M Squad

M Squad
Genre	Police drama
Starring	Lee Marvin
Composer(s)	Main theme by Count Basie Stanley Wilson Incidental music and arrangements by Sonny Burke Pete Carpenter Benny Carter John T. Williams Orchestra conducted by Stanley Wilson
Country of origin	USA
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	117
Production
Executive producer(s)	John Larkin Richard Lewis
Producer(s)	Robert Bassler Maxwell Shane
Editor(s)	Lee Huntington John B. Moss Stanley Rabjohn
Running time	30 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 20, 1957 – June 28, 1960

M Squad is an American police drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. Its format (and opening credits) would later inspire the creation of spoof TV show Police Squad! Its sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during the episodes.

Synopsis

Set in Chicago, Illinois, it starred Marvin as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of "M Squad", a special unit of the Chicago Police, assisting other units in battling organized crime, corruption and violent crimes city-wide. Paul Newlan co-starred as his boss, Captain Grey. Although Marvin had been appearing in feature films since 1951, it was this series that made him a star, and he later went on to an even bigger film career afterward.

Point of Interest

Lee Marvin as Det. Lt. Frank Ballinger was the first television cop to carry two pistols concealed on his person. Ballinger carried two Colt Cobra .38 Special snub-nosed revolvers, one as his primary sidearm and the second as his back-up weapon.

Guest stars

Among the guest stars were:

• Roscoe Ates
• Joanna Barnes
• Charles Bronson
• Mike Connors
• Russ Conway
• Walter Coy
• Whitney Blake
• Paul Burke
• James Coburn
• Francis De Sales
• Angie Dickinson
• Joe Flynn
• Ron Hayes
• Ruta Lee
• DeForest Kelley
• Dayton Lummis
• Tyler McVey
• Joyce Meadows
• Sid Melton
• Ed Nelson
• Leonard Nimoy
• J. Pat O'Malley
• Burt Reynolds
• Don Rickles
• Janice Rule
• Barbara Stuart
• H. M. Wynant

Music

• The theme music for the first season was composed by Stanley Wilson, who won the 1959 Grammy Award for the Best Soundtrack Album and Background Score from Motion Picture or Television. In the second and third seasons, the new theme was composed by Count Basie.

• A soundtrack album, Music from M Squad, with liner notes by Lee Marvin, was released during the run of the show [1].

Trivia

• The TV series Police Squad! was a spoof on police series in general, and M Squad in particular. The opening sequence of Police Squad! spoofed both the opening sequence of M Squad and the openings of Quinn Martin's various police shows. The closing sequence spoofed the closing credits of Hawaii Five-O.
• Similarly, the 1994 music video directed by Spike Jonze for the song "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys directly parodies the opening sequence of M Squad, amongst other police shows.

DVD release

• M Squad: The Complete Series was released on DVD in the U.S. on November 11, 2008 by EDI Video [2].

External links

• M Squad at the Internet Movie Database
• M Squad at TV.com