Ellery Queen (TV series)

infobox television
show_name = Ellery Queen


caption =
format = Crime/Drama
runtime = 60 min.
creator = Richard Levinson
William Link
starring = Jim Hutton
David Wayne
Tom Reese
country = USA
executive_producer = Richard Levinson
William Link
network = NBC
opentheme =
camera =
first_aired = September 11 1975
last_aired = April 4 1976
num_episodes = 22
num_seasons = 1
tv_com_id = 808
imdb_id = 0072496
website =

"Ellery Queen" was an American television mystery series that ran for one season from 1975 to 1976 on NBC. It starred Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, and David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen. One of several television adaptations of the Ellery Queen mystery novels (see also "The Adventures of Ellery Queen"), the series was created by the writing and producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, who also created such mystery fare as "Mannix", "Columbo" and "Murder, She Wrote".

Adaptation

The series premiered on March 23, 1975 with the made-for-TV movie "Ellery Queen" (also titled "Too Many Suspects"), adapted from the book "The Fourth Side of the Triangle". A total of 22 episodes followed in the show's one and only season, the last of which aired April 4, 1976.

tructure

Set in the post-WWII 1940s, the show closely followed the format of the Ellery Queen mystery novels which carefully laid out the clues before the reader/audience and invited them to attempt to solve the mystery before Ellery Queen presented the solution. In the early Queen books, just prior to the presentation of the solution to the mystery, a "Challenge To The Reader" was issued, in which the suspects and clues were reviewed and the reader challenged to guess the solution to the crime. In the show, this tradition was preserved by having Ellery Queen break the fourth wall and speak directly to the viewer prior to the commercial break that led into the final act. The final act always employed the time-honored detective cliché of calling all of the suspects together with Ellery Queen presenting the solution to the group.

Cast

In addition to the lead actors Jim Hutton and David Wayne, the series also featured regulars Tom Reese as Inspector Queen's right-hand-man Sergeant Velie, John Hillerman as radio detective Simon Brimmer, and Ken Swofford as reporter Frank Flannigan.

Episode listing

# Ellery Queen (aka Too Many Suspects) (3/23/75)
# The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne (9/11/75)
# The Adventure of the Lover's Leap (9/18/75)
# The Adventure of the Chinese Dog (9/25/75)
# The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader (10/02/75)
# The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express (10/09/75)
# The Adventure of Miss Aggie's Farewell Performance (10/19/75)
# The Adventure of Colonel Niven's Memoirs (10/23/75)
# The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party (10/30/75)
# The Adventure of Veronica's Veils (11/13/75)
# The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse (12/11/75)
# The Adventure of the Blunt Instrument (12/18/75)
# The Adventure of the Black Falcon (1/04/76)
# The Adventure of the Sunday Punch (1/11/76)
# The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer (1/18/76)
# The Adventure of the Wary Witness (1/25/76)
# The Adventure of the Judas Tree (2/01/76)
# The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario (2/08/76)
# The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman (2/29/76)
# The Adventure of the Tyrant of Tin Pan Alley (3/07/76)
# The Adventure of Caesar's Last Sleep (3/14/76)
# The Adventure of the Hard-Hearted Huckster (3/21/76)
# The Adventure of the Disappearing Dagger (4/04/76)

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0072496|title=Ellery Queen
* [http://www.elleryqueenshow.com/ ElleryQueenShow.com]
* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/linkwilliam/linkwilliam.htm Museum of Broadcast Communications website]