Peter Gunn: Season One Episodes

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Copyright ©2011-2022 by Mike Quigley. No reproduction of any kind without permission.

EPISODE 1: The Kill

Written and Directed by Blake Edwards
Original Air Date - 22 September 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Mob boss "Big Al" Fusary (Sam Scar) and several of his men are knocked off by two bogus cops. The man behind this is George Fallon (Gavin MacLeod), who is also putting heat on Mother to cough up protection money to the tune of 50% of her take. When Peter Gunn tells Fallon at the Elite Health Club where he is playing squash to lay off Mother, Fallon doesn't want to listen. After Mother's is rocked by an explosion from dynamite planted by a couple of Fallon's hoods, Gunn, taking matters into his own hands over Jacobi's objections, forces one of Fallon's men, Dave Green (Jack Weston), who we have seen earlier at Mother's as well as at the health club, to drive to Mother's. There Gunn threatens to kill Green until he phones Fallon and tells him to deliver $50,000 to the club or he (Green) will spill his guts to the police. This doesn't produce Fallon, but instead the two bogus cops from the beginning of the show. They knock off Green and are then shot by Lieutenant Jacoby and his men, who were alerted by Edie. Jacoby determines that a "little tailor" who made the uniforms for the two cops for $10,000 was found at the bottom of the river. This show is full of noirish scenes, and includes a surprisingly sexy encounter between Gunn and Edie who flirt outside the back of Mother's after the first rendition of her song.
MUSIC:
A Profound Gass -- as Gunn enters Mother's for the first time in the show
Soft Sounds -- as Gunn talks to Edie after her song
Unidentified solo -- played by pianist of Edie's combo, Emmett Ward (Bill Chadney), heard outside the club as Gunn talks to Jacoby in the lieutenant's car and then inside
A suspensful cue as the phony cops show up and kill Green, who has bonked Gunn on the head with a bottle of booze

EDIE SINGS:
Day In, Day Out by Johnny Mercer and Rube Bloom, sung both at the beginning and end of the show

BEST LINES:
Gunn (to one of Fallon's thugs): Tell Fallon Peter Gunn wants to see him.
Thug (looks at his friend): Peter? (looks at Gunn) Go pick a peck of peppers.

TRIVIA:
There is narration by Gunn at the beginning and end of this show.
The amount of cigarette smoke in Mother's as Edie sings at the beginning of the show is unreal.
In the opening scene where the cops get out of their car, in the background you can see weird lights, as if there are flying saucers or something. This is produced by one of the cops carrying his flashlight backwards, causing a reflection on something in the distance like trees.

GOOF:
When Jacoby gets out of his car prior to shooting at the bogus cops, he forgets to put the hand brake on, and the car keeps rolling in front of him.

EPISODE 2: Streetcar Jones

Written by Al C. Ward; Directed by Blake Edwards
Original Air Date - 29 September 1958

SYNOPSIS:

After Martin Swift, a pianist who "made it with somebody else's talent," is murdered -- stabbed in the back -- at the Big Eye nightclub, the house pianist, a man named Lodi (Leigh Whipper), asks Peter Gunn to find out who did it. Vibes player Streetcar Jones (Carlo Fiore), who was overheard saying he wanted Swift dead, is the most likely suspect and is locked up by Lt. Jacoby. At the club, Gunn is approached by Streetcar Jones' lawyer George Norris (Carlyle Mitchell). Norris's daughter Sally (Patricia Powell) gets flirty with Gunn, who wonders why she has an interest in jazz music. After Norris tells Gunn to lay off the case and Gunn refuses, Gunn is badly beaten up by two hoods. Gunn meets Sally later at the club, and to her surprise, Streetcar Jones is now a free man and soloing with the house combo. Gunn's investigation has revealed that Sally, who hung around the club several days a week, was the one who had Swift killed. He had been blackmailing her ever since she murdered her sax playing husband in Buffalo a few years before. The "evidence" of Swift, who supposedly witnessed the killing, was all that was keeping her from being arrested for murder. The implication is that Swift got too greedy, so Sally had him eliminated. The two hoods who beat up Gunn return to the club and tell him to take a walk. Lt. Jacoby follows and shoots one of the men, and Gunn takes care of the second. Gunn returns inside the club and escorts Sally outside. This show is full of "hip" jazz lingo and a look at the world of jazz musicians.

MUSIC:
Aside from a piano solo by Emmett, the house pianist at Mother's, most of the music in this episode is in a Dixieland style, played by Lodi's combo, except when they are joined by Streetcar Jones near the end.
The music heard at Swift's wake is used behind the titles on the UK Peter Gunn DVD menus.

BEST LINE:
When Sally asks Edie if she minds if Gunn dances with her, Edie looks at her and says, "How'd you like to step outside?"

TRIVIA:
Leigh Whipper, who plays Lodi, was over 80 years old when he filmed this show. The first black member of Actors Equity Association, this was his last acting role.
Carlo Fiore is best known for his friendship with Marlon Brando, about whom he wrote a book, Bud: The Brando I Knew.

EPISODE 3: The Vicious Dog

Written by Blake Edwards; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 6 October 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Newspaperman George Walker (Tyler McVey) is savagely attacked by a German shepherd in his own garage. He figures this is because he has been writing columns denouncing businessman Carl Kane (Paul Dubov), who Walker later describes to Peter Gunn as "scum." The attack by the dog followed several anonymous threatening phone calls and someone breaking into Walker's house. To try and locate the dog, Gunn seeks the advice of Homer Tweed (J. Pat O'Malley), a Shakespearean-quoting hobo who seems to be an expert in such matters, having acquired several dogs as pets. After Gunn meets with Kane who threatens him, he finds his apartment is broken into as well, with a shoe taken so the dog can get Gunn's scent and attack him in the future. Gunn gets a call from Walker's secretary Nancy Davis (Virginia Christine), who is actually in league with Kane. She meets Gunn and the two of them drive to a neighboring city. Lt. Jacoby tries to follow them, but Davis drives like a maniac and Jacoby loses them. In the middle of nowhere, Davis pulls a gun on Gunn and makes him get out of the car. She drives away and Gunn hears the sound of the dog coming to attack him. Gunn wraps his raincoat over his arm and fends off the dog. It turns out that the person in charge of the vicious dog is none other than Homer the hobo. When Lt. Jacoby shows up finally, he too is attacked, but he shoots the dog dead. The show closes with Homer being led away by Jacoby. The premise of this show is interesting, but the ending is kind of abrupt.

MUSIC:
The Floater - when Gunn arrives at Mother's
Soft Sounds - following Edie's solo
Accompanying the chase of Nancy and Gunn is an interesting arrangement of some of the Peter Gunn main theme, with muted brass instruments.

EDIE SINGS:
Don't Get Around Much Anymore by Duke Ellington and Bob Russell

BEST LINE:
When they are chatting behind Mother's, Edie starts alluding to having kids. She asks Gunn for a penny to make a wish, but all he has is a dime. After she throws the dime in the water, Gunn says that was an "expensive wish." She replies, "The other nine cents is for insurance."

TRIVIA:
Gunn takes a cup of coffee from the hoboes when he visits them in their camp, but he doesn't drink from the cup.
Gunn's address is 351 Ellis Park Road.

EPISODE 4: The Blind Pianist

Teleplay by Judy & George W. George; Original Story by George W. George & Blake Edwards; Directed by Blake Edwards
Original Air Date - 13 October 1958

SYNOPSIS:

As blind pianist Steven Ware (Barney Phillips) plays for Laura Hope Stanfield (Elizabeth Talbot-Martin), an older woman who is the only person in The Blue Funnel nightclub where he works, the suavely-dressed gum-chewing Guy Beckett (Richard Ney) enters the club and strangles her to death with a white scarf. Shortly after, Ware confides to Gunn that he is no longer blind, thanks to a recent operation in Europe, and he actually saw what happened. Ware offers to pay Gunn to find the killer in 24 hours, after which he will go to the police. Based on something Mrs. Stanfield said to Ware, Gunn ends up at a beatnik nightclub run by Wilbur (Herb Ellis) where a poetry reading is taking place. Wilbur tells Gunn that "Mrs. S" came there earlier that evening to talk to Shirley Blaze (Barbara Stuart), a stripper who works at the club, probably because Shirley's boyfriend used to "belong" to Stanfield. Gunn eventually winds up at Shirley's apartment, where he encounters Lt. Jacoby. Jacoby says that Blaze, who is a well-stacked blonde, told him that Beckett was with her all evening. After Jacoby leaves, Blaze starts to get interested in Gunn, but he leaves after telling her that there was a witness to the murder in the nightclub. Back at his apartment, Gunn encounters Edie on the couch, and is just about to take her home when Beckett shows up at Gunn's door with a revolver. He tells Gunn that Stanfield lent him some money which she wanted back. He forces Gunn and Edie to leave with him, and as they walk away from Gunn's apartment building, Ware suddenly shows up, having unsuccessfully tried to phone Gunn earlier. He yells across the street that Beckett is the killer, and Gunn overpowers Beckett, who fatally shoots himself during the fight.

MUSIC:
White on White (used later in Experiment in Terror) - the piece Ware is playing at the beginning of the show
A Profound Gass - heard at the coffee house (Wilbur actually uses this expression)
Soft Sounds - Gunn flirts with Edie who is on the couch at his place.

TRIVIA:
Stephen Ney, who is very reminiscent of James Mason, had a career as an investment counsellor who wrote several books critical of Wall Street.
This is the first episode where Gunn affectionally addresses Edie as "Silly."

EPISODE 5: The Frog

Written by Blake Edwards; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 20 October 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Gunn is supposed to meet a low-level hood called The Frog (Harold Kruger) down by the waterfront to get a book of information that The Frog has on mobster Daniel Swink (Whit Bissell). But before the two can get together, The Frog is murdered by the knife-throwing Nestor (uncredited actor). When Gunn goes to The Frog's apartment, he is surprised by Nestor, and a terrific fight follows. Loretta Gymps (Jean Inness), the Frog's old girl friend, suddenly opens the door and Gunn takes advantage of this to pick up his gun from the floor and shoot Nestor dead. Shortly after at Mother's, where Edie sings accompanied by a combo featuring trumpeter Shorty Rogers, Swink shows up with several of his thugs, even though the club is closed. When Gunn refuses to co-operate and provide information about The Frog, Swink slams his cane on Gunn's hands. He even takes a swipe at Mother who tries to intervene! Gunn goes to visit Loretta, since The Frog made her the beneficiary of his $10,000 life insurance policy. Loretta lives in a shack by the waterfront along with several cats, a gramophone and a jug of booze. She has a revolver handy, waiting for Swink and his men to show up. Gunn gets The Frog's book from Loretta, which contains "10 years [of] deals, contacts, facts and figures" about Swink's operations. When he leaves, Gunn is confronted by Swink's men. Swink takes the book. As he is about to be killed by Vernon Lilly (Arthur Kendall), one of Swink's thugs, Loretta -- who has just drilled another guy who showed up at her door -- appears and shoots Lilly dead. Lt. Jacoby, who has been waiting nearby, knocks off another hood, and disables Swink's huge Cadillac with another shot as the crime boss drives away. Back at Edie's apartment, Gunn brings Edie one of Loretta's pussy cats.

