The Detectives (1959 TV series)

The Detectives
Robert Taylor as Capt. Matt Holbrook and wife Ursula Thiess as Lisa Bonay in The Detectives
Also known as	Robert Taylor's Detectives
Genre	Crime drama
Written by	Lee Berg Borden Chase Patricia Chase Calvin Clements Sr. Norman T. Herman Michael Morris Louis Pelletier Gene Roddenberry Alvin Sapinsley Palmer Thompson
Directed by	Lewis Allen Richard Carlson Thomas Carr Alvin Ganzer Murray Golden Arthur Hiller Arnold Laven Don McDougall Don Medford Ted Post Paul Wendkos
Starring	Robert Taylor Tige Andrews Russell Thorson Lee Farr Mark Goddard Adam West
Composer	Herschel Burke Gilbert
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	97
Production
Producers	Levy-Gardner-Laven Arthur H. Nadel
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc Wilfred M. Cline
Editors	Lyle Boyer Marsh Hendry
Running time	25 minutes (1959–1961) 50 minutes (1961–1962)
Release
Original network	ABC (1959–1961) NBC (1961–1962)
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	October 16, 1959 (1959-10-16) – May 18, 1962 (1962-05-18)

The Detectives (also known as The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor and Robert Taylor's Detectives) is an American crime drama series which ran on ABC during its first two seasons (sponsored by Procter & Gamble), and on NBC during its third and final season. The series, starring motion picture star Robert Taylor, was produced by Four Star Television in association with Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions.^[1]

Synopsis[]

Taylor stars as Detective Captain Matt Holbrook, the tough, no-nonsense head of an elite police investigative unit in a major U.S. city. Ostensibly, each man in Holbrook's hand-picked squad of detectives came from a different division. Lt. Johnny Russo (Tige Andrews) was from burglary, Lt. Jim Conway (Lee Farr) came from homicide, and Lt. Otto Lindstrom (Russell Thorson) was from the bunco squad.^[2]

Production[]

In the series' second season, Farr left the series and was replaced by Mark Goddard as Detective Sgt. Chris Ballard. Future Batman star Adam West joined the cast during the third season as Sgt. Steve Nelson. The series moved to NBC for its third season and was increased from 30 to 60 minutes. The series was also retitled to Robert Taylor's Detectives. A total of 97 episodes were produced before the series was cancelled in 1962.^[3] The series was produced for Four Star by Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions, which produced other successful Four Star series, such as The Rifleman and The Big Valley.

Future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was a contributing writer to the series.

Cast[]

• Robert Taylor as Det. Capt. Matt Holbrook
• Tige Andrews as Lt. John "Johnny" Russo
• Russell Thorson as Lt. Otto Lindstrom (1959-1961)
• Lee Farr as Lt. James "Jimmy" Conway (1959-1960)
• Mark Goddard as Sgt. Chris Ballard (1960-1962)
• Ursula Thiess as Lisa Bonay (1960-1961)
• Adam West as Sgt. Steve Nelson (1961-1962)

Guest stars[]

Episodes[]

Season 1: 1959–60[]

Season 2: 1960–61[]

Season 3: 1961–62[]

Paperback Novel[]

Prolific pulpsmith Norman Daniels was tapped by Lancer Books to write an original novel based on the series' concept and characters, and the book, named for the series, was released in 1962, with a cover price of 35¢, its copyright assigned to the author. It manages to sport all three iterations of the title: The cover, beneath a close-up photo of the star's eyes, says Robert Taylor starring in The Detectives; the spine says merely The Detectives and then cites the author; the title page proclaims Robert Taylor's Detectives.

Comic book[]

Dell Comics issued a comic book rendition of Robert Taylor's "The Detectives" during the series run .^[4][5][6]

Related[]

A few years after The Detectives ended, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor's ex-wife, had her very own successful series also produced by Four Star/Levy-Gardner-Laven Productions, The Big Valley, which also aired on ABC.

Several cast members on The Detectives went on to major TV roles after the series ended:

• Robert Taylor, series star of The Detectives, who played Det.Capt. Matt Holbrook, went on to star in the successful syndicated TV series Death Valley Days, where he remained until his death in 1969. He had enjoyed a long and successful film career as a leading man in over 70 films- prior to starring in The Detectives.
• Adam West, who was added to the cast in The Detectives' final season as Det. Steve Nelson, went on to play the lead role in the ABC series Batman.
• Tige Andrews, who played Det. Johnny Russo, went on to play as Police Detective Captain Adam Greer in ABC's The Mod Squad. He also appeared in the original Star Trek as Klingon officer Kras in the episode "Friday's Child".
• Mark Goddard, who played Det. Chris Ballard, went on to star in the CBS sci-fi series Lost In Space. Prior to the Detectives, Goddard co-starred in the popular (but cancelled after one season), CBS-TV series,Johnny Ringo, also produced by Four Star.
• Russell Thorson, who played Det. Otto Lindstrom, had a long list of film and T.V. credits before and after The Detectives, including the T.V. movie "Cocoon"^{[citation needed]}

Syndication[]

In syndication, the series was rebroadcast for a time under the name, Captain of Detectives. Rebroadcasts were shown in the early 2000s on cable's TV Land network.

Home media[]

The Detectives has been released in Germany (in dubbed German language only) under the name "Kein Fall für FBI" [1] As of 2019, there has been no official release of Robert Taylor's "The Detectives" on DVD in the U.S.

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Detectives (1959 TV series).

• The Detectives at IMDb
• The Detectives starring Robert Taylor - Series Info and Episode Guide
• Amazon Customer Discussions- The Detectives-Starring Robert Taylor
• The Detectives opening sequence (with syndicated name/logo "Captain Of Detectives"- YouTube
• The Detectives closing sequence as originally broadcast - YouTube
• The Shuttle The Detectives complete season 2 episode
• Terror on Ice The Detectives: with Robert Taylor, Russell Thorson, Tige Andrews, and Mark Goddard
• Audio Narrative of The Detectives