Me-TV: Amos Burke, Secret Agent

[michael hagerty]

I did not like Amos Burke, Secret Agent.

Here is a perfect example of how network executives can screw up a decent program by making changes.

"Burke's Law" was an enjoyable detective show, but ABC decided to venture into the 'Secret Agent' fad and revamped the entire show.

"Amos Burke, Secret Agent" bombed with the viewers and I can see why, while I bet that "Burke's Law" might have been renewed for another season.

I totally agree, but I suppose ABC was trying to cash in on the spy craze; after all, NBC had "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and
debuted "I Spy" (against Burke) and the spoof "Get Smart" in 1965; CBS had "Secret Agent" and would add "Mission: Impossible" in 1966. Why they had to pick Amos Burke, instead of going with some new character, is beyond me, unless it was just a case of audience familiarity.

The '90s revival of "Burke's Law" seemed awfully dated.

In Burke, ABC figured they had a character who was more plausible as a globe-trotting spy than as a local police homicide lieutenant. And they may have had a point. And, since the network wasn't up to its ears in stars, it was a way to keep Gene Barry.

The revival was creaky, but so was CBS at the time. With Diagnosis Murder and Murder She Wrote following the old Burke's Law formula of each episode having a few middle-aged guest stars. So a revival of the original probably seemed like a natural.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Early ABC Color (Was: Re: Me-TV: Amos Burke, Secret Agent)

("Burke's Law"/"Amos Burke, Secret Agent") stayed in B & W because it was on ABC, which seemingly didn't discover color until 1966.

Actually, around half of ABC's prime-time schedule was in color in the Fall of 1965, with the percentage of prime-time shows in color climbing in mid-season.

But with the exception of "Lawrence Welk" and "Hollywood Palace", all of ABC's regular prime-time color shows in the 1965/66 season were on film. It was easier to convert a filmed show to color: All that had to be done was to re-shoot the show's opening in color and to put color film in the cameras filming the show.

According to Ed Reitan's site (http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/studios.html ), ABC had leased a color remote truck which was parked outside the Hollywood Palace with cables running from the truck to the color cameras inside. Besides the 1965/66 season of "Hollywood Palace", the 1965/66 season of Welk was also taped there, using that truck and its cameras.

(I thought I once read somewhere that ABC had actually signed a long-term lease for three color remote trucks in 1965. If that's the case, I think the second one may have been used in New York for rare colorcasts there, and the third was probably driven around the country for such things as NBA games, a couple of events covered by "Wide World Of Sports", and several times driven to Cape Canaveral for news coverage of Gemini space launchings)

In 1966, the Palace got a color control room and its own color cameras. Other ABC network studios on both coasts followed within a year.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

The Return Of "Dragnet" (Was: Re: Me-TV: Amos Burke, Secret Agent)

(In) the last season of 77 Sunset Strip.......Jack Webb was running things and got rid of virtually the whole cast--with the exception of Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.'s Stu Bailey, who became a globe-trotting freelancer. Webb got bounced out of his job at Warner Bros. after just 10 months, but cried all the way to the bank--he got paid $300,000 to go away and two years later, he started up Dragnet again.

"Dragnet"'s revival began as a 1966 made-for-TV movie (although IMDB claims it did not air until early 1969, two years after the revival began). Even if Webb had envisioned it as a one-shot (or maybe the first of a series of yearly "Dragnet" TV-movies) and not as a pilot, NBC liked the TV-movie, and decided it wanted to have Webb bring it back as a series instead of an occasional movie-length special.

The revival lasted for three-and-a-half seasons, and it was rerun constantly int he decade after it ended.

The most famous episode of the 1960's Dragnet" was the first, airing in January of 1967. This was the one with "blue boy" (played by Michael Burns), who used LSD. From the point of view of four and a half decades later, this episode is occasionally campy (but then, many episodes of both the 1952-59 version and the 1967-70 revival can be considered quite campy).

 

[BD Sullivan]

Re: The Return Of "Dragnet" (Was: Re: Me-TV: Amos Burke, Secret Agent)

(In) the last season of 77 Sunset Strip.......Jack Webb was running things and got rid of virtually the whole cast--with the exception of Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.'s Stu Bailey, who became a globe-trotting freelancer. Webb got bounced out of his job at Warner Bros. after just 10 months, but cried all the way to the bank--he got paid $300,000 to go away and two years later, he started up Dragnet again.