MUSIC:
A Quiet Gass (heard in Edie's apartment as Gunn recovers from his beating, and also at the end of the show)

EDIE SINGS:
How High the Moon by Nancy Hamilton and Lewis Morgan

EPISODE 6: The Chinese Hangman

Teleplay by Lewis Reed & Vick Knight; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by Blake Edwards
Original Air Date - 27 October 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Peter Gunn is roused from sleep in his apartment by Clarence (Buddy Baer), a huge man who works for the Temple of Peace and Meditation and taken to the temple where he meets its boss, a bald-headed guy named Ahben Unesku (Theodore Marcuse). Unesku says he wants to hire Gunn to track down his trusted assistant Joanna Lund (Marion Marshall) who recently absconded with $200,000 of the temple's donations. Lt. Jacoby shows up, inquiring about one of the temple's members, David Bryce (Patrick Clement), who was found dead earlier of an apparent suicide. (Bryce was actually murdered by Clarence during the teaser and made to look like he killed himself by hanging.) Gunn begins investigating, and finds that Joanna had passport pictures made up through a local photography studio. Gunn's travels take him to Paris and finally Spain, where he manages to track down Joanna who hangs out at a bar. He introduces himself to her, but she tells him she is not interested. Eventually, the two become friends and they hang out together for about a week. Gunn is about to tell Joanna his real purpose in tracking her down, but she already knows that Unesku sent him after her. She tells him that she didn't steal the money, and Unesku was upset because he considered her his "possession." Shortly after this, Joanna is also found dead, hanging in her room, except Gunn notices that the chair she supposedly kicked out from under her was over a foot below her feet. Returning to the Temple, Gunn confronts Unesku, where it's revealed that Bryce was the real thief and Unesku was jealous because Bryce had taken her away from him. Unesku and Clarence followed Gunn to Europe, and Clarence murdered Joanna in the same manner as Bryce. Gunn fights with both Clarence and Unesku, and is about to be shot by the cult leader when Unesku himself is shot dead by Sergeant Keep (Bob Jellison), a traffic cop who has been tailing Gunn at home and abroad, assigned to keep an eye on him by Lt. Jacoby.

MUSIC:
Joanna, heard several times played on guitar in the bar where Gunn meets her. Mancini must have thought a lot of this tune, because he included it in the "Peter Gunn Meets Mr. Lucky" suite on his LP The Concert Sound of Henry Mancini.
There is exotic koto-like music heard in the background at the Temple.

TRIVIA:
Although Unesku looks vaguely "oriental," his name is hardly Chinese.
This episode has several lines cut out of the print on the A&E DVDs; the Image laser disc and UK Liberation DVDs are complete.

EPISODE 7: Lynn's Blues

Written by Lewis Reedy & Blake Edwards; Directed by Blake Edwards
Original Air Date - 27 October 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Edie asks Gunn to check on an old friend of hers, Lynn Martel (Linda Lawson), also a night club singer. Edie ran into Lynn recently and thought there was "something serious" going on in her life when Lynn "just came apart" while the two of them were having coffee. Gunn catches Lynn's act when she breaks down in the middle of a song. When he talks to Lynn in her dressing room shortly after, the singer hasn't much to say. Gunn is threatened by Babe Santano (David Tomack), a knife-wielding hood who is the manager of the club, who tells him to stay away from Lynn. It turns out that Lynn is the girl friend of local mobster Nat Kruger (Guy Prescott), who "owns" her. In the teaser, on the orders of Kruger, Santano murdered Roger Dwyer (William Masters), who had taken an interest in Lynn, by jamming the elevator Dwyer was taking to Lynn's apartment, then shooting him dead through the door in the elevator's ceiling. After further intimidation by Kruger and Santano, Gunn goes to Lynn's apartment, where he finds her trying to commit suicide with the gas from her fireplace. As Lynn and Gunn leave the building in the elevator, Santano tries to knock them off by jamming it again as he did with Dwyer, but Gunn is wise to this trick, and shoots Santano dead before he can get off a shot. Lt. Jacoby and his men arrive on the scene quickly, alerted by a beat cop who was assigned to keep an eye on Lynn's place. Kruger's driver wounds one of the cops, but is quickly shot dead by another officer holding a machine gun. The show ends with Lynn singing at the club again. Gunn tells Edie that she is giving one final performance there "to say goodbye."
MUSIC:
There are several interesting cues, none of which are on the soundtrack albums, including one near the end which has shades of Blue Steel.

LYNN SINGS:
The Meaning of the Blues by Bobby Troup and Leah Worth (thanks to Paul Winger for this info).

TRIVIA:
Lynn is seen drinking Lawson's Blended Scotch Whiskey, an actual brand.
This is one show where Gunn really loses his cool as he is yells at Lynn, trying to wake her from her unconscious stupor because she inhaled the leaking gas at her apartment.
When Santano is shot by Gunn, he falls through the door into the elevator, where you can see there is a cushion, rather than the hard floor.

EPISODE 8: Rough Buck

Written by Tony Barrett; Directed by Blake Edwards
Original Air Date - 10 November 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Tony Triano (uncredited actor), a popular boxer, is gunned down with a shotgun as he leaves his gym in a car. The murder has a devastating effect not only on Tony's elderly parents, but also his friend Gino Nicholetti (Antony Carbone). Gunn is hired to investigate and meets Tony's brother Gus (Arthur Batanidies) at the restaurant that Tony bought for his parents. When he asks Gus who wanted Tony dead, Gus replies, "Who kills angels?" Later, when he is at Lt. Jacoby's office, Gunn gets a call from Mother, who says that Gino is at her place and getting very drunk. When Gunn arrives at Mother's, Gino is gone. While he is flirting with Edie, Gino shows up again, but is promptly taken out of the restaurant by a couple of hoods who proceed to beat him to a pulp. Gunn takes Gino to his place to clean him up. Jacoby shows up, and tells Gunn to send Gino downtown to talk to him later. He also tells Gunn that the car Tony was murdered in belonged to Gino. Gunn goes to visit Al Matson (the gravelly-voiced Ken Lynch), who managed both Tony and Gino. Matson describes Gino as a "punk," and "a weaselly little 2-bit prelim bum" who he managed only at Tony's insistence. Gunn goes to talk to Sharon Moore (Larri Thomas), a showgirl whose picture was seen at Matson's and asks her about a connection to either Gino or Matson. She tells Gunn to beat it. Back at Gunn's place, Gino has returned from being grilled by Jacoby, and is swilling down Gunn's liquor. Jacoby comes back to tell Gino they have discovered a $50,000 life insurance policy that Tony took out, with Gino the beneficiary. This leads to an emotional, scenery-chewing reaction from Gino, describing Tony as "the champ who carries a bum on his back." After Gino leaves, both Gunn and Jacoby finally clue in to the fact that the hit on Tony was actually intended for Gino. Gunn goes to Moore's place. She tells Gunn that someone pretending to be him called Gino, who was at her place, and that he left for Matson's gym. When he gets to the gym, Gunn finds two hoods about to beat up Gino as Matson watches, telling Gino "You couldn't leave her alone." Though Gino puts up a good fight, he is overpowered. Gunn disables Matson and shoots one of the hoods, then Gino picks up a gun and shoots the other.
MUSIC:
Not From Dixie, when Gunn arrives at Mother's to see Gus

BEST LINE:
Moore to Gunn: There's the door ... use it. I've got a performance to give.
Gunn: Funny, I thought you just gave one.

TRIVIA:
Prior to Tony being shot, the antenna on Gino's car has a bend in it. When the car is shown after the hit with a broken front window, the antenna is straight.

EPISODE 9: Image of Sally

Teleplay by Lewis Reed & Blake Edwards; Story by Steve Fisher & Lewis Reed; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 17 November 1958

SYNOPSIS:

No sooner is Si Robbin (Phillip Pine) released from prison, where he was serving a term for armed robbery, than he is attacked on the street by Louie Dorson (Dick Crockett), a professional assassin. During the ensuing fight, Dorson is shot dead with his own gun and Robbin is caught by the cops with the weapon in his hand and charged with first-degree murder. Locked up, Robbin sends for Gunn. He wants Gunn to find his old girl friend Sally Hall (Monica Lewis). Jacoby tells Gunn that Robbin's associates from the robbery that sent him to prison are unknown, and the money was never recovered. Gunn tracks down Sally with the help of beatnik coffee shop owner Wilbur (Herb Ellis); Wilbur cautions Gunn that Sally's current boyfriend Joe Nord (Richard Devon) is "a mean daddy." When Gunn meets Sally, who hangs out at a gambling den hidden behind a local bookstore, she tells him that she was Robbin's girl friend, but is no longer interested in him. Shortly after this, Mother tells Gunn that Nord and Sally were the other two characters involved with Robbin in the robbery. Nord shows up with one of his hoods behind Mother's where Gunn is having a smoke and has Gunn beaten up badly. Later, Jacoby tells Gunn that Nord hired Dorson to knock off Robbin, so Nord would end up with a larger share of the robbery money. Gunn convinces Jacoby to release Robbin, and they then bug Sally's apartment, figuring Robbin will show up there eventually. When he does, they overhear Robbin telling Sally that he took the rap for Nord. Sally is still not interested in Robbin, saying that she "belongs" to Nord. Predictably, Nord shows up soon, and when Robbin tries to flee after punching Nord out, Nord shoots him in the back. Jacoby takes care of Nord, leaving Sally alone at the end of the show as their bodies are taken away.
MUSIC:
A Profound Gass -- when Gunn shows up at the coffee shop to talk to Wilbur
White on White -- heard in the background at the gambling den
Unidentified combo piece heard as Gunn arrives at Mother's
Soft Sounds - when Gunn gets beaten up by Nord
Slow and Easy - on the phonograph when Robbin arrives at Sally's place

EDIE SINGS:
I Didn't Know What Time It Was by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

TRIVIA:
Gunn tells Robbin he will charge $1,000 to locate Sally. Robbin offers to pay him double that amount.
Why is there a cop in the room when Gunn is talking to Robbin? Is this legal? Gunn is on speaking terms with the cop.

EPISODE 10: The Man with the Scar

Teleplay by Ken Kolb & Lewis Reed; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 24 November 1958

SYNOPSIS:

A woman and her boyfriend making out on a couch are interrupted by a man with a scar who carries on like he is the woman's husband. The boyfriend grabs a gun from a dresser nearby and shoots the man with the scar dead. The woman tells the boyfriend to get lost and she will take care of things. After the boyfriend leaves, it turns out the man with the scar isn't dead at all. Soon after, Gunn is called to the courtroom of District Attorney Ralph Davidson (Lewis Martin). It turns out the boyfriend in the above scenario was his son Roy (played by Roy Thinnes). Davidson Sr. is going to put local mobster Yale Lubin (Richard Wessel) on trial shortly, but has been threatened that if Lubin goes to court, his son will be arrested for murder based on the frameup. Gunn pulls together information from a variety of sources: Mother, who says she will make some calls, Babby (Billy Barty), a "little man" who he encounters at the local pool hall, and Ulysses (Peter Leeds), a strung-out guy who is playing the pinball machine in some bar and grill. Gunn ends up at the apartment of the woman involved in the frame, Liz Hadden (Joan Taylor), a.k.a. Liz Smith. After convincing her that he knows a lot more about what is going on than he really does, Gunn says he wants to talk to the man with the scar, so Liz takes him to a restaurant in Chinatown. There, Gunn meets Lubin instead and is threatened by one of the waiters at the restaurant who has a gun. Gunn manages to overpower both the waiter and Lubin, and when attacked by the man with the scar, Julio Fezzano (Charles Horvath), he shoots him dead.
MUSIC:
Unidentified combo number when Gunn arrives at Mother's
The Little Man Theme, accompanying Babby at the pool hall
A Quiet Gass when Gunn relaxes at Edie's place at the end of the show

TRIVIA:
Another show where Gunn narrates some of the proceedings.
Babby is identified as "Bobby" in the end credits.
Actress Joan Taylor later married Leonard Freeman, the creator of Hawaii Five-O.
As of this episode, the subsidiary cast list started increasing to a second screen where necessary.

