Peter Gunn: The Complete Series collects all 114 episodes (47 hours!) on 12 DVDs. Peter Gunn lasted for three seasons from 1958 to 1961. I was just 9-years-old when I heard the throbbing Henry Mancini “Peter Gunn Theme” that would go on to win two Grammy Awards. As a kid, I wasn’t allowed to watch many episodes of Peter Gunn but the episodes I saw thrilled me!
I loved the music. Peter Gunn was the first TV program to feature modern jazz as its soundtrack. Blake Edwards, who created and produced Peter Gunn, actually directed a number of episodes. Edwards also recruited some of the best Hollywood directors like Robert Altman to do Peter Gunn episodes.
I also admired the suave private detective played by Craig Stevens (although he smokes too much). Peter Gunn’s girlfriend, the gorgeous jazz club singer Edie Hart (played by Lola Albright), comforts Gunn after he gets beaten up (happens a lot!). Herschel Bernardi plays Gunn’s cop friend, Lieutenant Jacoby.
STEELY DAN’s Donald Fagen, in Eminent Hipsters, wrote of Peter Gunn: “Edwards’ camera eye seemed to take a carnal interest in the luxe and leisure objects of the period, focusing on the Scandinavian furniture, potted palms, light wood panelling, and sleek, shark-finned convertibles. It was, in fact, all the same stuff my parents adored, but darkened with a tablespoon of alienation and danger.”
I’m only 40 episodes into Peter Gunn, but I’m enjoying myself as I work my way through the series. If you’re fond of classic TV detective shows, Peter Gunn is near the top of the list. Are you a fan of Peter Gunn? GRADE: A
Liked it as a kid but haven’t seen it since. I’ve found that going back and watching old tv shows I liked when I was younger often leads to disappointment. They don’t hold up well. Even Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason and Twilight Zone which I have seen recently suffer from cheap cramped sets, poor camerawork and low production values. Another P.I. show I liked from back then that I have seen recently was 77 Sunset Strip and found the episodes I watched pretty awful.
Steve, I agree these old TV shows are sometimes disappointing. But television was a relatively new media and the producers, directors, and actors were trying to figure out how to use it.
Well…also, al lot of PERRY MASON had pretty perfunctory stories, a lot of TWILIGHT ZONE was pretty thin, and entirely too much of AH PRESENTS: the series was about bad marriages…and 77 SUNSET STRIP was just inane, A Whole Lot. But the average of PETER GUNN is pretty good…a bit thin at times, but, like MAVERICK’s better episodes, it gets by on style when the stories could be better.
The series is enjoyable — amazing what they could do with a half-hour in those days — and I’m a big fan of the feature film made in 1957.
Dan, I can’t remember seeing the feature film from 1957. I’ll have to track down a copy.
SORRY! It was 1967!
Dan, that date correction should make it easier for me to track down the feature film of PETER GUNN! There’s a 1989 PETER GUNN starring Peter Strauss and directed by Blake Edwards.
The ’67 film, as Leoard Maltin noted a lot of years ago, suffers from the lack of the supporting cast from the tv series. The script was not beefed up enough. Nice use of color, though.
I don’t think I saw enough of them to form an opinion, and I certainly don’t remember anything about it other than the music. The problem with buying these old shows is making time to watch them. In general, I like watching shows that were shot on location, preferably on the streets of New York.
Jeff, PETER GUNN is set in some nameless city (that looks a lot like NYC). I’m sure all of these old TV shows will be available on HULU or NetFlix or some new subscription service and the DVDs will be a thing of the Past.
I remember the music but not much else.
Patti, as Dan noted, PETER GUNN was only a half-hour show but a lot happened in that time compared to today’s “entertainment.”
John’s been watching some of the shows from the first season on Amazon Prime. The first one had Gavin McLeod as a mob boss, Jack Weston as his bodyguard, and a “fake cops killing rival gang bosses” plot.
I have to second Steve’s comment about how you notice things as an adult that you didn’t as a child. Jo Walton would say the “suck fairy” comes between childhood and adulthood and drains all of the fun from our memories. We’ve also watched a couple of old “Secret Agent” episodes (aka, “Danger Man” as it was known in England) with Patrick McGoohan and, God, are they tedious and long-winded! And don’t get me started on “Kung Fu”!
TL;DR: Sometimes it’s best to leave childhood memories undisturbed.
Deb, you are so right about SECRET AGENT/DANGER MAN! The pacing can be lethargic. What was acceptable when we were kids doesn’t cut it for our adult refined tastes. John picked one of the better episodes of PETER GUNN with those Fake Cops executing people. Blake Edwards included a lot of “name” actors in many of these PETER GUNN shows.
