21 Beacon Street

21 Beacon Street is an American detective television series that originally aired on NBC from July 2 to September 10, 1959.

21 Beacon Street
Dennis Morgan and Joanna Barnes
StarringDennis Morgan, Joanna Barnes, Brian Kelly and James Maloney
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time25 minutes
Production companyFilmways
Release
Original networkNBC

Produced by Filmways,[1] the summer replacement series for The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show[2]: 146  consisted of 11 black-and-white 30-minute episodes. The show starred Dennis Morgan as private investigator Dennis Chase. Other cast members included Joanna Barnes, Brian Kelly, and James Maloney.[3]

The series pilot was broadcast as an episode of Panic!.[2]: 146  The show aired on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Reruns were broadcast on ABC-TV on Sundays at 10:30 p.m. from December 1959 to March 1960.[3]

Leonard Heideman was the show's creator.[2] The series' first episode was "The Rub-Out".[4]

Premises

Dennis Chase was a private investigator with an office on 21 Beacon Street, in an unspecified city.[3] Chase was aided by Joanna Barnes as Lola, who was a combination of beauty and brains. She was able to glean information and then act as a decoy. Brian Kelly was Brian, a young law school graduate; and James Maloney played Jim, an expert on dialects, as well as a skilled craftsman.[5]

Chase and his assistants worked to discover who the criminals were, but then notified the police to come and apprehend the law breakers.[3]

Forerunner to Mission Impossible

The producers of Mission: Impossible were sued for plagiarism by the creators of 21 Beacon Street. The suit was settled out of court. Bruce Geller claimed never to have seen the earlier show; Beacon Street's story editor and pilot scripter, Laurence Heath, would later write several episodes of Mission: Impossible.[6]

References
  1. Irvin, Richard The Forgotten Desi and Lucy TV Projects, Bear Manor Media, 2020
  2. Irvin, Richard (2014). George Burns Television Productions: The Series and Pilots, 1950-1981. McFarland. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-4766-1621-6. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  3. Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946 – Present Ballantine Books, 1979, page 647
  4. Cain, Ira (July 2, 1959). "New Cop-Crook Series to Premiere". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Texas, Fort Worth. p. 28. Retrieved May 3, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 21 Beacon Street Is New Half Hour Crime Series, The Modesto Bee, June 28, 1959, page 41
  6. White, Patrick J (1991), The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier, New York: Avon Books, pp. 8–9, ISBN 978-0380758777, OCLC 24914321


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