Bourbon Street Beat

A New Orleans PI's adventures in the late fifties Big Easy. Excellent representation of New Orleans street life, this was ahead of its time which probably contributed to its relitively short run. Great actors, great writing, I hope its syndicated someday. Its being transferred to video tape by some diehard fans, you can pick it up on EBAY and its well worth the trouble.

Bourbon Street Beat only lasted for one season but it had thirty-nine episodes to its credit. The location for the show was Bourbon Street in Louisana. It starred Richard Long as private investigator Rex Randolph. Rex was the senior partner in a firm. His first partner was murdered prompting him to look for another one. Andrew Duggan was Isaac "Cal" Calhoun, a former police officer who wanted to change careers and after meeting Rex and knowing that his partner was now dead came to offer his services. The two made a wonderful team. Rex was the cook and Cal loved old movies. Rounding out the cast was Arlene Howell as their secretary Melody. She left about half way through the show and the final member Kenny played by Van Williams spent time trying to find the perfect secretary to replace Melody. The show had some really good guest stars and most of the writing was execellent. I hope that the show is issued out on DVD. It would be a good collection to own.

TV actors, at least in the old days when they were placed in a separate class from movie actors, often seemed to be clones of their movie brethren. Some were singular in their associations. Nehemiah Persoff seemed to be the Edward G. Robinson of television, getting similar roles and acting them in a very similar manner. Carolyn Jones was the Bette Davis of TV, even to the point of playing a set of sisters one of whom is a murderer on Burke's Law. Other's had company in their pursuits. The western stars were all either John Wayne or Gary Cooper, with an occasional Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda thrown in, (including the real thing on "The Deputy"). There were a whole selection of Clark Gables, including John Russell, Rory Calhoun, Richard Egan , Robert Lowery and others. There were plenty of Brandos, including Burt Reynolds, George Maharis and John Saxon. There were enough Rock Hudsons to fill a theater, with John Gavin, Tom Tryon and Gardner McKay coming immediately to mind. The blonde versions I call the "Redfords", a group of thoughtful , well educated types of which Robert Redford was one along with James Franciscus, Richard Chamberlain and William Shatner. They had varying degrees of success with Redford emerging as the head of the class.

Perhaps the most successful strain, however were the Cary Grants. Grant made an ideal model for the suave detective hero, able to be charming or tough as the occasion demanded. Craig Stevens was hired to play Peter Gunn specifically because of a strong resemblance to Grant. His tightlipped performance was not really very charming but it's surely how Cary would have played that character. Latern-jawed John Vivyan played a role that Grant had actually essayed in the movies, Mr. Lucky. He was competent at best. The heroes of the Warner Brother's detective shows were largely based on Cary Grant. Ephram Zimbelist Jr.'s Stu Bailey was a grant-style role with a lot more charm than Peter Gunn. Richard Long's Rex Randolph on Bourbon Street Beat was much the same. Anthony Eisley's Tracy Steele was a less convincing version of the same character on Hawaiian Eye.

But the best of the Grant clones was Gene Barry. He was male-model handsome, had good breeding and seductive whiskey voice. He was also TV's greatest reactors. He had a series of comic takes that was perfect for Amos Burke, who had to confront an unending series of eccentric subjects. Yet he could turn around and romance the ladies or get tough with the tough guys. And he was a good enough actor to hold up his end when the heavy dramatics intervened.

One wonders what the originals of these clones must have thought as they watched the boob tube in it's infancy.

I got to see this series on 7 February 2005 on GoodLife TV, and it is a series that wears well. Of all the Warner Brothers TV Detective series, I think this may be the crown jewel, because it is supposed to be set in New Orleans, away from the glamor and glitter of Hollywood.

The two main characters are played by Andrew Duggan and Richard Long, who do a great job. Van Williams was one year away from his starring role on Surfside 6, and seven away from The Green Hornet, but is still fun to watch. Definitely a 1959 series that did well, as did Johnny Staccato, and it should be released on DVD. Hopefully, GoodLife TV will continue to show this series.

The location was great, the characters were great, the cast was great. So why only one season? The reason became clear about 2/3 of the way through the season. Early on, BSB's New Orleans was full of black people and white people mixing together - whites still held the privileged spots, mind you, but black people had jobs and dignity and white private eyes had no problem working with them and even visiting them in their homes. Then, suddenly, all the black musical bands became white. All the black people on the street disappeared. Even the Baron, head of the band at the Absinthe House, disappeared with his black band and a white band replaced them. (Note, the Baron was played by Eddie Cole, Nat "King" Cole's older brother - Nat's own tv show was canceled, by him, only 3 years earlier because they couldn't get any sponsors for the show by a black man even if he was Nat "King" Cole).. White USA in 1959 was not interested in seeing black people and white people together, and that interaction was what gave BSB's New Orleans its flavor and made it the background to its stories more interesting. Without that NO flavor, BSB was more like just another 77 Sunset Strip, and not the series it was really born to be. Kudos and respect to everyone involved in taking a chance at integration, even if the US wasn't ready for it - the product was very good, and maybe it helped us in the long run.

Two of the characters went on - Rex Randolph (Richard Long) to 77 Sunset Strip and Kenny Madison (Van Williams) to Surfside Six. Long, whose career began in film in 1945, went on to other series (The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor) but had suffered an early heart attack at age 33 and died at 47, in 1974, working steadily to the end and set to appear in All the President's Men when he passed. Andrew Duggan (Cal Calhoun in BSB) went on to do Lancer and Van Williams went on to do The Green Hornet.

I understand Arlene Howell left the series early because she became pregnant, and that she did not work in the industry after that.