EPISODE 11: Death House Testament

Teleplay by George & Gertrude Fass & Blake Edwards; Story by George & Gertrude Fass; Directed by Blake Edwards
Original Air Date - 1 December 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Whitey Collins (George Mitchell) enters the public library as several men on the street watch him, all of them armed with guns. Collins puts a piece of paper inside a book and then leaves, pursued by these men, and a gun battle ensues. Collins falls wounded after shooting several of them. He is sentenced to death for the murders. Before his execution, he talks to Gunn, telling him that he is the only survivor of a $700,000 armored car robbery several years before, and he wants Gunn to turn the money over to the bonding company and claim the reward, then give the money to his daughter who never knew her father and who works at the library. Collins doesn't give many clues about where the money is, other than referring Gunn to the piece of paper he left in the book. When Gunn leaves the prison, he runs into Sandra Lee (Lucy Marlow), a bimbo who is sprawled out in the back seat of his car along with her yappy dog Poochie. Sandra gets hot and heavy with Gunn, who removes a pistol from her purse while they are necking. Telling Gunn that a guy named Romney Kelly (Harry Bartell) wants to know where the loot from the robbery is, Sandra takes Gunn to Joe's Cafe, where two hoods are holding the waitress and a couple of customers hostage. Gunn gets knocked out by the hoods and taken to the Olford Rest Home, where "Professor" Olford (Sam Buffington), a sadistic, geeky guy with Coke bottle lenses, pumps Gunn full of drugs to try and get him to reveal the location of the money. Gunn eventually manages to escape by using a cord from a lamp in his room which he wires to the doorknob and the carpet in front of the door which he douses with water, then calls for his jailer, who is electrocuted. Gunn knocks out another hood, then forces Kelly and Olford to call the cops. Freed from his captors, Gunn recovers the money and gives the reward to Collins' daughter Margaret Collins Wallace (Kathy Coombs). This is one of the better first season shows, with several choice musical cuts as well as some interesting hand-held camera work.
MUSIC:
A full-fledged version of Fallout! at the beginning
The Brothers Go to Mother's, heard when Gunn encounters Sandra in his car
Spook, as the hoods wait for Gunn at the diner
Arabesque-like music with echoing flutes as Gunn is drugged at the rest home

BEST LINE:
Gunn to Collins: "Curiosity's my biggest failing."

TRIVIA:
Prices at Joe's Cafe: Eastern beer 35 cents, fried oysters 95 cents, ham and eggs, 60 cents.
This is the first show where Gunn kisses some woman other than Edie.

EPISODE 12: The Torch

Written by Lewis Reed & Vic Knight; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 8 December 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Two men, Gregory Harrington (Gordon Mills) and an arsonist known as "The Torch" (Robert Carricart) start a fire in a warehouse owned by Harrington. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a third man, known as "Giant" (Edward Ecker) appears, and knocks out Harrington, who perishes in the flames. Harrington's widow Martha (Paula Raymond) meets Gunn later at Mother's and hires him to find out what happened to her husband. Gunn is suspicious of her. Gunn goes to visit Harrington's partner Stanley Glidden (Bartlett Robinson), who was out of town when the fire happened. The two of them trade sharp words as Glidden holds a shotgun which he is using to shoot at rabbits from his front patio. Gunn gets information from Ditto (Walter Burke), who knows a lot about arson, which leads him to a penny arcade where The Torch and Giant hang out. Gunn is knocked out and tied up by the latter, and Glidden is summoned to the place, the idea being he will perish in a fire just like his partner did. As the The Torch and Giant set the place on fire, Jacoby shows up and shoots Giant, while Gunn pushes The Torch into the conflagration. Jacoby carries the incapacitated Gunn out of the burning arcade -- must be quite an effort!
MUSIC:
Blues For Mother's as Gunn talks to Harrington's widow
Unidentified track as Gunn arrives at Glidden's
The Good Old Days (from Experiment in Terror), when Gunn arrives at the penny arcade and later when the arcade is set on fire
Blues For Mother's again as Gunn is consoled at the end by Edie in front of a ... fire in the fireplace!

EDIE SINGS:
It Could Happen to You, by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen

BEST LINE:
Jacoby to Gunn: "I don't like to go around asking people if they committed murder. They usually say 'no'."

TRIVIA:
Lt. Jacoby works out of the 13th Precinct.

EPISODE 13: The Jockey

Teleplay by Lewis Reed; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by Lamont Johnson
Original Air Date - 15 December 1958

SYNOPSIS:

After Caroline Stephenson, a singer at the Pink Cloud Skyroom, falls to her death through a skylight above the club's pianist, Gunn gets a call from Jason Willows (Robert Gist), friend of jockey Billy Arnet (Frankie Darro), who was Caroline's boy friend. Billy is despondent over what happened to Caroline, who he thinks was murdered. Gunn has to contend with Ned Parks (Robin Morse), Billy's oily agent before he can speak to him. Later in private, Billy tells Gunn that everyone liked Caroline except Parks, who didn't approve of her. Lt. Jacoby tells Gunn that a case of murder is unlikely, because there was only one way down from the roof and a six story drop to the street. Gunn checks out the nightclub, and suggests to Jacoby that the angle at which Caroline fell suggests she was pushed, rather than it was an accident. In the library, Gunn finds an old article which says that Willows was part of the Flying Willows, a team of acrobats and aerialists. After leaving the library, he is almost killed when Willows dumps a pick and a load of bricks on him from a construction site above. A lengthy chase follows through the building behind the site, with Gunn following Willows and trying to convince him to give up. Willows says that Caroline's fall was an accident, but no one will believe him. Willows finally plunges to his death from a great height -- whether he fell by accident or committed suicide is debatable. Back at the stables, Billy wishes that he had never hired Gunn, now that he knows the truth.
MUSIC:
Unidentified track as Gunn checks out the roof of the nightclub
Variations on Blue Steel as Gunn chases Willows through the building

TRIVIA:
Gunn drives a Chrysler DeSoto, license number NVZ 669

EPISODE 14: Sisters of the Friendless

Written by Henry F. Greenberg & Malvin Wald; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 22 December 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Sandy Martin (Paul Carr) just got released from reform school and was heard bad-mouthing Donnie Rogan, who got him sent there by framing him for grand theft auto. While hitchhiking to town, Sandy is hassled by some punks in a hot rod, and to escape them, climbs over the wall of a convent, knocking himself out when he falls to the ground. Rogan is murdered while Martin is at the convent, and Martin is captured by the cops shortly after he regains consciousness and sneaks out in the middle of the night. Gunn gets a call from Sandy's girl friend Laurie Hunter (Colette Jackson), who he seems to know. She offers to pay Gunn, even though she has only saved up about a hundred dollars. Gunn meets her at a swinging hangout called Rock-a-Billy's, where Nino Tempo and his combo are performing. Laurie tells Gunn that (a) she was going to marry Sandy and (b) she figures that some of Rogan's punk friends tipped off the cops that Martin had killed their leader. In jail, Martin doesn't remember much about the convent, other than it had bars on the windows and he could hear the sound of bells. Gunn figures out where the convent is and goes there, but the sisters cannot go to town to testify in Martin's defense because they are a cloistered order, and have taken vows never to leave the place. They try to get permission from the boss of the order, who resides in France, and in order to do so, Gunn and Jacoby enlist the help of a local pickpocket who speaks French (he is not particularly helpful). Finally, Gunn has a brainstorm that instead of the nuns going to the court, the court should come to them. Only after twisting the arm of the judge handling Martin's case are Jacoby and Gunn able to persuade him to adopt this unusual form of justice.
MUSIC:
Aside from the ubiquitous Fallout! at the beginning of the show, almost all the music in this show is of a "dramatic" nature, not the usual jazz.

TRIVIA:
When Gunn makes a call to France, his credit card number is 8991 1436.

EPISODE 15: The Leaper

Written by Robert Blees; Directed by Paul Stewart
Original Air Date - 29 December 1958

SYNOPSIS:

Lester Warnecke (Murray Julian) is perched high on the side of a building, as if he wants to commit suicide. When a bellboy tries to talk him back in, Lester is shot from a neighboring building by "Chop" (the sinister James Lanphier, who Blake Edwards later used as the drunken waiter in the Peter Sellers movie "The Party"). Lester plunges to the ground below. Later, Gunn is asked by Mother to go and look in on Lester's widow Gussie (Katherine Squire), an old acquaintance of hers. Gussie tells Gunn that she can't believe that Lester killed himself, since he had a career as "the world's greatest human fly," who was known for scaling skyscrapers and performing other dangerous stunts. She wonders if there is some connection with a phone call that Lester got a few days prior to this, which may have something to do with a job offered by Samson the Great (a.k.a. Sam, played by Michael Ross), a circus strongman who is an acquaintance of hers and Lester's from the past. Gunn goes to visit Sam, who runs a boat rental place down on the river. When Sam can't get his facts straight about the last time that he saw Lester and Gussie, Gunn gets suspicious. After Gunn leaves, Sam calls ... Chop! Visiting Jacoby later, Gunn overhears that a couple of crooks pulled off a $200,000 jewellery robbery in the same building while Lester was on the ledge. Returning to Gussie's again, Gunn finds out that Lester was not wearing his normal shoes while he was on the ledge, but his special "grippers" that he wore while performing stunts ... in other words, he was on a job. With this confirmation that Lester was just a distraction to keep the cops from getting to the jewellery store while the robbery was taking place, Gunn gets Gussie to call Sam and tell him that she knows what Lester was up to and she wants his share of the money. Gunn returns to Sam's place, and is met by Chop, who is about to knock him off when Jacoby, who has been hiding in Gunn's car, shoots Chop. Gunn then fights with Sam in the river, getting his suit totally soaked. At the end, there is some interesting sexually suggestive dialogue and the camera pans over to reveal Gunn and Edie playing gin rummy!
MUSIC:
Unidentified track with vibes solo as Gunn arrives at Sam's dock.
A cool combo piece, followed by Soft Sounds as Gunn and Edie get romantic at Mother's.
Action music as Gunn fights with Sam.
Soft Sounds as Edie and Gunn play cards at the end.

BEST LINES:
Gunn arrives at Jacoby's office, and the lieutenant is checking out the rifle used to knock off Gunn, staring at Gunn through its sight as Gunn enters. Gunn: "I'll marry your daughter, lieutenant."
Mother to Gunn, talking about Pearl, Sam's blonde wife (the raspy-voiced Jean Carson): "I hear if she wants to look at her friends, she just drops into the post office."

