The Untouchables (1959 TV series)

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The Untouchables
The Untouchables cast 1961.JPG
The cast from left: Abel Fernandez, Nicholas Georgiade, Paul Picerni, (seated) Robert Stack. (not shown: Steve London)
Genre Crime drama
Starring Robert Stack
Abel Fernandez
Nicholas Georgiade
Paul Picerni
Steve London
Bruce Gordon
Neville Brand
Theme music composer Nelson Riddle
Composer(s) Jack Cookerly
William Loose
Nelson Riddle
Pete Rugolo
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 118 & 2-part pilot (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Alan A. Armer
Desi Arnaz
Leonard Freeman
Quinn Martin
Jerry Thorpe
Mike Hunt
Producer(s) Alan A. Armer
Alvin Cooperman
Walter Grauman
Bert Granet
Paul Harrison
Herman Hoffman
Sidney Marshall
Vincent McEveety
Del Reisman
Norman Retchin
Lloyd Richards
Stuart Rosenberg
Charles Russell
Josef Shaftel
Cinematography Robert B. Hauser
Glen MacWilliams
Charles Straumer
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time 45–48 minutes
Production company(s) Desilu Productions
Langford Productions
Distributor Paramount Domestic Television
CBS Paramount Domestic Television (2006-2007)
CBS Television Distribution (2007-)
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Picture format Black-and-white
Audio format Monaural
Original run October 15, 1959 (1959-10-15) – May 21, 1963 (1963-05-21)

The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized Ness' experiences as a Prohibition agent, fighting crime in Chicago in the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their courage and incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. The book was later made into a film in 1987 (also called The Untouchables) by Brian De Palma, with a script by David Mamet, and also a TV series in 1993.

Contents

[edit] Series overview

Stack as Eliot Ness with Gloria Talbott, 1962.

The stories often revolved around Ness' enmity with the criminal empire of Chicago mob boss Al Capone, and many focused on crimes related to Prohibition. The show stars Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and was narrated by Walter Winchell. Neville Brand played Al Capone in The Desilu Playhouse episodes, and in a few episodes of the regular series. The show drew harsh criticism from some Italian-Americans including Frank Sinatra,[1] who felt it promoted negative stereotypes of them as mobsters and gangsters. The Capone family sued the show for $1,000,000 for its unauthorized use of Al Capone's likeness for a profit.

The pilot for the series - a feature length TV movie later marketed as "The Scarface Mob" -- was first broadcast on January 22, 1959. It dealt with Ness's crusade to put Al Capone in prison. The weekly series first began broadcasting on October 1959, with the plotline commencing from the power struggle within the mob to establish the new mob boss in Capone's absence (for the purpose of the TV series, the new boss was Frank Nitti, although this was contrary to fact). In the pilot movie the mobsters generally spoke with a Chico Marx-style Italian accent, evidently as a result of some public reaction the regular series had nearly all of them speak educated English. Early in the first season of the series, perhaps also in response to some public criticism, the character of "Agent Rossi", identified as a person of Italian extraction, was added to Ness's team as a driver -- he was introduced as a barber who was deeply traumatized when one of his customers was machinegunned by mobsters while having his hair cut - despite Rossi having no previous training or experience in law enforcement.

The series had 118 episodes which ran 50 minutes each. Though the book it was based upon chronicled the experiences of Ness and his cohorts over a span of time ranging from 1929 to 1935, the overwhelming majority of the television episodes were broadcast in no chronological timeline, but were set in the early 1930s (for example, one episode, "You Can't Play This Number", begins with Winchell's words, "October 1932 ... the depths of the Depression"). A few episodes were set primarily in a locale other than Chicago (such as the one dealing with the shootout involving Ma Barker and her gang). Characters and "facts" in the majority of the episodes were more often than not entirely fictitious or loosely-based composites of true-life criminals of that era. The gripping theme music was by Nelson Riddle.

Quinn Martin produced the show's first season, which contained elements that could be found in future TV series produced by Martin.[2]

The other Untouchables were played by:

Other recurrent actors were:

* Contrary to popular belief, Steve London's character of Untouchable Jack Rossman (played in the "Scarface Mob" pilot by Paul Dubov), was in the series since the original season 1 series episode, "The Empty Chair", not from Season 2 on as is commonly reported.

[edit] Guest stars

A significant number of guest-stars from The Untouchables were and became major motion picture and television stars:

  • Edward Asner as Fedor Bartok in episode 3.16 "The Death Tree"
  • Martin Balsam in episodes 3.3 "Tunnel of Horrors" and 3.21 "Man in the Middle"
  • John Banner as Franz Koenig in episode 3.17 "Takeover"
  • William Bendix as Wally Legenza in episode 1.9 "The Tri-State Gang"
  • Charles Bronson in episode 3.16 "The Death Tree"
  • Victor Buono as Melanthos Moon in episode 2.25 "Mr. Moon" and as Pamise Surigao in episode 3.13 "The Gang War"
  • James Caan as Keir Brannon in episode 4.10 "A Fist of Five"
  • Dyan Cannon as Mavis Carroll in episode 3.14 "Silent Partner"
  • Mike Connors in episode 4.7 "The Eddie O'Gara Story"
  • Russ Conway in episodes 2.12 and 2.13 "The Big Train", 2.25 "Mr. Moon"
  • Francis De Sales in episodes 1.23 "Three Thousand Suspects" and 2.9 "The Larry Fay Story"
  • Robert Duvall in episode 4.17 "Blues for a Gone Goose"
  • Peter Falk in episode 1.26 "The Underworld Bank" and as Nate Selko in episode 3.1 "The Troubleshooter"
  • Herbie Faye in episode 3.12 as Lefty in "Fall Guy"
  • Anne Francis as Doreen Maney in episode 1.24 "The Doreen Maney Story"
  • Richard Jaeckel as Hans Eberhardt in episode 2.10 "The Otto Frick Story"
  • I. Stanford Jolley as Pete Laffey in episode 4.21 "The Man in the Cooler"
  • Robert Karnes (also a co-star of The Lawless Years) in episodes 2.9 "The Larry Fay Story" and 4.15 "Snowball"
  • Jack Klugman as Morton Halas in episode 3.6 "Loophole"
  • Martin Landau as Larry Coombs in episode 3.6 "Loophole" and as Jerry Fanning in episode 1.7 "Mexican Stake-Out"
  • Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Mailer in episode 3.7 "Jigsaw"
  • Robert Loggia as Leo Mencken in episode 3.17 "Takeover"
  • Jack Lord in episode 1.3 "The Jake Lingle Killing"
  • Lee Marvin as Nick Acropolis in episode 2.31 "The Nick Acropolis Story"
  • Gavin MacLeod as Whitey Metz in episode 3.6 "Loophole"
  • Ricardo Montalbán as Frank Makouris in episode 2.27 "Stranglehold"
  • Elizabeth Montgomery as Rusty Heller (for which she received an Emmy Award nomination) (1960)
  • Barry Morse as Michel Viton in episode 2.30 "The King Of Champagne" and as Larry Bass in episode 4.18 "Globe Of Death"
  • Leslie Nielsen as Tom Sebring in episode 1.23 "Three Thousand Suspects"
  • Leonard Nimoy as Packy in episode 3.17 "Takeover"
  • Lloyd Nolan as 'Bugs' Moran in episode 1.4 "The George 'Bugs' Moran Story"
  • Carroll O'Connor as Barney Lubin in episode 3.2 "Power Play"
  • Gregg Palmer as Paul Di Marco in episode 2.12 "The Big Train: Part 1"
  • Robert Redford in episode 4.15 "Snowball"
  • Cliff Robertson as Frank Halloway in episode 1.12 "The Underground Railway"
  • Telly Savalas in episodes 2.20 "The Antidote", 3.5 "The Matt Bass Scheme" and 4.14 "The Speculator"
  • Henry Silva as Joker in episode 3.15 "The Whitey Steele Story"
  • Barbara Stanwyck in episodes 4.8 "Elegy" and 4.13 "Search for a Dead Man"
  • Jan Sterling as Francie McKay in episode 2.8 "Kiss of Death Girl"
  • Suzanne Storrs in "Jack 'Legs' Diamond" and "Vincent 'Mad Dog' Coll"
  • Frank Sutton as Benny Stryker in episode 3.18 "The Stryker Brothers"
  • Roy Thinnes as Denny Brannon in episode 4.10 "A Fist of Five" and as Red Thomas in episode 4.19 "An Eye for an Eye"
  • Rip Torn as Harry Strauss in episode 2.14 "The Masterpiece"
  • Claire Trevor in episode 1.2 "Ma Baker and Her Boys"
  • Lee Van Cleef in episode 1.20 "The Unhired Assassin"
  • Jack Warden as Otto Frick, in episode 2.10 "The Otto Frick Story" and as Larry Halloran in episode 1.3 "The George 'Bugs' Moran Story
  • Steven Hill as Jack "Legs" Diamiond, in episode 2.2 "Jack 'Legs' Diamond"

[edit] Broadcast history

The series aired on Thursdays during its first three seasons and was switched to Tuesday evenings for its final season. It aired at 9:30 Eastern each season except for the third season, when it was placed at the 10 p.m. slot after the failed sitcom Margie, starring Cynthia Pepper.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of The Untouchables (1959 TV series) episodes

In 1997, the episode "The Rusty Heller Story" was ranked #99 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[3]

[edit] DVD releases

[edit] Region 1 / Region 4

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first three seasons of The Untouchables on DVD in Region 1. The first two seasons have been released in Region 4.

DVD Name Ep # Release dates
Region 1 Region 4
Season 1- Volume 1 14 + pilot April 10, 2007[4] September 30, 2009[5]
Season 1- Volume 2 14 September 25, 2007[6] September 30, 2009[7]
Season 2- Volume 1 16 March 18, 2008[8] September 30, 2009[9]
Season 2- Volume 2 16 August 26, 2008[10] September 30, 2009[11]
Season 3- Volume 1 16 August 25, 2009[12] N/A
Season 3- Volume 2 12 November 10, 2009[13] N/A

[edit] Region 2

Paramount Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons of The Untouchables on DVD in the UK. These releases are full season sets as opposed to Region 1 and 4 where each season has been split into two volumes.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date
Season 1 28 August 18, 2008[14]
Season 2 32 September 14, 2009[15]
Season 3 28 September 20, 2010[16]
Season 4 30 TBA

[edit] Further reading

  • Tucker, Kenneth. Eliot Ness and the Untouchables: The Historical Reality and the Film and Television Depictions. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-7864-0772-7

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Talese, Gay: "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold", page 27. Esquire, April 1966
  2. ^ Etter, Jonathan. Quinn Martin, Producer. Jefferson: McFarland, 2003.
  3. ^ "Special Collectors' Issue". TV Guide (June 28-July 4). 1997. 
  4. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LV6W00
  5. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/808455
  6. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000RZIGTA
  7. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/808456
  8. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00114XTHK
  9. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/808457
  10. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019F02VW
  11. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/808458
  12. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G0MFCE
  13. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G0MFQA
  14. ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000RGSXW4
  15. ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0029KQNZU
  16. ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003SX0X6C

[edit] External links

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