Classic TV: The 50s : Peter Gunn

Peter Gunn

Why did this series only last a very short time? I caught one episode on YouTube, got me me hooked, couldn't find it on any other media so had to order in box set form .Would like to know also why Mr.Lucky ( another series that ran very short) seems to be hard to find( had to do same - had to buy box set as IT TOO was unavailable on any RETRO tv series tv station). The theme music from both series can still be found[ performed by Henry Mancini] , but strangely NOT the series.

Re: Peter Gunn

It's far better to have a series on DVD than to watch butchered, sped-up, squeezed-up, stretched-up copies on the retro TV stations.




Poof! There Goes Perspiration!

Re: Peter Gunn

A couple of years ago (on another board) there was a discussion about popular ‘60s series that still loom large in people’s memories but which did not have long runs. It is a strange phenomenon.

Only Two Seasons

The Addams Family
The Munsters

Only Three Seasons

Gilligan’s Island
Peter Gunn
Batman
Flipper
Twelve O’Clock High

“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” went for 4 seasons. Although still very well-remembered today (enough to get a new action movie with that title), it never got all that great of ratings during its tenure, reaching the Top Twenty for its week only once, in the second season. It was scheduled in a different day and time for each season. Something similar happened to "Peter Gunn." It must have had a core audience (I was among it), but not seen widely. After its first two seasons, it was dropped by NBC and then picked up by ABC. ABC made a few format changes ("Mother's" was no longer Gunn's headquarters), but canceled after one season.

Six years after the last new episode of “Peter Gunn,” the private eye got his own theatrical film, Gunn (1967), directed by Blake Edwards. Craig Stevens was the only actor from TV to reprise his or her role. The movie is not all that great. At times it even approaches so-bad-it’s-funny territory (he goes to question a gangster’s alibi but she has been killed when he gets there; he searches a murder scene for clues and is attacked by a thug; he goes to see an informant, but the man has been killed when he gets there, and so on). The entire solving of the case takes place in the last 10 minutes. On the plus side, the final fight with the killer surprised me by its brutality for that time. There should have been that amount of energy from the start.

mf

Trust me. I’m The Doctor.

Re: Peter Gunn

Best TV theme music EVER. Featured in 'The Blues Brothers.' My high school jazz band played it; if you're a trombonist (and I was), it's a hot number.

- Crazy. All crazy but I'm.
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