TRIVIA:
Interesting camera angles when Gunn and Sam are talking, seen from below. As well, there is some very classy camera work as Gunn and Edie neck in her dressing room at Mother's. Director of photography for this episode was Arthur Arling.

EPISODE 16: The Fuse

Written by Tony Barrett; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 5 January 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Carlo Matzi (Gilbert Frye), a presidential candidate for an upcoming waterfront union election who has "run his union too honestly" is blown up in his car on his birthday. After he dies in hospital, Gunn is approached by local mob boss Jake Lynch (Frank Gerstle), the number one suspect in Carlo's murder. Lynch is well known for "gambling, hijacking and protection" and wants to hire Gunn to clear him of any suspicion, otherwise the docks will soon run red with blood. Gunn doesn't like working for Lynch, and charges him $5,000 for his services. This doesn't endear Gunn to Matzi's friends and family, as well as Lt. Jacoby, who tells Gunn if he continues in Lynch's employ, he can "forget about collecting old age pension." Matzi's friend Sal (Ross Martin) cautions Gunn to "stay out of it or you'll get hurt," but later saves Gunn's skin when he goes to meet an informer and gets roughed up by a couple of punks. One of the punks tells Sal that he was hired by Matzi's wife Maria (Maxine Cooper). Gunn tricks her into coming to the Matzi family's warehouse, and when he arrives there, he is also met by another "friend" of Carlo, Vince Cano (William Kendis), who wanted Carlo's union job so badly that he had him knocked off in cahoots with Maria (the implication being that Vince and Maria were "doing it" behind Carlo's back as well). Vince escapes into the warehouse, pursued by Gunn and Lt. Jacoby, but is caught when Gunn knocks over a pile of wooden crates on him. As the show closes, Gunn enjoys a picnic indoors at Edie's place.
MUSIC:
Not From Dixie, heard after Edie finishes her song and she and Gunn talk
Unidentified action cue as Gunn and Jacob pursue Vince through Matzi's warehouse
A Quiet Gass as Gunn and Edie are having their picnic at the end of the show

EDIE SINGS:
Day In, Day Out by Johnny Mercer and Rube Bloom

BEST LINE:
Lynch to Gunn: "I never claimed to be an ad for the Better Business Bureau."

TRIVIA:
The informer Benny Vacchio is identified in the end credits as "Benny Tarentino"

EPISODE 17: Let's Kill Timothy

Teleplay by Lewis Reed; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by Black Edwards
Original Air Date - 19 January 1959

SYNOPSIS:

As this off-the-wall episode begins, two crooks, George Cates (Arthur Hanson) and Tiny Walsh (Frank Richards) are stealing $100,000 worth of diamonds from a jewellery store with the help of Casper Wellington (Mel Leonard), an employee of the store. When they pass the jewels to him through the hole they have cut through the wall, Wellington distracts them and takes off. Later at Mother's, Casper wants to hire Gunn to be a bodyguard to Timothy. George and Tiny both show up after Casper, but Gunn tells them he knows nothing. Timothy, it turns out is a trained seal. Casper fed the jewels to Timothy inside of a fish and plans to send him out of town on the train the next day. After Timothy is stolen out of Gunn's car, he visits performance artist Vladimar Sokolwasky (Henry Corden), whose "sound paintings," including "Ode to a Fertile Baboon," are very reminiscent of Poème électronique by Edgard Varèse, written for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. Vladimar knows where Casper is hiding out, which leads Gunn and Jacoby to a flophouse where they find Casper badly beaten by his two partners. Gunn and Jacoby hang around the railway station the next morning, and George and Tiny show up. When Jacoby -- who looks totally annoyed through this episode -- stands with a sack of fish beside the crate containing Timothy, Timothy suddenly starts barking, and the two crooks are arrested. At the veterinarian's later, Timothy "produces" the jewels.
MUSIC:
Timothy, used throughout the show
Unidentified track when Gunn goes to Casper's rooming house

MOTHER SINGS:
"Oh look at the baby now / Ain't he nice / Oh look at baby / And you'll think twice..."
Bill Bailey, interrupted by Timothy.

BEST LINE:
Drunk at the police station, after Gunn walks by with Timothy on his way to Jacoby's office: "Book me."

EPISODE 18: The Missing Night Watchman

Written by Blake Edwards; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 26 January 1959

SYNOPSIS:

The quirky Charles Quimby (Howard McNear, Floyd the Barber from the Andy Griffith Show) runs the Fast East Importing Company, which sells antiques and curios. He hires Gunn to find out what happened to $50,000 worth of jewellery that has gone missing from his store, jewellery that is on consignment for Phillip J. Lasdown (Murray Matheson), one of his equally quirky customers. The most likely suspect is Arthur Block, the night watchman from the store (who we knows was knocked off during the teaser). Lasdown shows up at the store and after abusing Quimby for his incompetence, takes back one of his objects d'art, a Buddha, which causes Quimby to freak out. Gunn starts his investigation at Block's apartment, where he has to contend with Block's horny old landlady, who calls him "doll," "blue eyes" and "handsome." Visiting Jacoby, Gunn gets to meet Block, who is on a slab at the morgue. According to one of the police forensic experts, he was shot with a revolver over 100 years old. While Jacoby goes to Quimby's, Gunn visits Lasdown, who lives with an equally wacky Chinese houseboy (Harold Fong) who cannot speak English. Gunn asks Lasdown several questions, but gets nowhere. An employee of a luggage company shows up to take several bags of Lasdown, who is leaving town by plane shortly. When Gunn calls Jacoby from the mobile phone in his car, he finds out that the flight Lasdown is taking leaves in the middle of the night, even though Lasdown told Gunn earlier that he was going to return to Quimby's store in the morning to take the rest of his consignment items, including the jewels. In his house, Lasdown is surprised by an intruder, who flees the scene. Jacoby shows up soon, and is abused by Lasdown who keeps calling him "Sergeant." When Gunn and Jacoby inspect Lasdown's Buddha, the object that the thief was after, they discover the antique gun in a hidden drawer. Lasdown returns to Quimby's store shortly after. Quimby is about to shoot Lasdown when Gunn and Jacoby show up, wounding him. Prior to being taken away, Quimby confesses to killing Block, who caught him stealing the jewels when he showed up for work in the morning.
MUSIC:
The music accompanying Quimby at the beginning is as quirky as his character.
Lasdown listens to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 4 in E Flat major, Op. 7
A couple of interesting tracks when Gunn is in Block's room and also when he arrives at Lasdown's house

BEST LINES:
Block's Landlady: You a cop?
Gunn: No.
Landlady: Private dick?
Gunn: Just the private.

Jacoby to Gunn: Don't speak disparagingly of my shiny little badge, it goes well with my beady little eyes.

TRIVIA:
Gunn's license number is JTJ 372. His mobile phone number is JP 34295. Quimby's phone number is MIdway 86561. Note the next episode takes place on a "midway."
It's unlikely Lasdown could take a fall as serious as the one down the stairs after he is surprised by Quimby.

EPISODE 19: Murder on the Midway

Teleplay by P.K. Palmer & Blake Edwards; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by David O. McDearmon
Original Air Date - 2 February 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Gunn goes to the local midway at the request of strongman The Baron (Stanley Adams). The Baron wants to hire Gunn to protect "Egyptian dancer" Rowena (the sexy Nita Talbot), whose roommate Trixie was recently murdered during a magic act. When he shows up in front of the cotton candy stand, Gunn helps Jacoby catch Martin Franklin (Ronald Foster), husband of Trixie, who is the major suspect in her death. Rowena tells Gunn to beat it when she first meets him, thinking he is a reporter, but then realizes he is something more desirable when she gets a look at his suit, shoes and gold lighter. She convinces Gunn to take her for drinks and dinner at Mother's, much to Gunn's consternation. When they arrive, Mother seats them right in front of the stage as Edie sings, glaring at both of them. When Gunn returns to the midway with Rowena, The Baron is furious, and wants to kill Gunn. But his murderous intentions are interrupted by screams from Rowena, who is shot by an intruder into her tent. Jacoby soon shows up to investigate, and wants to interview all the midway performers. Number one suspect (again) is Franklin, who was released only a few hours before on bail which was paid by Dave Sweetzer (Jack Lomas), owner of the carnival. Gunn gets a tip where Franiklin is hiding and convinces Franklin to give himself up. Following this, Gunn snoops in Rowena's trunk and finds a scrapbook with some material relating to Rowena's first agent who was in trouble with the law. When Rowena finds Gunn, she tells him that she killed Trixie, since her former roommate was going to blackmail her. Just as Rowena is about to reveal more details, she is shot and killed by the mysterious assassin. Gunn follows him and shoots him dead in the nick of time. (Who is this killer? Is it Sweetzer, or Rowena's agent Wagner?)
MUSIC:
Slow and Easy as Gunn talks to Rowena
Straight to Baby, when Gunn and Rowena arrive at Mother's
The Floater, following Edie's song
Slow and Easy, following Edie's song

EDIE SINGS:
Too Marvelous for Words, by Johnny Mercer and Richard Whiting

BEST LINE:
Rowena to Gunn: I'll just slip into something less comfortable.

TRIVIA:
On the UK Liberation DVDs, there is an inexplicable title card for "Cinecastro" near the beginning. According to Wikipedia, there was a company by this name founded in Rio de Janiero in 1959 which dubbed Brazillian TV shows and movies.

EPISODE 20: Pecos Pete

Teleplay by Lewis Reed; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by Robert Ellis Miller
Original Air Date - 9 February 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Gunn's reputation having travelled far and wide, he is hired by Texas rancher Clay Baxter (Jeff York), whose brother Ross dies under mysterious circumstances. Baxter shows up at Mother's only a day after what he figures is a murder, not an accidental death. He gives Gunn $2,000 up front, with a promise of another $5,000 when the case is solved. In Texas, Gunn has to deal with the locals who resent his presence, and Baxter's suspicious hired hand Frank Kelly (Steve Gravers) in particular. Gunn proves that Ross's horse was made to act lame after the brother fell and supposedly hit his head. As well, the local coroner (John Lormer) confirms that Ross did not die from a concussion, but from a sharp instrument which pierced his skull. With the help of the two grizzled prospectors who found Ross's body, Phineas and Luke Merryweather (Ralph Moody and Tom Fadden), Gunn tricks Kelly into showing up at their ramshackle house where Kelly is captured after a terrific fight with the two geezers gazing on. This episode is not that interesting in the sense there are only a couple of suspects (Kelly was in cahoots with Ross's widow Wilma (Peggy Stewart), who promised him a share of the $25 million ranch, half of which she would have inherited since the two brothers were equal partners.) But there are some funny moments, especially the end where Gunn returns to Mother's.
MUSIC:
Soft Sounds, played by Emmett on piano at the beginning of the show
The remainder of the music is an interesting mix of jazz and western, all original for this show

BEST LINE:
Clay Baxter: Almost six o'clock [in the morning], the day's half done."

TRIVIA:
Another episode which features narration by Gunn.
Baxter says that he will meet Gunn at the airport "in 40 minutes." It takes four hours to fly to Texas by an American Airlines propeller plane.

