Early TV Detectives

On our weekly Sunday Skype call, my brother, who lives in Colorado Springs, and I were discussing last evening’s episode of The Artful Detective, a favorite of both of ours. More on that episode, and the series in general later, but our conversation drifted over to early detective shows we remembered on TV growing up. We both remember the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s well enough, and I’m sure most of you do as well if you were into detective shows. But we were remembering those first ones in the 50's and early 60's. Most were private detectives, but two of our favorites were police shows. Here are our favorites, in chronological order of the first episode. I admit that we remembered the main characters and general plot, but I did have to use the IMDB website for some details.

“Rocky King” (1950-54). Rocky King was a police detective, working in NYC, and played by Roscoe Karns. It was shown on the old Dumont station. His wife Mabel was never shown, but I remembered him walking away into the darkness, saying “Goodnight, Mabel”. When I checked IMDB, it said he always phoned her from the office at the end of each episode, and said, “Case closed, Mabel, I’m coming home.” After he hung up, he would say, “Great girl, that Mabel.” At least I remembered her name.

 “Boston Blackie” (1951-53). Kent Taylor played the lead. With his black mustache, he was a natural for other bad guy roles, but he was a good one here. It was set in Los Angeles, and he had a “pal” named Mary, and a dog named Whitey. I think the dog was a black and white terrier, but couldn’t find a picture of it.

“Dragnet” (1951-59). I remembered this one after my call with my brother, but I know we both watched it religiously. Starring Jack Webb, who created the show, he played Sergeant Joe Friday and it was set in Los Angeles. His partner was Officer Frank Smith, played by Ben Alexander. It came back three times to TV, but the original was the best.

“The Thin Man” (1957-59). Starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk as Nick and Nora Charles, it was set in NYC. With their terrier, Asta, they would solve crimes that seemed to find them.

“Richard Diamond” (1957-60). This was one of my very favorites. David Janssen played the lead. The first two years was in NYC, but then he moved to LA where he got a car with a car phone and had a switchboard operator who no one saw except for her lovely legs and heard her voice. It was Mary Tyler Moore at first, but when she left, Roxanne Brooks replaced her.

“Peter Gunn” (1958-61). The music was jazz, arranged and played by Henry Mancini, and Craig Stevens played Gunn to his enemies and Pete to his friends. Of course, he had the requisite friend on the police force as well a girlfriend, this one a jazz singer.

(Trebuchet 12)