Peter Gunn

Peter Gunn is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

television series which aired on the 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...

and later 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...

television network

Television network

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

s from 1958 to 1961. The show's creator (and also writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

and director

Television director

A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...

on occasion) was Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

. Also directed by Robert Altman

Robert Altman

Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...

, a total of 114 thirty-minute episodes were produced.

The series is remembered most for its music, especially "The Peter Gunn Theme," which won an Emmy Award

Emmy Award

An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

and two Grammys

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

for Henry Mancini

Henry Mancini

Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...

and has become a jazz-rock standard.

The title character, portrayed by Craig Stevens

Craig Stevens (actor)

Craig Stevens was an American motion picture and television actor.-Early and personal life:Born Gail Shikles, Jr., in Liberty, Missouri, his father was a high school teacher....

, is a private investigator

Private investigator

A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...

in the classic noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

tradition (a film genre still popular at the time.) Gunn was a sophisticated hipster

Hipster (1940s subculture)

Hipster, as used in the 1940s, referred to aficionados of jazz, in particular bebop, which became popular in the early 1940s. The hipster adopted the lifestyle of the jazz musician, including some or all of the following: dress, slang, use of cannabis and other drugs, relaxed attitude, sarcastic...

; a dapper dresser who loved cool jazz

Cool jazz

Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...

. Where other gumshoes might be coarse, Peter Gunn was portrayed as the epitome of cool. He operated in a nameless waterfront city, a regular patron of Mother's (a wharfside 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...

club). His girlfriend, Edie Hart (Lola Albright

Lola Albright

Lola Jean Albright is an American singer and actress.Albright worked as a model before moving to Hollywood. She began her motion picture career with a bit part in the 1948 film The Pirate, and followed it with an important role in the acclaimed 1949 hit Champion...

), was a sultry singer employed there, and then later opened her own place. Herschel Bernardi

Herschel Bernardi

Herschel Bernardi was an American film, Broadway, and television actor....

played Lieutenant Jacoby, a police detective.

Series overview

Season	Network	№ of episodes	Premiered:	Ended:
1	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...	38	1958.09.22	1959.06.15
2	NBC	38	1959.09.21	1960.06.27
3	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...	38	1960.10.03	1961.09.18

Season 1: 1958–59

The Kill / 22.Sep.1958
Streetcar Jones / 29.Sep.1958
The Vicious Dog / 6.Oct.1958
The Blind Pianist / 13.Oct.1958
The Frog / 20.Oct.1958
The Chinese Hangman / 27.Oct.1958
Lynn's Blues / 3.Nov.1958
Rough Buck / 10.Nov.1958
Image of Sally / 17.Nov.1958
The Man with the Scar / 24.Nov.1958
Death House Testament / 1.Dec.1958
The Torch / 8.Dec.1958
The Jockey / 15.Dec.1958
Sisters of the Friendless / 22.Dec.1958
The Leaper / 29.Dec.1958
The Fuse / 5.Jan.1959
Let's Kill Timothy / 19.Jan.1959
The Missing Night Watchman / 26.Jan.1959
Murder on the Midway / 2.Feb.1959
Pecos Pete / 9.Feb.1959
Scuba / 16.Feb.1959
Edie Finds a Corpse / 23.Feb.1959
The Dirty Word / 2.Mar.1959
The Ugly Frame / 9.Mar.1959
The Lederer Story / 16.Mar.1959
Keep Smiling / 23.Mar.1959
Breakout / 30.Mar.1959
Pay Now, Kill Later / 6.Apr.1959
Skin Deep / 13.Apr.1959
February Girl / 20.Apr.1959
Love Me to Death / 27.Apr.1959
The Family Affair / 4.May.1959
Lady Wind, Bells Fan / 11.May.1959
Bullet for a Badge / 18.May.1959
Kill from Nowhere / 25.May.1959
Vendetta / 1.Jun.1959
The Coffin / 8.Jun.1959
The Portrait / 15.Jun.1959