EPISODE 21: Scuba

Written by P.K. Palmer; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 16 June 1959

SYNOPSIS:

When Moffat (Robert DeCost) investigates a suspicious sound in the back room of his warehouse on the riverfront, he finds footprints from flippers on the floor and just misses someone going down a trap door to the river below. Investigating further, Moffat is shot dead with a spear gun. Gunn is hired by a quirky insurance company representative to find items which were stolen not only from Moffat's place, but also several others, to the total tune of $267,000. Gunn arrives at Moffat's office to talk to his partner Garvin (Bern Hoffman), who was reportedly trying to break up their partnership. Gunn first encounters Garvin's horny wife, then the annoyed Garvin himself who doesn't want to talk to either Gunn or Jacoby, who shows up shortly after with a warrant. With tips from an old woman who runs a scuba diving store and spends much of her time talking to a pet octopus, Gunn goes to visit Jeff Jefferson (Charles Cooper), one of the best divers around. Jefferson lives in a room with three sarong-clad bimbos who drape Hawaiian leis around Gunn's neck and offer him exotic drinks. Jefferson gives Gunn a quick course in scuba diving, and the two of them swim underwater to Garvin's warehouse and enter through the trap door. They don't find much, since Garvin returns shortly. Gunn goes back to the scuba store and purchases more equipment, then explores on his own and finds where the thieves buried the stolen goods underwater. Jacoby recognizes some of this booty as part of an art shipment which has been missing for some time. Jefferson shows up at the police station, working for Jacoby. When he and Gunn return to the scene of the buried loot, Jefferson attacks Gunn underwater and rips off his oxygen tank. Garvin, who has been watching the two of them from afar, comes to Gunn's rescue and saves his skin.
MUSIC:
Sorta Blue, after Edie's song near the beginning
The Brothers Go To Mother's as Gunn encounters Garvin's wife
Extended uncredited sequences as Gunn investigates underwater
The Floater, as Gunn hangs out with Edie at Mother's at the end of the show

EDIE SINGS:
You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me by Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal, and Pierre Norman.

TRIVIA:
This episode is kind of silly. Would warehouses on the riverfront allow such easy access to people coming up from the river? Why wouldn't they have locks on these entrances, for example? The show seems more like a good excuse to engage in some underwater action for Gunn. But you have to wonder why Gunn wouldn't just go to the warehouse entrance in a rowboat!

EPISODE 22: Edie Finds a Corpse

Teleplay by P.K. Palmer; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by Walter E. Grauman
Original Air Date - 23 February 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Edie has moved into apartment #3 downstairs in her building while hers (#15) is being repainted. When she arrives home, she finds a corpse in the shower with the water running. There are some comic moments with both Gunn and Jacoby rushing up to Edie's old room and finding a painter (William Idelson) there. With the clue of the corpse's name (Leland Gipson) being on his watch bracelet, Gunn goes to visit the man's daughter Marie (Ruta Lee) who tells him that her father, a widower, fell in a love with a younger woman, Virginia Pelgram (the well-stacked Barbara Darrow). He left home after he and his daughter argued over the woman, but eventually came back. He left that morning in a rage after finding out from a detective that he hired that Pelgram was married, and she and her husband had a history of extortion. Gunn further investigates at a hotel where Pelgram worked (and where Gipson moved because he watnted to be close to her) as well as her apartment building, where the manager is a woman who describes herself as a "primitive artist" who is into creating abstract paintings. Gunn finds himself back at Edie's place, where he and Jacoby determine that Pelgram and her husband used to live in the same apartment Edie is currently occupying and never returned the key to the landlord. Gunn tracks the two of them to the basement, where he engages in a fight with the husband, who is overcome when Gunn directs steam from the boiler in his direction. Jacoby and a cop show up and take both the scam artists into custody.
MUSIC:
Oddball, heard when both Gunn and Jacoby are on their way to Edie's place
Unidentified track as Gunn and Jacoby snoop in Pelgram's room (#2) in Edie's building, and when enters the basement where Pelgram and her husband are hiding
Blues for Mothers, as Gunn and Edie hang out at the end of the show

TRIVIA:
The audio for this episode on the UK Liberation DVD set is very noisy, with a lot of static.
Interesting photography when Gunn is at Marie Gipson's -- Gunn is seen in the reflection of the window as Marie looks through it, then he moves towards her to tell her that her father is dead.
Jacoby is seen playing his guitar in his office.

EPISODE 23: The Dirty Word

Written by Tony Barrett; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 2 March 1959

SYNOPSIS:

After scandal magazine publisher Arthur Sinclair (Joseph Holland) is shot dead on his patio during a high society party, everyone thinks that private investigator Sammy Hayes (Tom Brown) did it, especially when he is witnessed holding the smoking gun, which just happens to be his own. Described by Lt. Jacoby as a "fringe operator" whose license he wanted to suspend, Haze calls on Gunn -- who owes him a favor -- to clear his name. Gunn returns to Sinclair's house where a party is still going on. Among the suspects are Waldo (Lester Fletcher), a flamboyant hanger-on into astrology, Sinclair's lawyer Paul Denner (Simon Scott), and Sinclair's booze-swilling widow Louise (Linda Watkins). Gunn also encounters shell-shocked Abel Kinnard (David Hughes), a legendary musician who flipped out and ended up in a sanitarium after a scandal involving his daughter. Back at the police station, Hayes escapes from custody and locks himself in an interrogation room. When Jacoby breaks through the door, Hayes tries to escape out a window, but falls to his death on the street below. Gunn goes to look at Hayes' office, but is attacked by an assailant who flees. Taped under a desk, Gunn finds some dirt on Waldo, saying that his real name is Bernie Lutz and he is a "grifter, con man and petty swindler." Gunn goes to Waldo's place and pumps him for information in an unusually menacing manner. Then he returns to Sinclair's place, where the publisher's wife is about to leave town. Denner pulls a gun, and says that he killed Sinclair because "he was dirty." An investigation was on the horizon for something connected with the magazine, and Denner heard that Sinclair was going to put the magazine in the wife's hands so she would end up contaminated with the scandal. When he tells Louise that he wants to run away with her, she says that she still loves her husband and slaps his face several times. Shocked, he puts the gun down.
MUSIC:
Soft Sounds, as Gunn hangs out in a restaurant to meet musician Fuzzy Crane ((William Fawcett).
Unidentified tracks as Gunn checks out Hayes' room and also when he puts the heat on Waldo.

TRIVIA:
Sinclair and his business are reminiscent of the muckracking publications like Confidential which existed during the era of the show.

EPISODE 24: The Ugly Frame

Teleplay by George & Gertrude Fass & Lewis Reed; Story by George & Gertrude Fass; Directed by Jack Arnold
Original Air Date - 9 March 1959

SYNOPSIS:
Jimmy Blaine (Jimmy Murphy), a low level hood in the employ of local mobster Mickey Quoit (Lewis Charles), knocks off Eli Gans (John Bleifer), the kindly owner of a local delicatessen and steals $14 from the cash register. This raises Lt. Jacoby's ire, because he has pleasant memories of the place for many years. At Mother's, Quoit in the company of a couple of blonde bimbos harasses Edie. Jacoby shows up shortly after, and tells Quoit to get back to the other side of the river. Gunn gets the help of Babby, "The Little Man," to track down Blaine, who is hiding out in the fleabag Morris Hotel. When Jacoby shows up to arrest him, Blaine is dead on the bed, and the hotel clerk (Shepherd Sanders), also in the employ of Quoit, is the "witness." Jacoby gets relieved of his badge while internal affairs looks into the matter. When he hangs out at Mother's after this, Quoit shows up again and abuses him as "Mister" Jacoby. Babby feels bad because he helped set up the lieutenant, so he co-operates with Gunn to trick two of Quoit's hoods, Hank Barlow (John Hudkins) and Ed Mooney (Sandy Kenyon) to meet Gunn down by the river where Gunn persuades both of them to co-operate in spilling the beans on Quoit. Back at Mother's, Jacoby, newly reinstated, shows up and busts Quoit, leaving his two bimbo companions stuck with the bill.
MUSIC:
The Floater, as Quoit harasses Edie after her song at Mother's
A Profound Gass, after Quoit leaves
Sorta Blue, heard on the radio as Jacoby arrives at Blaine's hotel
Slow and Easy, as Jacoby waits at Mother's after he is relieved of duty
Not from Dixie, as Gunn takes Mooney down by the river
The Little Man Theme

EDIE SINGS:
"Oh! Look at Me Now" by John DeVries and Joe Bushkin, a song associated with Frank Sinatra

BEST LINE:
Mother (when Quoit's bimbos complain about having to pay for their drinks): Well, are your hands allergic to detergent?

TRIVIA:
At Sam's Delicatessen where Gans works, oyster stew and a piece of pie are 10 cents each.
There is very cool foggy atmosphere in the graveyard where Eli Gans' funeral is held, along with terse dialogue between Jacoby and Gunn and some creepy music featuring piano and vibes.
The radio at the Morris hotel is playing Sorta Blue. Jacoby turns it off when he talks to the clerk. When he turns it on after they talk, the music starts again at the beginning.

EPISODE 25: The Lederer Story

Teleplay by Lewis Reed & Charles Hoffman; Story by Charles Hoffman; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 16 March 1959

SYNOPSIS:

A well-dressed older woman, Lucile Lederer (Margaret Muse) staggers into Mother's, is given a glass of water, and drops dead. Of course, Gunn is interested in this, and he finds a mariner's cap in her car parked outside. He goes to the North River Yacht Club where he talks to a local cafe owner (Tom McKee), who tells Gunn that Mrs. Lederer's yacht the Destiny is for sale, and that she has been living on it with her butler and maid for the last six months, ever since her husband fell overboard and disappeared. Gunn goes on board the yacht. It is currently under the command of Captain Hessler (Otto Waldis), a man with a Peter Lorre-like voice and a gun who is very "anti-social." Hessler says that the yacht is not for sale, and sends Gunn on his way. Leaving the docks, Gunn is accosted by two thugs who "don't like strangers snooping around." Gunn throws them both in the harbor. Later, at his office, Lt. Jacoby tells Gunn that Mrs. Lederer was poisoned with arsenic. Returning to the yacht in the middle of the night, Gunn sneaks into its galley and overhears Hessler talking with his son Max (Sam Edwards) and Max's wife Rose (Roxanne Brooks). They were all in cahoots to knock off Mrs. Lederer. Gunn finds the container of rat poison used to kill her. He leaves the galley, and plays a game of cat-and-mouse with the threesome from the yacht as well as the two thugs. Picking up a phone which is conveniently located on top of the yacht's cabin (!), Gunn calls Edie and talks to her and Jacoby in a very loud voice, giving his theory that Mrs. L. killed her husband, then paid off the crew to keep quiet, and when she wouldn't pay any more, they poisoned her. Jacoby shows up, and there is a gun battle where Hessler is wounded, and he, Max and Rose are all taken away by the cops.
MUSIC:
The Brother's Go to Mother's, heard when Mrs. Lederer arrives at Mother's (with trombone solo)
Soft Sounds, played by Emmett on solo piano when Gunn calls Edie at Mother's
There are two cues with a "walking bass," one where Gunn arrives at the marina, the other when he returns there in the middle of the night.
Blue Steel, heard during the gun battle at the end

EPISODE 26: Keep Smiling

Teleplay by Lester Aaron Pine & Lewis Reed; Directed by Jack Arnold
Original Air Date - 23 March 1959

SYNOPSIS:

