Johnny Staccato
Encyclopedia
Johnny Staccato is an American private detective series
which ran for 27 episodes on NBC
from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960.
, is a jazz
pianist
/private detective. The setting for many episodes is a Greenwich Village
jazz club
belonging to his friend, Waldo, played by Eduardo Ciannelli
. The show featured many musicians, such as Barney Kessel
, Shelly Manne
, Red Mitchell
, Red Norvo
, and Johnny Williams
. (Ironically, given the show's New York setting, all of these men were closely identified with the West Coast jazz
scene, as the show was filmed largely in Los Angeles.) Elmer Bernstein
composed the main theme and Stanley Wilson
was music supervisor. Cassavetes also directed some of the episodes.
After its initial airing on NBC, ABC
presented reruns of the series from March 27 to September 25, 1960.
On October 12, 2010, the series was released on Region 1 DVD by Timeless Media Group.
's sitcom, The Real McCoys
, created by Irving Pincus
and starring Walter Brennan
, Richard Crenna
, and Kathleen Nolan
, and CBS's western
series, Johnny Ringo
, starring Don Durant
and Mark Goddard
.
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
which ran for 27 episodes on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960.
Synopsis
Title character Johnny Staccato, played by John CassavetesJohn Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
, is a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
/private detective. The setting for many episodes is a Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
jazz club
Jazz club
A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music. Jazz clubs have been in large rooms in the eras of Orchestral jazz and big band jazz and when its popularity as a dance music was common...
belonging to his friend, Waldo, played by Eduardo Ciannelli
Eduardo Ciannelli
Eduardo Ciannelli, sometimes credited as Edward Ciannelli, , was an Italian baritone and character actor with a long career in American films, mostly playing gangsters and criminals.-Early life:...
. The show featured many musicians, such as Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel
Barney Kessel was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. Generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century, he was noted in particular for his vast knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies...
, Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...
, Red Mitchell
Red Mitchell
Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell (September 20, 1927, New York City - November 8, 1992, Salem, Oregon, was an American jazz double-bassist, composer, lyricist, and poet. He was the brother of Whitey Mitchell....
, Red Norvo
Red Norvo
Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists, known as "Mr. Swing". He helped establish the xylophone, marimba and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments...
, and Johnny Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
. (Ironically, given the show's New York setting, all of these men were closely identified with the West Coast jazz
West coast jazz
West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...
scene, as the show was filmed largely in Los Angeles.) Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
composed the main theme and Stanley Wilson
Stanley Wilson (musician)
Stanley Wilson was an American musical conductor, arranger and film composer.-Career:A native of New York City, Wilson was one of the prolific collaborators in the Hollywood music industry for more than three decades...
was music supervisor. Cassavetes also directed some of the episodes.
After its initial airing on NBC, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
presented reruns of the series from March 27 to September 25, 1960.
On October 12, 2010, the series was released on Region 1 DVD by Timeless Media Group.
Notable guest stars
- Warren BerlingerWarren BerlingerWarren Berlinger is an American character actor, with both Broadway runs and over a thousand television appearances to his credit.-Personal life:...
- Geraldine BrooksGeraldine Brooks (actor)Geraldine Brooks was an American actress whose three-decade career on stage as well as in films and on television was noted with nominations for an Emmy in 1962 and a Tony in 1970....
- Walter BurkeWalter BurkeWalter Burke was a prolific Irish-American character actor, of stage, film, and television. His small stature, and distinctive voice and face, made him easily recognizable in even the most minor of roles.- Early life :...
- Elisha Cook, Jr. (twice)
- Lloyd CorriganLloyd CorriganLloyd Corrigan was an American film actor, producer, screenwriter and director who began working in films in the 1920s...
- Frank DekovaFrank DekovaFrank Dekova was an Italian-American character actor.-Biography:Dekova was born in New York City and taught at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group...
- Norman FellNorman FellNorman Fell , born Norman Noah Feld, was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.-Early life:...
- Marianne GabaMarianne GabaMarianne Gaba is an American model, actress and beauty queen. She was Miss Illinois USA 1957 and Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its September 1959 issue.-Filmography:...
- Ingrid GoudeIngrid GoudeIngrid Goude is a model from Sandviken, in Gästrikland, Sweden.She became an actress in B-movie and sci-fi motion pictures of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Edward K....
- Harry GuardinoHarry GuardinoHarry Guardino was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter, a drama about a hard-hitting investigative journalist named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill as city...
- Arline HunterArline HunterArline Hunter is an American actress and model. She is perhaps best known as Playboy's Playmate of the Month for August 1954. Her centerfold was the first not to be purchased from the John Baumgarth Co...
- Martin LandauMartin LandauMartin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
- Michael LandonMichael LandonMichael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
- Cloris LeachmanCloris LeachmanCloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
- Ruta LeeRuta LeeRuta Lee is a Canadian actress and dancer who appeared as one of the brides in the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers...
- Sylvia LewisSylvia LewisSylvia Lewis is an American actress, dancer and choreographer.-Career:Sylvia Lewis was born in York, Pennsylvania. She first performed as a young child in the last days of vaudeville in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her first classical training as a scholarship student at the Peabody...