Season 2: 1959–60

Protection / 21.Sep.1959
Crisscross / 28.Sep.1959
Edge of the Knife / 5.Oct.1959
The Comic / 12.Oct.1959
Death Is a Red Rose / 19.Oct.1959
The Young Assassins / 26.Oct.1959
The Feathered Doll / 2.Nov.1959
Kidnap / 16.Nov.1959
The Rifle / 23.Nov.1959
The Game / 30.Nov.1959
The Price Is Murder / 7.Dec.1959
The Briefcase / 14.Dec.1959
Terror on the Campus / 21.Dec.1959
The Wolfe Case / 28.Dec.1959
Hot Money / 4.Jan.1960
Spell of Murder / 11.Jan.1960
The Grudge / 18.Jan.1960
Fill the Cup / 25.Jan.1960
See No Evil / 1.Feb.1960
Sentenced / 8.Feb.1960
The Hunt / 15.Feb.1960
Hollywood Calling / 29.Feb.1960
Sing a Song of Murder / 7.Mar.1960
The Long, Long Ride / 14.Mar.1960
The Deadly Proposition / 21.Mar.1960
The Murder Clause / 28.Mar.1960
The Dummy / 4.Apr.1960
Slight Touch of Homicide / 11.Apr.1960
Wings of an Angel / 18.Apr.1960
Death Watch / 25.Apr.1960
Witness in the Window / 2.May.1960
The Best Laid Plans / 9.May.1960
Send a Thief / 16.May.1960
The Semi-Private Eye / 23.May.1960
Letter of the Law / 30.May.1960
The Crossbow / 6.Jun.1960
The Heiress / 13.Jun.1960
Baby Shoes / 27.Jun.1960

Season 3: 1960–61

The Passenger / 3.Oct.1960
Mask of Murder / 10.Oct.1960
The Maitre D' / 17.Oct.1960
The Candidate / 24.Oct.1960
The Judgment / 31.Oct.1960
The Death Frame / 7.Nov.1960
Death Across the Board / 14.Nov.1960
Tramp Steamer / 21.Nov.1960
The Long Green Kill / 28.Nov.1960
Take Five for Murder / 5.Dec.1960
Big Dream, Deadly Dream / 12.Dec.1960
Sepi / 19.Dec.1960
A Tender Touch / 26.Dec.1960
Royal Roust / 2.Jan.1961
Bullet in Escrow / 9.Jan.1961
Jacoby's Vacation / 16.Jan.1961
Blind Item / 23.Jan.1961
Death Is a Sore Loser / 30.Jan.1961
I Know It's Murder / 13.Feb.1961
A Kill and a Half / 20.Feb.1961
Than a Serpent's Tooth / 27.Feb.1961
The Deep End / 6.Mar.1961
Portrait in Leather / 13.Mar.1961
Come Dance with Me and Die / 20.Mar.1961
Cry Love, Cry Murder / 27.Mar.1961
A Penny Saved / 3.Apr.1961
Short Motive / 10.Apr.1961
The Murder Bond / 24.Apr.1961
The Most Deadly Angel / 1.May.1961
Till Death Do Us Part / 8.May.1961
Last Resort / 15.May.1961
A Matter of Policy / 22.May.1961
A Bullet for the Boy / 29.May.1961
Death Is a Four Letter Word / 5.Jun.1961
Deadly Intrusion / 12.Jun.1961
Voodoo / 19.Jun.1961
Down the Drain / 26.Jun.1961
Murder on the Line / 18.Sep.1961

Guest stars

Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery
Phyllis Avery was an American television and film actress.-Early life and career:Avery was born in New York City to Evelyn and author Stephen Morehouse Avery. Her father hailed from Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis. Her first role was as Marjorie in the 1951 film Queen for a Day based on...

guest starred as Doris Reese Stewart in "Send a Thief" (1960).
Francis De Sales
Francis De Sales (actor)
Francis A. De Sales was an American actor. He was known for his roles on two early television series: as police Lieutenant Bill Weigand on the CBS and then NBC drama Mr. and Mrs. North and as Sheriff Maddox in the syndicated western Two Faces West...

appeared as the district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

in the 1960 episode "Hot Money".
Don Keefer
Don Keefer
Donald "Don" H. Keefer is a retired American actor known for the versatility of his roles. He was born in Highspire in Dauphin County near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Keefer's first role was as Bernard in the 1951 film, Death of a Salesman, based on the Arthur Miller play...

portrayed John Alastair in the 1959 episode "Death Is a Red Rose".
Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey
Tyler McVey was an American character actor.-Early life and career:McVey was born in Bay City on Saginaw Bay in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. His first screen role, uncredited, came at the age of 39 in 1951, when he portrayed Brady in the The Day the Earth Stood Still...

appeared twice in episodes "The Vicious Dog" (1958) and "Death Across the Board" (1960).
Victor Rodman
Victor Rodman
Victor Rodman was an American actor best known for his work on two Jack Webb NBC television programs, Dragnet and Noah's Ark. In the latter 1956-1957 series, he played an older veterinarian, Dr. Sam Rinehart, who uses a wheelchair. Paul Burke portrayed the younger colleague and title character,...

appeared as a judge in the episode "A Tender Touch" (1960).
Barbara Stuart
Barbara Stuart
Barbara Ann Stuart was an American actress.-Major roles:Stuart portrayed "Miss Bunny", the girlfriend of Sergeant Vincent Carter, played by Frank Sutton, on three seasons of CBS's Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C....

appeared three times between 1958 and 1961 in different roles in the episodes "The Blind Pianist", "The Briefcase", and "Come Dance with Me and Die".
Roy Thinnes
Roy Thinnes
Roy Thinnes is an American television and film actor best known for his portrayal of lonely hero David Vincent in the ABC 1967-68 television series The Invaders. He also played Alfred Wentworth in the pilot episode of Law & Order...

appeared as Roy Davidson in "The Man with the Scar" (1958)

Origin of series

Edwards developed Peter Gunn from an earlier fictional detective that he had created. Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective
Richard Diamond, Private Detective is an American detective drama which aired on radio from 1949 to 1953, and on television from 1957 to 1960.-Radio:...

starred Dick Powell

Dick Powell

Richard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...