A trio of con artists prey on men participating in a bowling conclave (convention) by getting them in compromising situations which are photographed and taped, then asking for hush money. When one of these men, Sam Wallace (Fred Coby), a war veteran and boxer, resists, he gets his head bashed in with a bowling ball. Eric Woolrich (Jackie Coogan), the chairman of the conclave, also falls under the charms of Emily (Mara Corday), the female member of the trio, and Gunn enlists his help to nab her. At the Bamboo Club, where drummer Shelly Manne is the guest artist, Gunn and Jacoby pretend to be rubes from the Midwest to attract Emily's attention. Smoking a cigar and telling Emily "I'm sincere," Craig Stevens' attempts to be as loud as possible are hilarious, as are Jacoby's wincing reactions to this. When the two men from the trio, Petersen (Bob Hopkins) and Frank (Mario Gallo) surprise Gunn with Emily later, Gunn's disguise doesn't last long, since Frank recognizes who he really is. Jacoby and his men burst into the room at the crucial moment, wounding Frank, who confesses everything as Jacoby threatens not to take him to the hospital.
MUSIC:
My Manne Shelly, played by Manne and his combo at the nightclub
The Floater, as Gunn and Jacoby hang out at the nightclub
Slow and Easy, as Gunn and Jacoby hang out at the nightclub

EPISODE 27: Breakout

Written by Lewis Reed; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 30 March 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Joe Taber (Frank DeKova), a man in a prison cell, is visited by a priest (Cliff Lyons), who has a gun inside of a book. Giving him the gun, the priest leaves, and Taber summons a guard, who he knocks out. Dressing as the guard, he knocks out another guard and escapes from the prison. Gunn gets a call from Taber, who has bandages all over his head. He is pretending to have been in an accident, and wants Gunn to track down his "brother" Frank Norbert (H.M. Wynant), who was actually his partner in an armed car robbery several years before which netted $300,000 and left one guard dead. Gunn shares his suspicions with Sergeant Raymond at the police station (Jacoby is busy), who directs him to a barber shop run by Norbert which is a front. At this barber shop, Gunn gets the runaround. Mother knows that Norbert has gone underground; and after making some calls, find out that Norbert's father runs a restaurant. About to get into his car, Gunn is taken back to the barber shop by a couple of hoods. Once there, he gets punched around as Norbert watches. Gunn manages to escape after engaging Norbert and his thugs in a gun battle. Gunn goes to Norbert's father's restaurant, and runs into Lt. Jacoby there. The father (Tenen Holtz) is a kindly old man, who says that his son often hangs out in a room at the back of the restaurant whenever he is in trouble. He is expected there soon. Gunn makes a call to Taber, telling him where the restaurant is, and then waits with Jacoby and some cops until Taber and the guy who played the priest show up. Gunn and Jacoby listen outside the room as Taber accuses Norbert of tipping off the cops, which resulted in him going to prison. Norbert nervously gives Taber his share of the money, then whips out a gun and shoots him. Escaping through a window, Norbert drops to the street below and is shot dead by Jacoby's men, much to the dismay of his elderly father.
MUSIC:
Blues for Mother's, as Gunn and Edie chat behind the club
A couple of other unidentified tracks as Gunn arrives at the father's restaurant and as Norbert escapes at the end

EDIE SINGS:
How About You, by Ralph Freed and Burton Lane

TRIVIA:
The teaser is without dialogue.
Taber making up a story about being in a car accident (which surely would have been reported to the police if his injuries were so severe) is pretty fishy.
Very interesting photography when Taber encounters Norbert at the end, with closeups of both men.
At the father's restaurant, there are prices for what are presumably sandwiches: Ham 45 cents, Egg 35 cents, Sardine 35 cents and Grilled Cheese 30 cents.

EPISODE 28: Pay Now, Kill Later

Written by Lester Aaron Pine; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 6 April 1959

SYNOPSIS:

This episode is different, to say the least. First of all, it starts in Manchester, England in 1945. A chemist named Wilcox (John Abbott) is perfecting a formula for a miracle fibre. He hires a bum (John O'Malley) who is similar to himself in appearance to help him in his lab, then dresses the bum like himself, knocks him out and blows up the lab. Following this, Wilcox goes underground, fleeing to the States and taking the formula with him. The owner of the factory, Gregory Spain (Colin Thatcher) has to take the rap for what is seemingly Wilcox's death (must be pretty sloppy police work by Scotland Yard) and serves 14 years in Dartmoor Prison. When Spain is released, around the time of this show (1959), he goes to the States, where he hires Peter Gunn to track down Wilcox (Gunn's fame is such that people in England recommend him to Spain). Gunn enlists the help of a couple of two crazy-talking fabric merchants, Joe and Jack (Vito Scotti and Louis Quinn respectively) to track down Wilcox, who now goes under the name of Blankenship. Blankenship is the boss of a factory in a nearby city, and Gunn meets him by pretending to be a representative from the Men's Clothing Journal. When he reports back to Spain that he has found Blankenship, Spain is off to get his revenge on his former employee. Gunn phones Jacoby to alert him to the impending murder (there are interesting issues with double jeopardy here, Spain thinking he cannot be tried for the same crime -- the murder of Wilcox/Blankenship -- twice). Blankenship is actually attending a textile show in Gunn's city, and he and Jacoby head there. So does Spain, who soon figures out that Blankenship is not at the factory. The final scenes are bizarre. A fight reminiscent of Blake Edwards' The Great Race takes place at the textile show, where there are elaborate displays of cloth and other things like a waterfall, not to mention scantily-dressed bimbos like you would find at a car show. Spain tells Wilcox he wants to kill him because he convinced him and his friends to invest in the new product, then stole the money and fled to America with the formula -- not to mention the time that Spain spent in prison. Despite their efforts to stop him, Spain shoots Wilcox dead as he swings across the room on a rope similar to Tarzan! Spain is taken away by Jacoby.
MUSIC:
The fight at the end is accompanied by some music similar to Blue Steel.

TRIVIA:
There are three screens of cast credits.
The opening music is Fallout!, which is incongruous considering the English setting. It might have been more effective if Mancini had come up with an "English" version of the tune, maybe featuring a harpsichord or some such instrument.
Wilcox blows up the factory by using a plunger which is hooked up to dynamite sticks in the lab. But he drives a considerable distance away and there is a lengthy piece of wire between the plunger and the dynamite. Does he "reel this in" later?
Veteran character actor William Schallert has a small role as a Vice President in Blankenship's company.
A calendar in the factory shows August 1, 1945 to be a Monday. This is not correct -- it was a Wednesday.

EPISODE 29: Skin Deep

Written by Tony & Steffi Barrett; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 13 April 1959

SYNOPSIS:

As the show opens, blonde Katie Mears is clubbed to death with a fireplace poker as she is lying on a couch and flirting on the phone. In the next scene, Katie's sister Helena hires Gunn to find Katie, who she says has disappeared. She describes Katie as "independent, friendly and not discriminating about people." Gunn checks out a flower shop where Katie worked. The swishy owner, Floyd Landau (Hal Smith), tells Gunn that Katie just disappeared and never returned to pick up her last check. A tip from Floyd leads Gunn to one of Katie's boyfriends, Ramon Corrado (Eduardo Noriega), a musclebound gigolo type who tells Gunn to get lost. Gunn visits Miguel (Jose Gonzalez-Gonzalez), the owner of a Mexican restaurant where Laurindo Almeida is the guest musician. Miguel tells Gunn he knows Ramon and doesn't like him very much. Information from Miguel leads to a lonely hearts club run by Clarissa Holt (Muriel Landers), a buxon woman with a small dog named Lambert. Gunn is interested to see that a picture of Katie Mears on a page in Ramon's "date book" at the club as actually that of Helena. After he leaves the club, Gunn is brutally attacked by a couple of thugs hired by Ramon who have been following him. At the police station, Gunn shares his theories about the case with Detective Harmon (Willard Sage), who has taken over while Lt. Jacoby is out of town. Later, at Helena's house, Gunn sees Helena and Roman going into the house together. Figuring that Ramon was playing both the rich Helena and the "poor" Katie, Gunn confronts him at his apartment, suggesting that Ramon is responsible for Katie's disappearance. When Ramon denies this, Gunn realizes that Helen found about the relationship between Katie and Ramon, and when Katie wouldn't "let go," killed her. Gunn sets up an elaborate ruse with the flower shop, Miguel's and Mother's, getting Helena to believe that Katie is still alive. When Helena returns to her house and frantically starts digging in the yard where she buried Katie, Gunn is there to nab her.
MUSIC:
A one-minute-long solo played by Laurindo Almeida at Miguel's
Unidentified cut at the end as Helena digs up her sister's body, reminiscent of Fallout!

BEST LINE:
Edie's reaction to reading her fortune in the cards: "According to this, I should be with Lawrence Welk."

TRIVIA:
A photo of one of Ramon's "conquests" on his dresser is the same as that of Sharon Moore on the desk of Al Matson in the episode Rough Buck earlier this season.

EPISODE 30: February Girl

Teleplay by Lewis Reed & Robert C. Dennis; Story by Robert C. Dennis; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 20 April 1959

SYNOPSIS:

June Holton (Fintan Meyler) arrives at the apartment of photographer Michael Delak (Tony Russo), intent on killing him, because of the way he treated her sister Barbara. During a passionate kiss from Delak which she resists, June's glasses are knocked off, and when Delak is shot dead a few seconds later by someone coming out of his kitchen, June cannot see who did it. Later, Gunn is summoned to Mother's by Edie to talk to June, who is her friend. June gives a story to Gunn which he doesn't believe a word of. He finally coaxes the truth out of her, which is that Delak was responsible for her sister's death after he jilted her and the sister killed herself. June thinks that another boyfriend of her sister's, Tiny Truex (Mark Allen), may be responsible. Gunn goes to a nightclub where Tiny is the trumpet player in a combo which also features a baritone sax. When he grills Tiny about his past relationship with Barbara, Tiny (who is a huge man) tells him that he would have killed Delak for what he did to Barbara, but then gets upset and almost breaks a chair over Gunn's head. Gunn talks to a ballet teacher Stashek Konopa (Leonid Kinskey) as to who might have been acquainted with Delak. Stashek suggests Gunn talk to Rector (Frank Maxwell), an alcoholic newspaperman who was Delak's friend. Gunn meets Rector at a bar and finds out that Delak was friends with a lot of young ladies and had a "little black book." Gunn goes to Delak's apartment where he attempts to find the book, but encounters the killer, who takes several shots at Gunn and then flees. Gunn convinces June to accompany him to Rector's office, where she recognizes the journalist as the man she encountered at Delak's apartment (how she can do this, considering she is almost blind without her glasses, is difficult to understand). Rector explains that he killed Delak because he was fooling around with his wife, who subsequently left him. Rector grabs his revolver and trades shots with Gunn, but eventually is disarmed.
MUSIC:
Blues for Mother's, as Gunn arrives at the club to see what Edie wants
A Quiet Gass, when Edie returns to the dressing room after finishing her song
Joanna, played on piano as Gunn talks to Rector at the bar
Unidentified track as Gunn arrives at the apartment to snoop around
Blues for Mother's again, as Gunn hangs out with Edie at the end of the show

EDIE SINGS:
Too Marvellous for Words, by Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer (heard in the background as Gunn talks to June)

