Dan Raven

Dan Raven
Format	Crime drama
Starring	Skip Homeier Dan Barton Quinn K. Redeker
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (hour-long episodes)
Production
Running time	60 mins.
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 23, 1960 (Half-hour episodes started in January 1960.)- – January 6, 1961

Dan Raven is a crime drama starring Skip Homeier (born 1930), a former child actor in films, which aired on NBC between January 23, 1960, and January 6, 1961. The setting of the series is the famous Sunset Strip of West Hollywood, California. The series focuses on activities of the sheriff's department, including those of the fictitious Lieutenant Dan Raven and his assistant, Sergeant Burke, played by Dan Barton. Quinn K. Redeker (born 1936) appeared too as photographer Perry Levitt. The program aired for a half-hour from January 1960 until September 23, when it expanded for thirteen hour-long segments. Dan Raven featured contemporary celebrities appearing as themselves, including Buddy Hackett (1924-2003), Paul Anka (born 1941), Marty Ingels (born 1936), Bob Crewe (born 1931), and singer Bobby Darin (1936-1973). Darin appeared in the first of the hour-long episodes entitled "The High Cost of Fame".^[1]

Ironically, the long-running 77 Sunset Strip ran on ABC at 9 p.m. Eastern on the same Friday evenings as Dan Raven, which started at 7:30. Dan Raven, in the hour format, faced difficult opposition from the second season of CBS western series Rawhide starring Clint Eastwood and Eric Fleming. Its competition on ABC was the sitcom Harrigan and Son, starring Pat O'Brien and Roger Perry.^[2]

Other selected episodes include:

• "The Mechanic" with Buddy Hackett on September 30
• "The Trade" with Paul Anka on October 7
• "Penny" with Paul Richards (1924-1974) on October 21
• "The Night Is Numbered" with Paul Crewe on November 4
• "The Satchel Man" with Paul Anka and Parley Baer on November 11
• "The Junket" with Don Dubbins (1928-1991) and Mel Torme (1925-1999) on November 18
• "The Man on the Ledge" with Marty Ingels on November 25
• "Amateur Night" with Marty Ingels and Claude Akins (1926-1994) on December 2
• "Tinge of Red" with Julie London (1926-2000), Judson Pratt (1916-2002) and Gavin MacLeod (born 1930) on December 16
• "Buy a Nightmare" with Don Haggerty (1914-1988), Harvey Lembeck (1923-1982) and Adrienne Ellis , the series finale.^[3]

Dan Raven was partly replaced on January 13, 1961, by the return of the Ronnie Burns's Happy, a trivial sitcom about a talking baby.

References

1. ^ Alex McNeil, Total Television, New York, Penquin Books, 1996, 4th ed., p. 195
2. ^ 1960-1961 American network television schedule in appendix of McNeil's Total Television
3. ^ IMDB, Dan Raven, Episode list: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053495/episodes; TV.com, Dan Raven", Episode List: http://www.tv.com/dan-raven/show/6987/episode_listings.html. There are some discrepancies in the two lists in regard to dates of airings.

External links

• Dan Raven at the Internet Movie Database
• Dan Raven at TV.com