The most famous episode of the 1960's Dragnet" was the first, airing in January of 1967. This was the one with "blue boy" (played by Michael Burns), who used LSD. From the point of view of four and a half decades later, this episode is occasionally campy (but then, many episodes of both the 1952-59 version and the 1967-70 revival can be considered quite campy).

Actually, most of the drug-oriented episodes from the revival are especially campy, since most have the same feeling as a lecture about the evils of the world from a parent.

 

[michael hagerty]

Re: The Return Of "Dragnet" (Was: Re: Me-TV: Amos Burke, Secret Agent)

(In) the last season of 77 Sunset Strip.......Jack Webb was running things and got rid of virtually the whole cast--with the exception of Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.'s Stu Bailey, who became a globe-trotting freelancer. Webb got bounced out of his job at Warner Bros. after just 10 months, but cried all the way to the bank--he got paid $300,000 to go away and two years later, he started up Dragnet again.

The most famous episode of the 1960's Dragnet" was the first, airing in January of 1967. This was the one with "blue boy" (played by Michael Burns), who used LSD. From the point of view of four and a half decades later, this episode is occasionally campy (but then, many episodes of both the 1952-59 version and the 1967-70 revival can be considered quite campy).

Actually, most of the drug-oriented episodes from the revival are especially campy, since most have the same feeling as a lecture about the evils of the world from a parent.

Which is what they were. Jack Webb was being serious.

 

[FredLeonard]

The TV movie was about a homicide case, and was more similar in tone and content to the original Dragnet. I wonder if NBC was disappointed when they ended up with all those drug lectures and police public service films (what you'd see if you asked the cops to supply a speaker at PTA meeting).

 

[michael hagerty]

The TV movie was about a homicide case, and was more similar in tone and content to the original Dragnet. I wonder if NBC was disappointed when they ended up with all those drug lectures and police public service films (what you'd see if you asked the cops to supply a speaker at PTA meeting).

Guess it depended on ratings and ad revenues. As a kid at the time, a lot of the episodes felt like they were meant for my civics class and not prime-time network TV.

 

[BD Sullivan]

The third season of Dragnet was the worst as far as being a PR vehicle for the LAPD--including a non-speaking cameo from none other than O.J. Simpson.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

(I thought I once read somewhere that ABC had actually signed a long-term lease for three color remote trucks in 1965. If that's the case, I think the second one may have been used in New York for rare colorcasts there, and the third was probably driven around the country for such things as NBA games, a couple of events covered by "Wide World Of Sports", and several times driven to Cape Canaveral for news coverage of Gemini space launchings)

And probably college football, most likely any big games like Notre Dame-USC, Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Auburn, etc.

 

[FredLeonard]

The third season of Dragnet was the worst as far as being a PR vehicle for the LAPD--including a non-speaking cameo from none other than O.J. Simpson.

I recall when the LAPD was following OJ on the freeway with TV helicopters doing live shots from overhead, one station played the Dragnet theme during the chase.
;D

For a while, the traffic reporter on the Imus in the Morning show had the Dragnet theme in the background during traffic reports.

 

[michael hagerty]

The third season of Dragnet was the worst as far as being a PR vehicle for the LAPD--including a non-speaking cameo from none other than O.J. Simpson.

I recall when the LAPD was following OJ on the freeway with TV helicopters doing live shots from overhead, one station played the Dragnet theme during the chase.
;D

That's wildly unprofessional.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I meant to bring this up in the other thread with comments on Jack Webb, but not too long ago I found a download of an interview with Stan Freberg. He told how that Webb had a great sense of humor about Freberg's Dragnet spoofs and allowed him to use the theme music, unlike Lawrence Welk and Arthur Godfrey, who threatened to sue over Freberg's spoofs of them.

 

[onairb]

Johnny Carson also got to use the first four notes of the theme in the famous 'Copper Clapper Caper' sketch. We'll nevr know, but Webb might have hit on the Leslie Nielsen 'straight actor turns to deadpan humor' formula, if he'd been so inclined.

 

[michael hagerty]

Johnny Carson also got to use the first four notes of the theme in the famous 'Copper Clapper Caper' sketch. We'll nevr know, but Webb might have hit on the Leslie Nielsen 'straight actor turns to deadpan humor' formula, if he'd been so inclined.

