Checkmate

Checkmate Inc. was an elite San Francisco firm that would prevent (or checkmate) a crime before it occurred. Don Corey (Anthony George) was the owner of the firm and Jed Sills (Doug McClure) was his young associate. Dr. Carl Hyatt (Sebastian Cabot) was a criminologist at a local university who served as a consultant to Checkmate. All three actors worked as a team in each episode, rather than alternating as episode stars. Sebastian Cabot was the standout, but all three actors were very appealing, and their interactions made the show compelling.

Checkmate Inc. worked out of Don Corey's beautiful Nob Hill bachelor pad. The set for this apartment was sensational, and was almost a fourth character. I really loved that apartment. I waited for the scenes that took place in Corey's elegant home, hoping to get a different angle on it. (Checkmate's John J. Lloyd won the Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction and Scenic Design.)

The three leads probably weren't paid much money, but the producers splurged on guest stars. A cool group of actors: Lee Marvin, Inger Stevens, Peter Lorre, Claire Bloom, Dan Duryea, Cyd Charisse, Richard Conte, Terry Moore, David Janssen, Angie Dickinson, Jack Lord, Elizabeth Montgomery, Charles Laughton, Tina Louise, Robert Lansing, Susan Oliver and Ralph Bellamy were a few.

My favorite episode was "The Murder Game", an Agatha Christie type story by Douglas Heyes ("Kitten With a Whip") that had an undercurrent of dark humor. A famed criminal lawyer (John Williams), who never lost a capital case, is dying. He learns that one of the clients he got off on a murder charge was really guilty. The lawyer invites several of his former clients to his house for a party, including the guilty one. He plans to murder the murderer. The lawyer also invites his former colleagues Don Corey and Carl Hyatt, and challenges them to stop him. "Checkmate" was on Saturday nights its first season, right after "Perry Mason", who the lawyer might have resembled.

Thriller writer Eric Ambler created this show. Ambler was married to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" producer Joan Harrison, who may have produced some of the early episodes.

John Williams received a Grammy nomination for the striking theme music. Saul Bass created the dazzling opening title credits.

Robert Lansing and Robert Sterling auditioned for the lead role of Don Corey along with Anthony George. Lansing was the choice of Universal executive Richard Lewis who developed the show, but CBS president Jim Aubrey didn't like Lansing's looks.

The Doug McClure character was originally going to be a woman, to be played by the lovely Joan O'Brien.

In the second episode of the second season, a new regular was mysteriously added. Jack Betts played investigator Chris Devlin. Betts had the tall, dark and handsome looks of Anthony George. Maybe George was having contract disputes with Universal, or maybe he had health issues. Or maybe Universal already had plans to move Doug McClure over to "The Virginian" the next season. Jack Betts had the lead in his first episode (with guest star Tony Randell) but after that he didn't get much screen time. I'm only sure of him being in one other episode (with guest star James Whitmore.) Jack Betts is still a very busy working actor ("Spiderman").

For me, this show jumped the shark the second season when "Checkmate" moved out of Don Corey's posh apartment into an expensive office suite. It just wasn't the same without that Nob Hill apartment. But for its first season, "Checkmate" was my favorite show, along with Rod Taylor's "Hong Kong".

Aaron Spelling tried to do a remake of "Checkmate" in 1970 called "The Most Deadly Game". George Maharis, Inger Stevens and Ralph Bellamy starred in the pilot. With that cast (two of whom were veterans of "Checkmate"), it should have worked. But even with Joan Harrison as one of the line producers, the execution was nowhere near as good as "Checkmate". Yvette Mimieux replaced Inger Stevens after her death.

I loved this series, and I do not like television series in general. The cast was perfect: Corey as tough, worldly-wise chief of "Checkmate" and mentor to partner Doug McClure, who here was able to get away from the grinning, pretty-boy roles that would dog his career, playing the younger detective with (for him) a subdued grittiness. And then there was Sebastian Cabot--vested suits, walking stick, sparkling eyes, he stole every scene he was in. The writing was excellent, and yes, the opening was way ahead of its time. An all-around classy show with terrific guest stars...naturally it is not available on VHS or DVD. Another reason that even at that age I was in agreement with Newton Minnow's description of television programming as a "vast wasteland." And the waste is the stuff that makes it to TVland and DVD. Which would be fine if shows like "Checkmate" were not lost forever.

