Monday, April 5: The Scribbler
WATCHING THE DETECTIVES
by James Lincoln Warren
The other day, I went looking to see if the classic TV detective show 77 Sunset Strip, starring Ephrem Zimbalist, Jr., and Roger Smith, were available on DVD. This was the first private eye show I remember ever watching when I was a little kid. I didn’t get to watch Peter Gunn except on rare occasions—it came on after my bedtime and and I think my parents regarded it as a little too adult for me. But getting back to the Strip, I am particularly interested in the show because it shows what Los Angeles, where I live, was like half a century ago. (Peter Gunn worked in an unidentified town.)
Alas, it was not meant to be. The show has not yet been released for home viewing.
All was not futile, however. During my search, I came across Best of TV Detectives, a 12 double-sided-DVD compilation of crime-themed television shows mostly from the fifties (although for some reason there are also a couple of episodes from the first season of Mannix, dated 1967, which I already have anyway).
If the Gentle Reader has been long with Criminal Brief, he might recall my paean to the lost art of the 30-minute TV drama, which I considered the TV equivalent of the short story, but I am happy to report that Best of TV Detectives is balm in Gilead on that score. 150 episodes’ worth, no less, Mannix‘s hour-long format notwithstanding.
The cover (below) shows the square-jawed Ralph Byrd in his television guise as Dick Tracy. The lovely blonde on the right is Angela Greene, who played Mrs. Tess Trueheart Tracy. Byrd originally portrayed Chester Gould’s comic strip detective in a 1937 Republic movie serial. That, I had heard of, but I never knew the television show even existed.
Likewise with most of the programs in the collection. Some, of course, I knew: Dragnet. Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The Adventures of Ellery Queen (the 1950 version, not the 1975 incarnation). Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Burke’s Law.
But Code 3? This was an anthology series about the Los Angeles Sherriffs Department. Then there’s The Court of Last Resort, a “true story” series concerning a real group of eminent men led by Perry Mason’s creator Erle Stanley Gardner who investigated crimes where it was suspected justice had miscarried—Gardner was portrayed by an actor, but the hero of the series was the private investigator who works for the group, played by Lyle Bettger. One of the things I learned from that series was that Gardner was a licensed lawyer in California—this surprised me, because in his books, Perry Mason skates on the edge of ethics all the time, and also because Gardner was a graphomaniac who wrote over a million words of pulp fiction during his lifetime, making me wonder where he found the time to study for the Bar Exam.
Did you know that Boris Karloff was a TV detective at one time? True. The series was Colonel March of Scotland Yard in 1956.
Right now, I’m only on the second disk. Each side of each DVD averages about 6 half-hour episodes of these forgotten treasures, so there’s a lot to get through. On some of them the production values are extremely poor, almost amateurish, while others evince the slick hand of Hollywood. Either way, they are tremendously entertaining and a window into the era when television was finding its legs.
Best of TV Detectives is an anthology from Mill Creek Entertainment, which specializes in old television shows. This collection isn’t listed on their website, but it is available from several online DVD vendors for about 20 bucks. I was disappointed not have found 77 Sunset Strip, and I would have liked to see some episodes of Highway Patrol with Broderick Crawford included, but who’s complaining?
I may have the right to remain silent, but I’m waiving it. I’m having too much fun to shut up.
I enjoyed the early Mannix and the few Peter Gunn episodes I’ve seen, but I’ve never caught 77 Sunset Strip, despite remembering its catchy theme song.
Richard Diamond is new to me, hmm… wonder if it’s posted on-line. I’ve been listening to the Nero Wolfe radio serials (Sidney Greenstreet) which I indirectly learned about from our femme fatale, Deborah.
I saw Code 3 and The Court of Last Resort for the first time a few months ago. I found Code 3 a dull Dragnet competitor, but The Court of Last Resort was much more interesting.
There were two important things about Richard Diamond. First, it was the show that made Richard Janssen (later renowned as The Fugitive) a star, and secondly, it featured Mary Tyler Moore’s legs (but not her face).
I thought everybody knew that.
Of those shows the only ones I have seen were Hitchcock’s and 77Sunset. (Of course I saw the later Dragnet.) The one thing I remember about 77 Sunset Strip was an episode with no words. Just music.
And speaking of music, who can forget that classic number “Kookie, lend me your comb?”
By the way, James, I read your EQMM story “Jungle Music” over the weekend. Much fun. Very Black Mask.
I bought that DVD set for the Ellery Queen episode, which was in pretty good shape considering it was a kinescope from the live TV days. It adapted “The Hanging Acrobat” and used the main plot point but emphasized action more than ratiocination in its development. Richard Hart was, as has been reported, a good Ellery, but he died suddenly not long after this episode was aired. I haven’t watched the other stuff yet but a agree the set is a rare bargain.
Ohhhhhhhh! I have to get this! Thanks for sharing, JLW!
Great column. I grew up watching those old detective shows — it’s probably one of the many things that inspired all the crime fiction I’ve written since. And, as corny as it was, I loved 77 Sunset Strip. (“You’ll meet the highbrow and the hipster . . .”)
By the way, JLW, there’s one more thing I remember about the old Richard Diamond series: he probably got whacked on the head from behind more than any other fictional character. (It seemed he was knocked out at least once every episode.)
This must be the same set I got about a year ago, but Mill Creek changed the cover picture – mine has Jack Webb.
Anyway, it’s a great set.
I direct you to Front Page Detective with Edmund Lowe and Joe Besser (yes, really) and the highly educational Racket Squad.
And check out Miami Undercover – that radio guy is exactly who you think he is (spoiler wthdrawn).
Meanwhile, if you have friends in Chicago, MEtoo-tv (digital ch26.3) is running 77 Sunset Strip Saturday nights at 8pm. You could work something out…
By the way, James, I read your EQMM story “Jungle Music” over the weekend. Much fun. Very Black Mask.
Thanks, Rob. I haven’t had as much positive feedback on a story since “Black Spartacus”, and the praise of peers is the most meaningful. I might mention that although I said I was thinking of writing a space opera for my novel project, I have instead decided to work on another Cal Ops (the detective agency featured in “Jungle Music”) story.
I found Code 3 a dull Dragnet competitor . . .
Code 3 didn’t feature a repertory cast of actors like Dragnet, nor did it feature the first-person narrative voice over, so I don’t think the comparison is quite on the money, but another show in the collection, Decoy, is very much in the Dragnet mold. It recounts the “true” cases of NYPD policewoman Casey Jones, played by Beverly Garland. I’ve seen two episodes so far and both were very good. So much for Angie Dickenson’s Pepper Anderson (NBC’s Police Woman, 1974-1978) being the first woman cop protagonist on TV!
I was born in 1961 so I never saw these in the day. I know my parents loved 77 and Mannix.
In fact, I remember that one night Dad went off because the local station had pulled the show because the content was supposed to be so offensive for viewers. Dad still gets steamed about it and every couple of years he rants about the stupidity of the local station and teh station manager who didn’t bother to respond to his detailed letter and several irate calls.
This is the same man, who when I was about 15, made me start a lawn mower inside the Sears store at Town East Mall one Saturday so that he could publicly show the store manger what a piece of crap the mower was.
And he wonders why, when I go off, I go off so well. lol
Keep checking the bins in the video stores and other stores for unhearalded treasures! And if you’re watching 77 or Peter G. take notice of the musical score and themes. These shows exposed t.v. audiences to jazz and Henry Mancini…