EPISODE 31: Love Me to Death

Written by Lester Aaron Pine; Directed by Jack Arnold
Original Air Date - 27 April 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Quality takes a dive in this episode about two elderly sisters, Willma and Irma Goffrey (Helen Wallace and Ellen Corby respectively) who get Gunn to investigate the new boyfriend of their gullible sister Maggie (Jeanette Nolan), who they think is going to take advantage of her or cause her harm. The women drive around in an antique car, and their attorney, equally elderly, is named James Bond (Lucien Littlefield). We already know that the boyfriend, Henry Bowers (Robert H. Harris) is a baddie, because in the teaser he is seen killing his previous wife by flooding the basement in their house, then fixing the swinging light bulb above so when she touches it, she gets electrocuted. (Why the wife would touch the light bulb under these circumstances makes you wonder.) By talking to some of his informants, Gunn discovers that Bowers has spent time in jail for blackmai. In a confrontation with Maggie and Henry where Gunn is present, the two sisters make threats to have her committed, or at least cut off from her portion of their considerable estate. Maggie says she doesn't care, that she is in love for the first time. Shortly after this, Wilma is out driving and is killed when the car's brakes fail. (It also looks like the front wheel is about to fall off. The accident, with the car tipping over on its right side, is not what you would expect for a brake failure.) Following this, Gunn's car is almost hit by a Molotov cocktail as he parks outside of Mother's. (Note that Gunn actually parks too far forward, in front of a fire hydrant, then backs up, too close to the corner. You would think that he would know how to park in this location.) More and more suspicion is falling on Bowers, especially after Gunn talks to the cops, who tell him that Bowers has been suspected in five different cities in relation to the death of five different wives. As Gunn is talking to Maggie at The Blue Funnel Club about what he has learned, they get a call that Irma has been found dead after the gas went out in her room in their mansion. Maggie tells Gunn and Bond that she will go to Reno and get a divorce. But Gunn follows her around town (he calls Lt. Jacoby from a phone in his car as he pursues her) and knows that she wants to get together with Bowers, who Maggie said went to Miami. Gunn tracks her to some house that Bowers has rented where he tells Bowers the cops are on their way to talk to him. Bowers protests his innocence, despite all the circumstantial evidence concerning his previous wives. Just then Maggie pulls out a gun and says that Gunn was too much like her sisters who liked to "pry and interfere." Having a brainstorm similar to Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-O years later, Gunn realizes that it was Maggie who killed her sisters. Calling her a "stupid clod," Bowers tells her to put the gun down. She shoots at Bowers from only a few feet away, and misses. In the ensuing confusion, Bowers picks up a lamp to throw it at her, and gets electrocuted because he "grounded the lamp through the TV set, some 16,000 volts," according to Gunn, proving that Bowers really did intend to kill her. When Gunn asks Maggie how she knew about things like how to cut the brakes on her sister's car and Molotov cocktails, she replies, "Mr. Gunn, I've spent my whole life ... reading." Lame!
MUSIC:
Goofin' at the Coffee House, after Edie's song at Mother's
Lightly, as Gunn talks to Bowers behind Mother's after the attempt to firebomb his car

EDIE SINGS:
Straight to Baby, an original Mancini tune with music by Livingstone and Evans, featured on Lola Albright's Columbia LP Dreamsville

TRIVIA:
Whether the name of the attorney -- James Bond -- is an in-joke relating to the Ian Fleming novels a good question. The Bond movies had not yet appeared when this show was broadcast.

EPISODE 32: The Family Affair

Teleplay by Lewis Reed & P.K. Palmer; Story by Blake Edwards; Directed by Lamont Johnson
Original Air Date - 4 May 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Another episode concerning rich folks, this time the elderly B.E. Raleigh (John Hoyt), who lives in a house surrounded by antiques, including suits of armor and weapons. After a halberd (a two-handed pole weapon) falls from the ceiling and almost kills him, Raleigh gives Gunn a call. Despite the fact that he only has a few months to live, Raleigh fears that his nephew Martin is going to kill him, especially after having received a threatening letter to this effect. Years before he gave Martin a job, who repaid his uncle's generosity by stealing $100,000. For this, Martin ended up in jail and was released only a few days before. Raleigh is surrounded by a retinue of people, including Mr. Collins (Allan Hewitt), his secretary who considers his boss to be like a father to him, Miss Kelvin (Meg Wyllie), a giggly nurse, and Emil (Reggie Nalder), a creepy German-accented butler. At Mother's, Gunn gets a lead on Virginia Carter (Bek Nelson) with the help of house pianist Emmett. He used to know Martin, who played guitar with Mother's combo on a couple of occasions. Gunn also gets a phone call from Martin threatening to kill his uncle, then kill himself. Gunn rushes back to the old man's house, only to find him dead. Gunn verbally spars with Emil, while Collins is shaken up by the murder. Gunn leaves to go to Virginia's place, where he finds that she is a photographer who wants to get him into the darkroom. She tells him that Martin "always had trouble," specifically "rich uncle trouble" because his uncle was always changing his will. Gunn goes to Martin's place, where he finds the nephew dead by his own hand. Returning to B.E. Raleigh's house, Gunn confronts Collins, throwing various accusations at him, suggesting that Collins forged Martin's signature on the threatening letter, plus the fact that the suicide weapon at Martin's was in the nephew's right hand, whereas Martin played a left-handed guitar. Collins finally snaps under Gunn's grilling, which leads to a terrific fight in the room full of antiquities, including with swords. Collins is finally done in when he falls backward on to some sharp object.
MUSIC:
A combo tune as Gunn flirts with Edie at Mother's
Goofin' at the Coffee House, as Gunn visits Virginia at her studio
A couple of other tracks which are not on the Peter Gunn LPs

BEST LINE:
Gunn: "In a case of murder, I always try to keep an open mind."

POSSIBLE GOOF:
After the old man is found dead, Gunn has a curious line to Collins: "If they find that threatening letter that Martin Raleigh sent to his brother, Martin will probably be the principal suspect." But it wasn't his brother that Martin sent the letter to, but his uncle.

EPISODE 33: Lady Wind Bell's Fan

Written by William Spier; Directed by Walter E. Grauman
Original Air Date - 11 May 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Silent Sy (Vic Perrin, later the announcer for The Outer Limits), a crippled deaf-mute who sells pencils in Chinatown, enters Wong's Importing, a curio shop, and wants to have a fan that is on display. When the owner (William Yip) wants him to pay $10,000 for it, Sy grabs a knife and stabs him to death, taking the fan. Later, in the Green Dragon restaurant, Peter Gunn and Edie watch an exotic dance performed by Lillian Quon (Frances Fong), narrated by her boyfriend Johnny Chang (James Hong), who owns the place. Johnny, who is friends with Sy, called Gunn there because of a potential problem with the fan which was left in Lillian's dressing room recently, after which she received some peculiar phone calls. Gunn finds out that Chang-Li-Chang (Richard Hale), Johnny's father, regarded as the "unofficial mayor of Chinatown," is totally opposed to the marriage between his son and Lillian, whom he considers a "wicked dancing girl." Gunn wants to take the fan, but when he sees some thug going towards Lillian's dressing room, he follows him and after the thug steals the fan, a fight follows. Later, Johnny tells Gunn that Sy is devoted to Lillian because she chased away some punks who were hassling him because of his disability. On his way out of the club, Gunn is followed by some other thug (the same one, identified by Johnny earlier, who tried to steal the fan from Lillian a few days before). He eventually takes Gunn to see Johnny's father. The old man talks to Gunn in a very deferential manner, saying that he wants the fan "to avoid further bloodshed over object of inconsiderable worth." He drugs Gunn to knock him out and see if he has the fan with him (he does not). Later, Gunn wakes up in front of Mother's in his car. Gunn puts two and two together when he considers some pieces of paper that the old man gave him, taken from the curio shop after Wong's murder. These papers were typical of the way Sy communicated with people, by writing down what he wanted to say. Returning to the club, Gunn makes Sy break his silence by talking about the papers in a loud voice, confronting Sy with his writing and making a noise like a gunshot. Sy tells Gunn that he found out some dirt about Johnny's father which he was going to reveal in order to soften the old man's stance on Lillian. Sy took some Chinese newspapers with details about Chang-Li-Chang being a convict in Chicago in 1905, and used them to make the fan. The show closes at the father's house, with Gunn explaining that Lillian is not at fault, it was all Sy's doing because of his affection for her. But at the end, Gunn gives the fan to Sy -- evidence in the murder case against him -- to burn in the fireplace!
MUSIC:
A very cool rendition of Fallout!, featuring vibes and piano solo
Joanna, heard on piano in the background at the Green Dragon, as well as September in the Rain by Al Dubin and Harry Warren
Weird music with vibes as Gunn is drugged by Johnny's father
Various exotic music heard quietly in the background at Chang-Li-Chang's house

BEST LINES:
Chang-Li-Chang to Gunn: Oh, you do not read Chinese?
Gunn: One of my many failings.

TRIVIA:
1905 is identified as the "Year of the Serpent." This is actually correct, it lasted from 4 February 1905 – 24 January 1906.
I don't understand Wong's reluctance to give Sy the fan ... has Sy left it there like in a pawnshop and wants to redeem it, but Wong figured out its true value?
This show is unusually violent: Wong is brutally stabbed in the teaser; the fight with Gunn outside Lillian's dressing room is extremely nasty; and when the thug following Gunn loses him and tries to phone Chang-Li-Chang by using a public phone, Gunn pushes the whole phone booth over.
During the fight outside the dressing room, Gunn starts to come down a spiral staircase, and kicks the thug, who falls back on to the floor. But then instead of coming down the stairs to continue the fight, Gunn goes UP the staircase, and seemingly jumps down from a high position on the staircase to the floor below. There is a hilarious scene after this fight. Gunn picks up a small piece of a mirror which got broken, props it up, and then looks in it while he straightens his tie.
After he leaves the club, Gunn seems to snoop in the second thug's car, perhaps trying to find out who he is.
Richard Hale, who plays Johnny's father, was a white guy who specialized in playing "exotic" parts like native Indians and Asians. He wears a bizarre outfit which makes him look like Fu Manchu, including long fingernails. His dialogue is very stereotypically "Chinese."
Check the lighting as Gunn and the second thug arrive at Johnny's father's house. First they are behind a paper screen and all you see is their silhouette; then there is a window frame projected on the back wall which looks highly reminiscent of German expressionist movies of the 1920s!