, and aired as a radio series from 1949 to 1953. David Janssen

David Janssen

David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive , the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective , and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.In 1996 TV Guide...

later starred in the television adaptation from 1957 to 1960. It was this character's success which prompted his creator to revisit the concept as Peter Gunn. Edwards had earlier written and directed a Mike Hammer

Mike Hammer

Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:...

television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

pilot for Brian Keith

Brian Keith

Brian Keith was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his four decade-long career gained recognition for his work in movies such as the 1961 Disney family film The Parent Trap, the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and the 1975 adventure saga The Wind and...

Music

The show's use of modern jazz music, at a time when most television shows used a generic orchestra for the background, was another distinctive touch that set the standard for many years to come. Innovative jazz themes seemed to accompany every move Gunn made, ably rendered by Henry Mancini

Henry Mancini

and his orchestra (which at that time included pianist John Williams), lending the character even more of an air of suave sophistication. Famous jazz musicians occasionally made guest appearances, such as trumpeter Shorty Rogers

Shorty Rogers

Milton “Shorty” Rogers , born Milton Rajonsky in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played both the trumpet and flugelhorn, and was in demand for his skills as an arranger. Rogers worked first as a professional musician with Will Bradley and...

in an early episode.

Most memorable of all was the show's opening (and closing) "Peter Gunn Theme", composed and performed by Mancini. A hip, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

y, brassy number with an insistent

Ostinato

In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...

piano-and-bass line, the song became an instant hit for Mancini, earning him an Emmy Award

Emmy Award

and two Grammys

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

, and became as associated with crime fiction

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

as Monty Norman

Monty Norman

Monty Norman is a singer and film composer best known for being credited with composing the "James Bond Theme".-Biography:...

's theme to the James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

films is associated with espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

. The minor key harmonies fit the mood of the show, which was important to the show's success.

The soundtrack album by Henry Mancini reached #1 in Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

's Pop LP Charts. Ray Anthony won achieved #8 on Billboard's Hot 100 with his 45 of the title theme. Mancini's single made the Variety magazine

Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...

Top 25 retail chart, selling well in the Boston area.

"The Peter Gunn Theme" has been performed by numerous jazz, blues, and rock

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

artists since, including Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

, Ray Anthony

Ray Anthony

Ray Anthony is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.- Biography :...

, Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

(on the '68 Comeback Special), Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...

, Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

, The Remo Four

The Remo Four

The Remo Four were a 1950s-1960s rock band from Liverpool, England. They were contemporaries of The Beatles, and later had the same manager, Brian Epstein...

, The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...

, Croon & The Creepers, Brian Setzer

Brian Setzer

Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...

, The Cramps

The Cramps

The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...

, Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Bosse-de-Nage, Gary Hoey

Gary Hoey

Gary Hoey is a surfer-rock musician.- Early life and early career :At fourteen, Hoey often lingered outside Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music, making friends and offering to pay for lessons. To devote his time to music, he dropped out of high school and began playing Boston's local clubs...

, Aerosmith

Aerosmith

Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...

, Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...

, Roy Buchanan

Roy Buchanan

Roy Buchanan was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still...

, Melvin Taylor

Melvin Taylor

Melvin Taylor is an American electric blues guitarist, based in Chicago, Illinois.-Career:Born in Mississippi, Taylor relocated to Chicago in 1962....

, The Disco Biscuits, Umphrey's McGee

Umphrey's McGee

Umphrey's McGee is an American progressive rock jam band based in Chicago whose music is often referred to as "progressive improvisation", or "improg" ....

, The Swingle Singers

The Swingle Singers

The Swingle Singers are a mostly a cappella vocal group formed in 1962 in Paris, France by Ward Swingle with Anne Germain, Jeanette Baucomont, Jean Cussac and others. Christiane Legrand, the sister of composer Michel Legrand, was the group's lead soprano through 1972. Until 2011 the group...

, Pulp

Pulp (band)

Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....

, They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...

, Dick Dale & The Del-Tones

Dick Dale

Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...

