showing too much violence in their offerings, and The Outsider, once picked up as a series, took the brunt of it.
Here’s Michael’s opening statement on the pilot film:
In reviewing the series, Michael went into detail about the episodes that were available to him at the time, but “Periwinkle Blue.†was not one of them. Filling in the gap, Mike Doran left a comment talking about it as an episode he still remembered, but no more than that.
At the beginning of this episode Ross turns down a client who thinks his wife is trying to kill him, thinking that the man was exaggerating several incidents that had recently occurred. Later on, discovering from a newspaper that the man had been killed in a hit-and-run accident, he decides to take the death as a sign that perhaps he was wrong.
Attending the man’s funeral, he meets the wife (the wholly delightful Lois Nettleton), as obvious a suspect in a case of murder as there could ever be, but yet, over the next few weeks, he is not quite sure. He is attracted to her and her flirty but quietly quirky ways, but there is no way he can dispel the suspicions he has of her. He is puzzled and perplexed, in a role that only a completely bewildered Darren McGavin could play.
This is, as you can plainly see, not your usual TV PI drama, and to tell you the truth, I think this episode, at least, is all the better for it. If I’ve intrigued you at all, do watch this one.
June 15th, 2023 at 6:19 am
By 1969, the spy craze had burned itself out, and PIs were starting to trickle back into movies and TV, led by HARPER as an early outlier. I suppose McGavin is remembered by most people today for CHRISTMAS STORY.
June 15th, 2023 at 9:12 am
Quite possibly, but I’d suggest he remains more famous for his role as Carl Kolchak in the NIGHT STALKER series.
June 15th, 2023 at 12:39 pm
I forgot KOLCHAK. You’re right. Other PIs from 1969–James Garner’s turn as Philip Marlowe in MARLOWE, and George Maharis as Gus Monk in an ABC-TV movie, THE MONK. The other early outlier with HARPER was MANNIX, which debuted in 1967.
June 15th, 2023 at 9:40 pm
The series had a cult following and had almost from the beginning. There was something about it and McGavin’s David Ross that seemed different than the usual run of private eye fare, and I suspect this was influential on some other later eyes like Rockford, Harry O, and Huggins CITY OF ANGELS, it had that slightly off beat vibe.
There was a decent one shot novelization, but I don’t know if it as a tie-in original or a novelization of the pilot.
It was fondly remembered and often cited as a missed opportunity because of its unfortunate timing.
Ironically one of the episodes I’ve watched recently on YouTube featured Ruth McDevitt who was a regular on Kolchak.
June 15th, 2023 at 9:49 pm
Way back in time, long before there was an Internet, when Mystery*File was a printed zine only, I did a poll of the the readers as to what their collective favorite TV mystery series was, and what do you think it was?
I don’t remember what series came in second.
June 16th, 2023 at 7:28 am
As I recall, Lou Cameron’s tie-in novel was an original story, not a novelization of a script. But I haven’t read it since it was brand-new off the spinner rack, so I could be wrong.
June 16th, 2023 at 8:39 pm
James, you’re one step ahead of me. I bought the book new, too, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it. Not yet, that is.