Home · Listener's Guide · The Songs · Who's Who · Liner Notes · Selected Tracks · What's New · Search
Television Shows
TV provided the inspiration and occupation for many of the musicians and music featured on this site. Here are some of the shows to which arrangers, composers, and performers in these pages contributed.
S p a c e A g e P o p M u s i c
"Danger"
Live suspense anthology series. Score by
Tony Mottola, later collected on what's believed to be
the first soundtrack album from a TV series.
"Hawaiian Eye"
Robert Conrad and Anthony Eisley played
two partners in Honolulu detective agency, tooling
around the islands fighting crime. Connie Stevens was Cricket, the singer
at the Hawaiian Village
Hotel bar which the guys dropped in at at least once a show. If you looked
closely, you could
occasionally see Martin Denny playing in the background. Theme by Joseph Mullendore.
"Hawaii Five-O"
"Book 'em, Dano!" Longest-running crime
series on TV. Jack Lord starred as Steve McGarrett,
head of an elite state law enforcement office. James MacArthur starred as
"Dano" Williams, his
right-hand man. Straight-jawed men with shellacked hair fought the forces
of evil around the
islands. Mahalo. Theme by Mort Stevens.
"The Lawrence Welk Show"
Longest-running music show on TV. And
wasn't it wunnerful. Lawrence led the band as the buble
machine pumped away, and those beloved stars of the Welk family--Norma
Zimmer singing songs
of faith, Joe Feeney doing the Irish numbers, Myron Floren on accordion with
the weekly polkas,
Guy and Ralna, and that nice young man, Bobby Burgess. Life stopped at my
grandmother's
house once a week while she watched this show. To me, "The Lawrence Welk
Show" was life the
way Nixon would have wanted it.
"M Squad"
Tough police drama set in Chicago. "M
Squad" was a group of homicide detectives led by tight-jawed Lee Marvin.
Stanley Wilson was the musical director, but Count Basie contributed a new
theme for the show's second season, and Benny Carter wrote much of the
incidental music for the show.
"Mr. Broadway"
Craig Stevens comes back, this time as New
York PR man/crime-fighter. Music by Dave Brubeck.
"Naked City"
New York City cop show, based on the 1948
film. Title taken from the book of photos by Weegee,
photographer of NYC's afterhours life in the 1940s. "There are 8 million
stories in the naked city;
this has been one of them." John McIntire starred for the first season, but
his character was killed off and a new star, James Franciscus, replaced him
as a younger lead and played the remainder of the years. Theme by Billy May
"Peter Gunn"
Half-hour crime show starring Craig
Stevens as Peter Gunn, private eye and lounge lizard. Lola
Albright played Edie, Gunn's love interest and the singer at Mother's, the
nightclub where Gunn
hung out. Henry Mancini's theme and jazz score are better remembered than
the show itself.
"Richard Diamond"
Originally a radio series with Dick
Powell, the show revived the character with David Janssen as the
lead. First episodes were based in New York; in 1959, the scene moved to
Los Angeles.
Diamond tooled around LA while getting his taskings from Sam (Mary Tyler
Moore), his secretary,
via the then-novelty of a car phone. Produced by Powell's Four Star, with
theme and score by
Pete Rugolo.
"Route 66"
Hour-long adventures series about Tod
Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buzz Murdock (George Maharis,
later Glenn Corbett), two cool guys tooling around the country in a 1960
Corvette. Like "Run for
Your Life" and "The Fugitive," but without the sustaining motivation.
Nelson Riddle wrote the
theme, which became a hit single.
"Run for Your Life"
Hour series starring Ben Gazzara as a
lawyer given no more than two--wait, make that three--years
to live, who decides to spend that time tooling around the country helping
people in trouble.
"Sam Benedict"
Hour show starring Edmond O'Brien as Sam
Benedict, crime-fighting San Francisco attorney. Theme by Nelson Riddle
"Staccato"
Half-hour crime show starring John
Cassavetes as Johnny Staccato, New York jazz pianist turned
private eye. Centered around a nightclub, the show was something of a blend
of "Peter Gunn"
and "Mr. Lucky" and was panned as an imitation of both. Score by Elmer
Bernstein.
"The Third Man"
Michael Rennie starred as Harry Lime,
somehow revived after being killed at the end of the original
film, and now an international man of action.
"Thriller"
An anthology crime story series hosted by
Boris Karloff, an imitation of "The Alfred Hitchcock
Show." Score by Pete Rugolo.
"The Untouchables"
Hour-long crime show, based on the
real-life exploits of Treasury agent Eliot Ness (Robert Stack). Theme by Nelson Riddle.
Home · Listener's Guide · The Songs · Who's Who · Liner Notes · Selected Tracks · What's New · Search
Email: editor@spaceagepop.com
© spaceagepop 2019. All rights reserved.