Hm. I have more patience with DANGER MAN/SECRET AGENT than you do…I like the wit, and the seething anger that’s always just about to boil over. “It’s Up to the Lady” is both devastating and one of the episodes that leads, essentially, right up to THE PRISONER.
I recently came across the 30 episode complete 87th Precinct series, from ’61-’62, which I remembered watching and liking. I’ve watched a half-dozen episodes (it was an hour show), and doubt I’ll make it all the way through. Some years ago you touted the complete M Squad DVD set, and I stalled about 1/3 of the way through it. You have more perseverance than I have.
As for 87th Precinct the surprise was that many of the episodes – at least 8 – were adaptations of McBain’s novels (which I didn’t start reading until a decade or so later). The same sort of disappointments that Deb pointed out were in M Squad, and now in 87th. I’d remembered both of them as being like Naked City, with a lot of location shooting, in Chicago & New York. Nope. Both shows were very studio-bound. M Squad’s Chicago came courtesy of silent footage, reused a lot, of Lee Marvin walking around Chicago, with narrative voiceover added to suit the episode. I’d hoped for a police procedural – Dragnet in Chicago – but most of the episodes read like recycled private eye scripts. 87th Precinct, however, fares better on that score; the squad room set at least has a gritty, workaday look to it, but the New York (they didn’t bother with McBain’s “Isola” business) was strictly back lot; I recognized many of the buildings from the Adam 12 episodes I see daily on COZI-tv. The 87th scripts are are generally pretty good, though sometimes overly melodramatic, as in the shows where Teddy Carella (Gena Rowlands) guest stars, predictably Teddy-in jeopardy stuff (though as I recall, that was usually her role in the novels as well). As with the other shows mentioned, the chief treat is in seeing reliable character actors & stars of the future show up in one-shot roles. The pared-down 87th detective squad was Robert Lansing as Carella, Norman Fell as Meyer, Ron Harper as Kling, and Gregory Walcott (of Plan 9 From Outer Space fame!) as Haviland.
I agree, NAKED CITY was an exception. Every once in a while I’ll come across a black & white movie from the ’60s filmed in New York (like THE PAWNBROKER) and can ignore the story and just revel in the street scenes. Galloping nostalgia, even if it looks dirty and run down.
Deb, glad you said that! I remember liking DANGER MAN a lot when it first ran here, and almost bought the boxed set a year or so ago, but didn’t for the “just not watching these things” reason. We are watching JONATHAN CREEK on Saturday nights now, after our weekly visit to MIDSOMER on Netflix. (We’re in Season 11 now.)
I will watch the original Naked City feature from 1948 just about every time it comes up on Turner for all the fantastic location filming in Manhattan. The story, however, does not wear well, and I absolutely hate Barry Fitzgerald’s hammed up turn as the wise old Irish cop. He might just as well have been wearing his Going My Way cassock under his civvies.
I agree with Art on Fitzgerald. But the subways and the bridge scene and the rest are great.
Art, I’ve been tempted by the 87th PRECINCT TV series, but I’ve resisted because of my experience with M SQUAD. I may have perseverance, but I also have a limit to tedium.
And I want to like NAKED CITY the series more than I do…talk about thin scripts. And a fair amount of hamming.
Todd, we tend to forget television was a relatively new medium. It took a few decades until the production values and pacing were perfected.
I loved Peter Gunn, both for the show itself and for the music. I don’t think I’d buy that DVD set, but you can be sure I have both CDs of the music and they get played relatively often.
Rick, I have a bunch of Mancini CDs which include PETER GUNN music. But I noticed newer versions of PETER GUNN CDs blasted on AMAZON because they are not the Mancini CDs (although they seemed to be marketed as such) and don’t sound nearly as good.
Mine are the two original soundtrack CDs.
Sarah Vaughan Verve Remix of the Peter Gunn theme:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sMSQno3foPc
Art of Noise (with Duane Eddy on guitar)—probably not for Mancini purists:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tK-vUY6erQU
Some months back I watched Peter Gunn shows on YouTube and liked them! I also like the Perry Mason reruns MeTV shows every night, M-F, despite the ham-handed bozos cutting them down to allow more MeTV promos! I don’t know why I didn’t see more Gunns, or Mike Shaynes, for that matter! Probably just an abundance of choices and I went with others meaning to return to Gunn, Shayne, and whoever else got shunted aside!
Bob, I think EVERYTHING that was ever on Network TV will be available on HULU, NetFlix, or some other sites in the Future. I’m guessing DVDs and Blu-rays will go the way of the 8-track tape!