- John MarleyJohn MarleyJohn Marley was an American actor who was known for his role as Phil Cavalleri in Love Story and as Jack Woltz— the defiant film mogul who awakens to find the severed head of his prized horse in his bed—in The Godfather...
- Elizabeth MontgomeryElizabeth MontgomeryElizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and as Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.-Early life:Born in Los...
- Mary Tyler MooreMary Tyler MooreMary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
- Susan OliverSusan OliverSusan Oliver was an American actress, television director and aviator.-Early life and family:Susan Oliver was born Charlotte Gercke, the daughter of journalist George Gercke and astrology practitioner Ruth Hale Oliver, in New York City in 1932. Her parents divorced when she was still a child...
- J. Pat O'MalleyJ. Pat O'MalleyJames Patrick O'Malley was an English singer and character actor, who appeared in many American films and television programs during the 1940s–1970s, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley...
- Gena RowlandsGena RowlandsGena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...
- Vito ScottiVito ScottiVito Scotti was a veteran character actor who played many roles, primarily from the late-1940s to the mid-1990s. He was known as a man of a thousand faces, for his ability to assume so many divergent roles in more than 200 screen roles, in a nearly 50 year career. He was known for his resourceful...
- Dean StockwellDean StockwellDean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
- Nita TalbotNita TalbotNita Talbot is an American actress. Talbot was a leading lady who spent the first decade or so of her career playing "slick chicks" and sharp-witted career girls, but is perhaps best known for her role as Marya, the White Russian spy in the 1960s sitcom, Hogan's Heroes, as well as Sheila Fine in...
- Jack Weston
Production notes
Johnny Staccato aired at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursdays opposite ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's sitcom, The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys is an American situation comedy co-produced by Danny Thomas' "Marterto Productions", in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's "Westgate" company...
, created by Irving Pincus
Irving Pincus
Irving Pincus was a film and television writer and producer who created the ABC and CBS situation comedy, The Real McCoys, which aired in prime time from 1957 to 1963 and subsequently in rebroadcasts over many years....
and starring Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...
, Richard Crenna
Richard Crenna
Richard Donald Crenna was an American motion picture, television, and radio actor and occasional television director. He starred in such motion pictures as The Sand Pebbles, Wait Until Dark, Body Heat, the first three Rambo movies, Hot Shots! Part Deux, and The Flamingo Kid...
, and Kathleen Nolan
Kathleen Nolan
Kathleen Nolan is an American actress. She is sometimes confused with actress Jeanette Nolan. From 1957 to 1962, she played the role of Kate McCoy, a housewife in her late twenties, in the Walter Brennan series The Real McCoys....
, and CBS's western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series, Johnny Ringo
Johnny Ringo (TV series)
Johnny Ringo is a Western television series starring Don Durant that aired on CBS from October 1, 1959, until June 30, 1960. It was loosely based on the life of the notorious gunfighter Johnny Ringo, who tangled with Wyatt Earp, John "Doc" Holliday, and "Buckskin" Franklin Leslie.This fictional...
, starring Don Durant
Don Durant
Don Durant was an American actor and singer, best known for his role as the gunslinger-turned- sheriff in the CBS Western series Johnny Ringo, which ran on Thursdays from October 1, 1959 - June 30, 1960....
and Mark Goddard
Mark Goddard
Mark Goddard is an American film actor who has starred in a number of television programs. He portrayed Major Don West, the space adversary of Dr. Zachary Smith in the cult 1960s CBS series, Lost in Space, and Detective Sgt...
.
Episodes
- The Naked Truth
- Murder for Credit
- The Parents
- The Shop of the Four Winds
- The Nature of the Night
- Viva Paco
- Evil
- Murder in Hi Fi
- Fly, Baby, Fly !
- Tempted
- The Poet's Touch
- The Unwise Men
- A Piece of Paradise
- The Return
- Collector's Item
- Man in the Pit
- The Only Witness
- Night of the Jeopardy
- Double Feature
- The List of Death
- Solomon (aka Jessica Winthrop)
- An Act of Terror
- An Angry Young Man
- The Mask of Jason
- A Nice Little Town
- Swinging Longhair
- The Wild Reed
In popular culture
- The show was later parodied on SCTVSecond City TelevisionSecond City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
as Vic Arpeggio (portrayed by Joe FlahertyJoe FlahertyJoe Flaherty is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV, from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks...
), a saxophonist/private investigator whose cases were usually solved by accident. Arpeggio claimed to have been “framed” for drug possession, and that the detective gig was merely a sideline until he got his solo career back on track.
- Thomas PynchonThomas PynchonThomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
references Johnny Staccato in his 2009 novel Inherent ViceInherent ViceInherent Vice is a novel by Thomas Pynchon, originally published in August 2009.-Title:The term "inherent vice" is a legal tenet referring to a "hidden defect of a good or property which of itself is the cause of its deterioration, damage, or wastage...
, set in late 1960s Los Angeles. Pynchon's main character, private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello, praises Staccato as "the shamus of shamuses," ranking him with past greats Philip MarlowePhilip MarlowePhilip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
and Sam SpadeSam SpadeSam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett....
.