Most fictional detectives work out of dingy offices and where clothes that look like they've slept in them. Jim Rockford in the Rockford Files operates out of a trailer. But the three who operate the Checkmate Agency live pretty good out of a posh apartment that serves as their office as well. Doing the grunt work are Anthony George and Doug McClure, but they do it elegantly and only resort to violence when necessary.

George and McClure have a high priced consultant in Oxford professor Sebastian Cabot who is now transferred to San Francisco. He lectures on criminology at Berkeley. But the man has a Sherlock Holmes like mind and misses nothing. The other guys are on their toes as well.

Checkmate lasted three seasons and for three seasons gave us some really literate scripts, well plotted stories and unfortunately a black and white view of San Francisco. Pity CBS wasn't doing color at the time.

I just acquired the complete episodes of the show. It's going to be nice to relive the days of Corey, Sills, and Hyatt.

In the late 50's/early 60's, the general American public all of a sudden were inundated with tons of Detective shows (mostly on ABC) and most of them either carried on the tradition in a Noir Style of a single Male Detective And maybe a hot young secretary who was always fighting against bad guys, or a group of young guys (and maybe one girl in the mix) who were always fighting crimes and solving murder mysteries or embezzlement/financial crimes, and each of these shows had really cool Jazz Underscores but they all seem to follow the same underlying theme/formula with slight variations in locations and settings

Now the distinction Checkmate had with 90% of the other shows on the air is that the Checkmate Detective Agency of Don Corey (Anthony George) and Jed Siles (Doug McClure) and Dr Carl Hyatt (Sebastian Cabot) specialized in solving crimes BEFORE they happened, so because of this, they always seemed one or two steps ahead the potential "criminal" they are fighting against, where as in all o the other detective shows, the crime is pretty much always already committed, so the detectives were call in to find out who committed it and track him of her down and arrest the person that committed the crime. Each character played a role in preventing these crimes before they happened, Anthony George was often the tough guy who the would be criminals would not want to mess with or would be caught in a big city alley in the middle of the night with. Doug McClure was often the soft nice and like able guy who was easy to trust who often got a long well with his clients, Sebastian Cabot was often the brains behind the whole bunch who could think of clever ways of always staying one step ahead of the potential criminal before such crimes were committed (he also supposedly had a PHD in Psychology, hence the Dr in his name, so he always knew how to psychologically outsmart the would be criminals before they got to the clients they were signed on to protect.)

So in hindsight, The detective agency of Checkmate (who according to the show was based in San Francisco, i think some of the exteriors were shot in that city as well), Was called in to protect their clients when they are feeling threatened or they felt like their life was in danger from someone else they were associated with, but the other amazing thing about this show is the impeccable list of guest stars there are on this show, and many people commented how from Season 1 to 2, they didn't like how the Checkmate team went from protecting clients from being murdered to protecting them for other reasons besides that for season 2, but I think the fact that they strayed away from just strictly "murders" made the show more special and unique and less "cliche".

And yes if your a fan of these old school Detective Series, definitely check this series out! The plots are exciting and unpredictable. And the guest stars are fantastic too! Everyone from then old school movie actors like Peter Lorre Peter Lawford, Joseph Cotten, and Mickey Rooney, to then fresh new faces like Robert Vaughn, Tony Randall, Lee Marvin, James Coburn and so much more! I'd definitely get this series, as the entire show is available on DVD thanks to Timeless Media plus a few select episodes on YouTube! (That is how I was able to see this series, I haven't bought the DVD yet but I plan to in the near future).

I remember Checkmate. It had great style, action, plots & characters. I never knew it was created by Eric Ambler, the author of A Coffin For Dimitrios.

I had just moved to San Francisco in 1960 & it was a very exciting place to be - the fog, the cable cars, the bridges, Alcatraz & Chinatown. They all appeared in episodes of Checkmate. I recall the series was saturated with a sense of the city.

It would be great to see some of those old episodes again. They might seem corny now, but I'd like to see that great gray city by the bay again the way it was way back then.