EPISODE 34: Bullet for a Badge

Written by Tony & Steffi Barrett; Directed by Jack Arnold
Original Air Date - 18 May 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Lt. Jacoby gets a tip from a hood (Paul Baxley) working for racketeering boss Vincent Donniger (Berry Kroeger). The hood wants to meet him outside the police station. When Jacoby leaves the building, he is gunned down on the street. Gunn visits Jacoby in the hospital; as he leaves he is shadowed by the hood. Mother tells Gunn that she has been making some calls, and figured out that the order for knocking off Jacoby came from "way up." A woman who came to Mother's earlier, anxious to see Gunn, returns, but she leaves again when Donniger suddenly shows up. Gunn visits locksmith Alfie Hicks (Richard Peel), who saw the hit on Jacoby, but is too scared to come to police headquarters to look through the mug books. Gunn manages to convince Sergeant Johnny Davis (Morris Erby) to let him take the mug books to Alfie's shop, but when he returns, Alfie is lying on the floor, near death. Following this, Gunn finds himself forced at gunpoint to talk to Donniger, who tells Gunn "you're no bigger than a bullet." Gunn laughs at him, saying "a hood's always a hood." Visiting Jacoby in the hospital again, Gunn wonders who would want him knocked off. Jacoby suggests that if anyone on the force would deal with Donniger, it would be Capt. Ben Loomis (Robert F. Simon), who Gunn encountered earlier at the hospital. Gunn goes to Loomis's house, but the door is opened by the woman who came to Mother's earlier. She is terrified, and doesn't want to tell Gunn anything. It turns out that she is Dora Loomis (Lillian Buyeff), the captain's middle-aged daughter. Loomis arrives home shortly after, victim of a beating by Donniger's thug. A 25-year veteran of the force, he tells Gunn that he has been on the take for the past 3 years, trying to make enough money to let his daughter -- who was taking care of him after the death of his wife -- leave home. Loomis tells Gunn it is likely that Jacoby was shot because he was going to be promoted by the District Attorney to take over the case against Donniger, and the gangster knew that, unlike Loomis, Jacoby could not be bought. Loomis gets a call from the cop who is guarding Jacoby at the hospital, saying he is suspicious about a car driving around the block. When he and Gunn arrive at the hospital, there is a gunfight where Donniger's thug is shot dead just as he is about to go in the front door of the building. Unfortunately, during the shooting, Loomis is also fatally injured.
MUSIC:
Lightly as Gunn talks to Edie after her song
Unidentified track as Gunn arrives at Loomis's house
Dreamsville, at the end, as Jacoby falls asleep

EDIE SINGS:
You're Driving Me Crazy! (What Did I Do?) by Walter Donaldson
Straight to Baby, from Albright's Dreamsville LP

TRIVIA:
After Jacoby is shot, it is surprising that his wife does not visit him in hospital. (Jacoby wears a wedding band.)
Jacoby has been on the force for 15 years.
The amount of cigarette smoke in Mother's as Edie sings is unreal!
This is the first appearance of Sgt. Davis, who is black.
The motiviation for Loomis to take the money in order to live independently from his daughter is not particularly clear. He describes his daughter to Gunn as a "drudge."

EPISODE 35: Kill From Nowhere

Written by Tony & Steffi Barrett; Directed Lamont Johnson
Original Air Date - 25 May 1959

SYNOPSIS:

Joe Scully (Wesley Lau) is a male nurse who has been looking after the invalid Louise Reardon (Mary Alan Hokanson) for three years, ever since she was released from a sanitarium. Scully's wife Gloria (Cece Whitney) got him to set up Louise to change her will so that he was included, but then Joe found himself falling in love with Louise. When he asked his wife for a divorce, she did not take this too well. At the beginning of the show, Keller, who owns the garage where Gloria works, seriously injures Louise by climbing up a utility pole outside her house and shooting her with Joe's gun after tricking her to come to her window. Shortly after, Scully disappears, but Gunn gets a tip from a the near-incomprehensible Irishman Sean (Terence de Marney), which leads to a flophouse room above the Weary Rest Mission where Scully has been hiding for the last few days. After Scully escapes from Gunn, Sean gives a further tip to go and talk to Gloria at Keller's garage where Gloria expresses her contempt for her husband. Keller tries to run Gunn over outside Mother's. When Gunn returns to the garage, he finds Scully rifling through the till, trying to get some money to live on. He tells Gunn that his wife is rich, because she would have profited from Louise's will even if he had gone to jail (I don't know about this -- as Jacoby says near the end, "a man cannot profit from his own crimes"). Louise and Keller show up and are about to take Scully and Gunn away when Gunn hits Keller, who gets shot with his own gun. Scully wants to kill his wife, but Gunn talks him out of it. This show was far too complicated, and required far too many viewings!
MUSIC:
A Quiet Gass, when Gunn talks to Sean behind Mother's
Unidentified track when Gunn enters the garage, prior to meeting Scully near the end

EDIE SINGS:
How About You, by Ralph Freed and Burton Lane

TRIVIA:
Why is it that no one in the neighborhood sees Keller shooting at Louise from the pole?
There is a lot of background noise as Gunn talks to Jacoby about the case in the hospital, where Jacoby is still recovering from his wounds received in the previous episode.

EPISODE 36: Vendetta

Teleplay by Lewis Reed; Story by Herschel Bernardi; Directed by Jack Arnold
Original Air Date - 1 June 1959

SYNOPSIS:

A couple of thugs bust their way into Mother's after hours and shoot Edie in the shoulder, saying "Tell Gunn the three years are up." Gunn visits Edie in the hospital, who is just as flirtatious as ever, and then Jacoby, who is still recovering from his injuries. Jacoby tells Gunn he has heard that gangster Max Grayco, recently released from jail where he was sent three years ago with Gunn's help, is behind the hit. Jacoby warns Gunn not to get involved and let the police do the investigating, but Gunn will not listen. Gunn gets a threatening letter on his car window, and then goes to a nightclub where Grayco had an interest (and where trumpeter Pete Candoli is the guest artist). Gunn doesn't mince words with the oily thug who is the manager there (Al Ruscio), but doesn't get any information as to Grayco's whereabouts. Gunn visits with Wolfgang von Hitzen (Fritz Feld), a speech teacher, who knows exactly where Grayco wants to meet Gunn -- in a "river warehouse." Arriving at this location, Gunn is tricked by the a tape recording of Grayco's voice, and when he climbs up to a platform where the recorder is located, one of Grayco's thugs knocks the ladder down and starts shooting. Gunn jumps down after throwing a net on the guy and is just about to finish him off when a cop shows up. Back at the police station, Sergeant Davis reads Gunn the riot act about taking matters into his own hands, saying he could be booked for attempted murder. When he talks to Jacoby on the phone, Gunn promises to lay off and go home. Of course, when he arrives at his apartment, one of Grayson's hoods is there, and he takes Gunn to an abandoned amusement park to meet with Grayco. In an exciting finale, Gunn overpowers the hood and fights with Grayco on the merry-go-round in a sequence highly reminiscent of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. When it's all over, Gunn joins Edie at the hospital.
MUSIC:
Solo played by Pete Candoli, who played with Mancini not only on his albums, but in his orchestral concerts as well
Some cool music highlighted by percussion, guitar and vibes (with echo effects) as Gunn hears Grayco's voice on the tape recorder in the warehouse
A sequence similar to Blue Steel as Gunn fights with the thug at the warehouse
A Quiet Gass as Gunn hangs out with Edie in the hospital at the end of the show

BEST LINE:
Wolfgang to Gunn: "Your dipthongs are revolting!"

TRIVIA:
Jacoby is reading a magazine in his hospital bed, the title of which looks like "Beaver" (or "Heaven"!). The cover of this magazine, which Jacoby says he is "reading for a friend," has a picture of two cops looking at the buried body of a woman which is covered by a tarpaulin or some sheets.

EPISODE 37: The Coffin

Written by Lewis Reed; Directed by Lamont Johnson
Original Air Date - 8 June 1959

SYNOPSIS:

After a man is murdered during an Brantford Payroll Service armored car robbery, Gunn gets a visit at Mother's from the man's sister, Maria DeCara (Miriam Colon). She wants her brother's body transported to her family in Mexico, but can't accompany it herself, because of bad feelings between her and her father. Gunn takes the job, but when he arrives in Mexico, he is questioned by Captain Noriega (Rodolfo Hoyos) of the Mexican Federal Police. When he finally meets up with Maria's father, the scar-faced Ramon DeCara (Anthony Caruso) who is anxious to get the claim ticket for the coffin. Gunn says that he left this ticket with the police, and when DeCara and his secretary Felix Montero (Robert Tafur) press him, he escapes out of their car and back to the airport. Bribing a guard to let him in the storage room, Gunn opens up the coffin, only to find it full of money from the armored car robbery. Captain Noriega shows up, wondering briefly if Gunn knew that he was transporting the loot. With Noriega's help, Gunn sets himself up as a decoy in a Mexican bar where there is a hot female dancer (Elvera Corona). Montero and some thug show up and Gunn gives them the claim check after they threaten to kill him. They return later, obviously having discovered the now-empty coffin, and take Gunn to Ramon DeCara's, where Maria is also present. She turns out to be the boss of the gang. Gunn says he wants $100,000 to turn over the robbery money to them. Convincing Maria to disarm Montera and the other thug, as they are about to leave, Gunn fights with the two of them and Ramon. Noriega and his men, who have followed Gunn to this location, break into the room, but they take their time arresting everyone, because, as Noriega tells Gunn, "I just wanted to see some old American know-how."
MUSIC:
Slow and Easy, as Gunn talks to Maria at Mother's; also at the end as Gunn and Edie smooch
Unidentified track as Gunn opens the coffin in the storage room

EDIE SINGS:
Brief and Breezy by Sammy Cahn and Mancini, heard on Lola Albright's Dreamsville album

TRIVIA:
Despite the fact that Edie was shot in the shoulder in the previous episode, she seems none the worse for wear in this one.
The shot of Gunn's American Airlines plane supposedly heading to Mexico looks like it might be flying over New York City.
There are some very coolly choreographed necking scenes between Gunn and Edie in this show.

EPISODE 38: The Portrait

Written by Irwin Winehouse & A. Sanford Wolf; Directed by Boris Sagal
Original Air Date - 15 June 1959

SYNOPSIS:

After artist Luther Russ (Peter Opp) is shot dead as two men steal a painting from his gallery, Gunn gets a visit from Elsa Linden Keys (Hanna Landy), wife of a state senator. It turns out that Elsa was having an affair with Russ, and he painted her portrait (the implication being that it is a nude). She wants Gunn to find out who took it, and to get it back, to avoid a scandal with her husband. When Gunn goes to Russ's gallery, he encounters Sabrina (Jackie Joseph), who is practising meditation and wants to explore Gunn's "cosmic vibrations." He resists, and finds his way to Wilbur's coffee house, where Capri is doing a doped-out abstract dance to the accompaniment of a flute and antique cymbals while others play chess. Wilbur bought several of Russ's paintings, but the one of Keys was too much "in demand." He refers Gunn to two hoodlums, Maddox (William D. Gordon) and Shaw (William Benedict). Arriving at their deserted warehouse, Gunn is told they have the portrait, but they want $5,000 for it, and within an hour. Gunn pumps Babby, the "little man" for more information at the pool hall where he hangs out, and finds out that Frankie Barber (Frank Behrens), a crooked building contractor, is also interested in the portrait. When he returns to Maddox and Shaw's, Gunn finds Barber there. He engages in a bidding war with the sweaty Barber, who pulls a gun and shoots both of the crooks. Gunn chases him out of the building, which leads to a spectacular stunt as Gunn leaps into Barber's moving car, which then runs into a pile of boxes. Two cops that Gunn tipped off pull up, and take Barber away.
MUSIC:
A Quiet Gass, as Gunn and Edie flirt at Mother's
The Little Man Theme, as Gunn enlists the assistance of Babby
Blue Steel, as Gunn fights with the thugs at the end

EDIE SINGS:
Just You, Just Me by Raymond Klages and Jesse Greer
Straight to Baby, from Albright's Dreamsville album

BEST LINES:
Gunn: Wilbur, At the risk of offending you...
Wilbur: Offend me, daddy? I thrive on adversity!

Babby (to Gunn): Think tall!
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