He'd have been a good addition to Neilsen, Peter Graves, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges in Airplane!.

Checking his death, I see he was trying to revive Dragnet a third time, with himself as Friday and Kent McCord of Adam-12 as his partner. He died of a heart attack at age 62 before a pilot could be shot. Scripts apparently were written.

 

[Ultimajock]

I meant to bring this up in the other thread with comments on Jack Webb, but not too long ago I found a download of an interview with Stan Freberg. He told how that Webb had a great sense of humor about Freberg's Dragnet spoofs and allowed him to use the theme music, unlike Lawrence Welk and Arthur Godfrey, who threatened to sue over Freberg's spoofs of them.

...unfortunately, Freberg's memory isn't as sharp as it used to be. Capitol Records never even bothered to issue the Godfrey spoof until over a dozen years after Godfrey died, and it's not likely they even bothered to let Godfrey know that Freberg had done it in the first place. (It's also not a particularly good record, either.) Freberg still claims Ray Bradbury was ticked off at Rod Serling for allegedly ripping off FAHRENHEIT 451 for a Twilight Zone episode script; the point of contention was alleged similarities between Serling's story Walking Distance and Bradbury's Black Ferris. Capitol did issue a 45 of Freberg's satire of the Army-McCarthy Hearings, "Point of Order," so if they weren't scared of Joe McCarthy, I can't imagine they'd be frightened of Godfrey...

 

[Ultimajock]

Johnny Carson also got to use the first four notes of the theme in the famous 'Copper Clapper Caper' sketch. We'll nevr know, but Webb might have hit on the Leslie Nielsen 'straight actor turns to deadpan humor' formula, if he'd been so inclined.

He'd have been a good addition to Neilsen, Peter Graves, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges in Airplane!.

...actually, Jack Webb had started out in network radio as a comedian -- a couple of episodes of his 1946 ABC Jack Webb Show are online at http://archive.org/details/The_Jack_Webb_Show -- and he was offered the role of Dean Wormer in National Lampoon's Animal House in 1976 but was so offended by the idea of playing a clueless college administrator that, when he met with director John Landis, he allegedly didn't say a word directly to Landis and had his agent criticise the piece before finally turning Landis down; Landis got John Vernon, the San Francisco Mayor in Dirty Harry, instead...

 

[onairb]

Johnny Carson also got to use the first four notes of the theme in the famous 'Copper Clapper Caper' sketch. We'll nevr know, but Webb might have hit on the Leslie Nielsen 'straight actor turns to deadpan humor' formula, if he'd been so inclined.

He'd have been a good addition to Neilsen, Peter Graves, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges in Airplane!.

Checking his death, I see he was trying to revive Dragnet a third time, with himself as Friday and Kent McCord of Adam-12 as his partner. He died of a heart attack at age 62 before a pilot could be shot. Scripts apparently were written.

Sources differ, but some say McCord would have played his 'Adam-12' character, Malloy, in the revival.

 

[Tim L]

Sources differ, but some say McCord would have played his 'Adam-12' character, Malloy, in the revival.

Actually, McCord could have played Jim Reed (Not Malloy, as that was Martin Milner's character) as a promoted detective sergeant. He was already in line for a promotion at the end of Adam-12, IIRC..

 

[Tim L]

Sources differ, but some say McCord would have played his 'Adam-12' character, Malloy, in the revival.

Actually, McCord could have played Jim Reed (Not Malloy, as that was Martin Milner's character) as a promoted detective sergeant.  He was already in line for a promotion at the end of Adam-12, IIRC..
(I did not intend to double post..sorry)

 

[FredLeonard]

From what I read, Capitol chose not to issue the Godfrey parody (originally broadcast on Freberg's CBS Radio show) because they were afraid Godfrey would sue. It's not clear whether Godfrey or his attorneys threatened to sue or if Capitol and their lawyers were just cautious.

Jack Webb did not want to play Joe Friday when Dragnet moved to TV. He wanted Lloyd Nolan for the role and wanted to concentrate on producing and directing. NBC felt Webb, or at least his voice, was too identified with the role, and insisted he play the part on TV - despite the various TV shows that were successful using different actors than the original radio version (Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger).