Thu 13 Feb 2025
TV Episode Review: BANACEK “Let’s Hear It for a Living Legend.” (1972).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[10] Comments
BANACEK. “Let’s Hear It for a Living Legend.” NBC, September 13, 1972 (Season 1, Episode 1.) George Peppard, Stefanie Powers, Madlyn Rhue, Robert Webber, John Brodie. Director: Jack Smight. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
This was not the first time that Banacek, the well known Boston-based insurance investigator, appeared on the country’s TV screens. There was a pilot made-for-TV movie entitled “Banacek: Detour to Nowhere” that was shown on March 20, 1972. It did well enough for NBC to pick the show up as part of their rotating Wednesday Mystery Movie series, sharing the time slot with other shows.
If anyone of a certain age remembers the show, it is almost guaranteed they will remember the gimmick in this one. At one point during a televised football game, a runner for one team is stopped and buried in a pile of players for the other team. As those players peel off the pile, the audience both at the stadium and viewing at home is stunned to discover that the runner at the bottom of the pile has … disappeared. Vanished into thin air.
Impossible crimes such as this one were Banacek’s forte, and as a result, the series was on for sixteen episodes over two seasons. Banacek himself appears to be modestly well-to-do, but that may be due to his continued success in his crime solving abilities.
The premise in this one is fascinating, but the show is at least partially let down by the writers trying to fill a 90 minute time slot with lots and lots of not especially interesting questioning. And even though the pace is slow, I don’t think that anyone watching could very easily take what they see going on and put a solution together.
Which is both clever and, alas, not very likely to have come off as perfectly as it does here. George Peppard does his best to make his brashly bold but not quite arrogant character interesting, but the allure here is the “impossible crime,” and unfortunately it takes only five minutes to explain.
The show seems to have done well, though. so you might want to take my comments with a grain of salt. It’s fine. It really is. I liked this one.
February 14th, 2025 at 11:44 pm
Banacek’s running duel of wits with his chauffeur and with informer Murray Matheson were often highlights of the episodes as they try to outwit him and get to the reward first. As with most miracle crimes the less complex the solution the better the episode.
This one would be somewhat harder to pull off today with giant screens and high-def cameras but just works with a bit of a wink and a nod.
February 15th, 2025 at 1:09 am
I have been thinking about this series. It is strange to me that this is the only episode I remember. Where was I on Wednesday nights? What other show was I watching?
PS. You really are right, David, about that wink and a nod. It’s still an enjoyable gimmick, but no, there’s no way it could be guaranteed to work.
February 16th, 2025 at 3:52 am
I’ve not seen this episode myself –but I knew about it –from syndicated re-runs of other Banacek episodes which I have seen.
You know how like, when they do a little ‘preview’ of the next week’s plot. Yes it is an intriguing premise and always will be. How the heck -what kind of Statue-of-Liberty handoff –removes a play from under a dogpile? It is clever plot concoction.
Banacek himself –did not make much impression on me. He’s no Jim Rockford. Nor did Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, but at least Jim Hutton had that charming dorkiness and the tweed hat.
Seems to me that the glib, suave Peppard –for a time, Hollywood’s most handsome man –did not age well. Or maybe he simply gained weight too quickly.
What was the other similarly-named detective around that same time, Banyan? With Robert Forster?
Even Banyan seemed more …I dunno. Effortful? Bit more edgy? It’s possible I simply prefer a detective not to have a chauffeur.
February 16th, 2025 at 4:51 pm
I loved Banecek. And if his cars and mansion is your idea of “modestly well to do”, then I guess you thought JR Ewing was upper middle class.
February 16th, 2025 at 8:28 pm
I really do have to get out more.
February 17th, 2025 at 11:28 am
The lovely Anitra Ford in that photograph. For a less tender side of Anitra: The Big Bird Cage with Pam Grier.
February 17th, 2025 at 11:46 am
Not a large part in this one, but certainly memorable enough.
February 23rd, 2025 at 4:03 am
I seem to remember now that Banacek –as Jim Hutton also enjoyed in his Ellery Queen role –did have an ‘older wiser sage’ to turn to when any particularly thorny problem confounded him. Some kind of historian or librarian who was his special friend.
Gee. I donno. When you stand 6’3″, ya own multiple cars and a dedicated chauffeur to bounce ideas off, ya got babes galore, and also a private scholar on tap –how can you go wrong?
Seems like this setup can only lead to: Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, Max the butler, and Freeway the Dog.
August 19th, 2026 at 1:53 am
I’ve recently rewatched all the series. Back then what sold the show was Peppard’s whit and star power. His smug arrogance but good heart, and his lifestyle. His wonderful back and forth with the female lib of that time as well as the great casual sex. Btw at $200k an average fee=$2mil today, i think he was very comfy. Regulars and guest stars were great. The mysteries, were always a minor amusement even back then watching in my early 20’s. It was always the lifestyle and wit. By the second season, the entro was lengthened way too much. Perhaps Peppard got tired of the role and his drinking problems (which he finally licked) were increasing. Sad that his constant thin cigar in his mouth would lead to his relatively early death from lung cancer. Back then they all smoked hard, drank hard, played heard and worked VERY hard. Look at how David Jansen aged so quickly.
August 19th, 2026 at 2:58 am
Btw John Brodie who acted in this episode just passed at age 90. 17 yrs as the SF 49ers qb then commentating, and then on the senior golf tour. During his fight scene with 6′ tall Peppard ex marine, he handled him like a rag doll. Peppard was one of the central characters in the hugely popular epic How the West Was Won. great underated actor whose main “problem” during his career was he demanded better scripts.