Rocky King Detective

Rocky King Detective
Roscoe Karns as Rocky King
Genre	Action/crime drama
Starring	Roscoe Karns
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6
Production
Production company	Stark-Layton Production
Original release
Network	DuMont Television Network
Release	January 15, 1950 – December 26, 1954

Rocky King Detective (also known as Inside Detective) is an American action/crime drama series that was broadcast live on the DuMont Television Network on Sundays at 9pm ET. The series ran for six seasons, from January 15, 1950 to December 26, 1954.

Overview

Roscoe Karns stars as the title character who is the "chief of homicide" of Manhattan's 24th Precinct. During the first three seasons, Earl Hammond portrayed King's partner, Detective Sgt. Lane. During the final two seasons, Karns' real life son Todd portrayed King's partner Detective Hart. Rounding out the cast was Grace Carney who portrayed King's wife Mabel who is frequently heard but never seen.

The series was broadcast live from DuMont's offices and corridors which served as sets for the series. Despite its low budget and limited nationwide audience (the DuMont network owned a limited amount of stations), Rocky King was DuMont's most popular and long running shows.

Episode status

Some episodes still exist, including 37 at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Two episodes are held in the J. Fred MacDonald collection at the Library of Congress.

The kinescopes for the four episodes released to DVD originate courtesy of Satellite Media Production. These episodes have been screened at the non-profit Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention held annually in Aberdeen, Maryland. The same four episodes were released to DVD on November 21, 2006, altered with a company logo superimposed on the screen and sound effects added to the soundtrack. The Satellite Media Production release contained no alterations.

See also

• List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network
• List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts
• 1951-52 United States network television schedule (Sundays at 9pm ET)
• 1952-53 United States network television schedule (Sundays at 9pm ET)
• 1953-54 United States network television schedule (Sundays at 9pm ET)

Bibliography

• David Weinstein, The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) ISBN 1-59213-245-6
• Alex McNeil, Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) ISBN 0-14-024916-8
• Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964) ISBN 0-345-31864-1

External links

• Rocky King Detective at IMDb
• DuMont historical website
• Rocky King episode "Murder Scores a Knockout" (1952) legal download at the Internet Archive
• Rocky King episode "Murder PhD" (1953) at Internet Archive
• Rocky King episode "The Hermit's Cat" (1952) at TV4U.com