, Johnny Guitar Seven, Colonel Mustard & The Condiments, The Silencers, The Tubes and many others. A version by Art of Noise (with guest artist Duane Eddy

Duane Eddy

reprising his original 1959 performance on twang guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

taking the piano riff) earned a Grammy Award in 1987. Furthermore, the riff has been incorporated into many blues and jazz songs. The riff was referenced in the Freddie King

Freddie King

Freddie King , thought to have been born as Frederick Christian, originally recording as Freddy King, and nicknamed "the Texas Cannonball", was an influential African-American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar, along with Albert...

blues instrumental "Hide Away

Hide Away

"Hide Away" or "Hideaway" is a blues guitar instrumental that has become "a standard for countless blues and rock musicians performing today". First recorded in 1960 by Freddie King, the song became an R&B and pop chart hit...

", creating a breakdown in the middle of the tune. The theme is also used as the background music for the 1983 arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

Spy Hunter
Spy Hunter
Spy Hunter is a 1983 arcade game developed and released by Bally Midway. It has also been ported to various home computers and video game systems....

; Saliva

Saliva (band)

Saliva is an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in September 1996 and currently under Island Records. Saliva released their self-titled debut album on August 26, 1997, under Rocking Chair Records....

recorded a song which used the main theme, with added lyrics, for the 2001 remake. Versions of the theme have appeared in countless films, including The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers (film)
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...

and Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.- Plot :...

. The song was used by Monty Python

Monty Python

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

in their sketch, "The Bishop

The Bishop (Monty Python)

The Bishop is a Monty Python sketch from season 2, episode 17 of Monty Python's Flying Circus . "The Bishop" is a parody of The Saint, a British crime-drama series of the 1960s starring Roger Moore as Simon Templar, enemy of gangland."The Bishop" stars Terry Jones as a crime-fighting bishop...

". In 2004 the theme was used in the Disney direct-to-video production, The Lion King 1½
The Lion King 1½
The Lion King 1½ is a 2004 American direct-to-video animated film released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on February 10, 2004. The film is the third installment in the Lion King series. The DVD went to the Disney Vault in January 2005...

. Today, many people with no knowledge of the original show still can identify the theme.

Adaptations

After the two-season run on NBC and the single season on ABC, Edwards made numerous attempts to revive the character in other media. A novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

and a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

were released in 1960. A feature film, Gunn
Gunn (film)
Gunn is an American 1967 mystery film directed by Blake Edwards, and starring Craig Stevens. It featured the same lead character from the 1958-1961 television series Peter Gunn, and a Henry Mancini score but the characters of Gunn's singing girlfriend Edie Hart and Police Lieutenant Jacoby were...

, was made in 1967, and ABC carried a pilot

Television pilot

A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

in 1989 with Peter Strauss

Peter Strauss

Peter Strauss is an American television and movie actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s.-Personal life:...

in the lead role, but they failed to catch on. In 2001, Edwards joined Norman Snider in developing an updated television series, but the project was scuttled when John Woo

John Woo

John Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong-based film director and producer. Recognized for his stylised films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion, Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard...

and David Permut

David Permut

David A. Permut is an American television and movie producer. He was the producer of Richard Pryor: Live in Concert , the first theatrical live comedy concert, and Dragnet , an early example of remaking a television series into a motion picture. He is owner and president of Permut Presentations,...

began developing a big screen remake for Paramount

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. Both projects remain stuck in development.

DVD release

In 2002, A&E Home Video

A&E Television Networks

A&E Television Networks is a U.S. media company that owns a group of television channels available via cable & satellite in the US and abroad...

released two volume sets of Peter Gunn on DVD in Region 1, which comprise 32 episodes from Season One.

Selected songs from the series

"Peter Gunn Theme"
"The Brothers Go to Mother's"
"Dreamsville"
"Blues for Mother's"
"Sorta Blue"
"Slow and Easy"
"Timothy"
"Fallout!"
"Session at Pete's Pad"
"Soft Sounds"
"The Floater"
"A Profound Gass"
"Brief and Breezy"
"Not from Dixie"
The Music from Peter Gunn
The Music from Peter Gunn
The Music from Peter Gunn is a 1959 album by Henry Mancini . It was the first album ever to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1959. It was followed by More Music from "Peter Gunn" . The main theme is notable for its combination of jazz orchestration with a straightforward, rock 'n roll...

– 1959 album (RCA LPM/LPS-1956)

"Walkin' Bass"
"Timothy"
"Joanna"
"My Manne Shelly"
"Goofin' at the Coffee House"
"Odd Ball"
"Blue Steel"
"The Little Man Theme"
"Spook!"
"A Quiet Gass"
"Lightly"
"Blues for Mother's"
"Peter Gunn"
"Mr. Lucky"
"Mr. Lucky Goes Latin"
"Experiment in Terror"
More Music from Peter Gunn – 1959 album (RCA LPM/LPS-2040)

External links

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