Banacek

After years of playing what he described to TV Guide as "tight-jawed men of action" in routine theatrical films, George Peppard made his small-screen bow as the star of "Banacek," one of three series ("Madigan" and "Cool Million" were the others) that rotated under the umbrella of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie when it premiered in September 1972 (following in the successful footsteps of the original Mystery Movie trio of "Columbo," "McCloud," and "McMillan and Wife" which moved to Sundays for their second season).

Almost every TV cop had a gimmick in that era, be it a wheelchair ("Ironside"), a Stetson ("McCloud"), or a walking stick ("Longstreet"). Thomas Banacek's appeal had much to do with his being Polish, and the sleuth (actually an insurance investigator) had enough confidence and sex appeal to counter any ethnic joke that came his way. When he wasn't seducing the leading ladies, he was correcting those who mispronounce his name ("It's Bana-CHECK"), more often than not with a smart-a** response.

Like "Columbo," this show's mysteries weren't who-done-its so much as they were how'd-they-do-it? Each episode opened with a mysterious disappearance (a football player vanishes after being tackled in one show, a priceless artifact or an airplane disappears in another) that Banacek would spend the bulk of each 90-minute episode attempting to solve. Smoking fine cigars, and displaying an expertise on the more elegant things in life that would make James Bond envious, Banacek could be insufferably arrogant, and Peppard inhabited the character to perfection.

"Banacek" was introduced in a two-hour World Premiere movie which aired on NBC in the 1971-72 season, then went on to headline 16 episodes from 1972-74. Despite healthy ratings, Peppard, whose contract with Universal and NBC originally called for a weekly series, and was therefore easily broken, bowed out in the hope of producing and directing a film about Long John Silver. When that project failed to materialize, he returned to series TV in the lesser "Doctors Hospital" in 1975 but enjoyed his greatest success as the leader of "The A Team" in the 80s. But "Banacek" remains his finest work in the television medium.

Polish-American Thomas Banacek, antiques collector, insurance agent, and amateur sleuth, appeared in this enjoyable series in the early 1970s. Played by the lovely George Peppard, pre-A Team. Each week he tries to solve a mystery, on commission of course, with the help of his rare bookseller friend, Felix (the peerless Murray Matheson), and his driver, Jay (the excellent Ralph Manza). Sometimes we got girl power too in the shape of feisty Carlie Kirkland (Christine Belford). Banacek slides his way through each case with ease - whether tackling disappearances, drug running, gold bullion disappearances, and the like. He usually ends up with a pretty girl as well who he's met while he's been investigating. Absolute rubbish but I loved it. And his catchphrase 'There's an old Polish proverb' must have suited Peppard as he wheeled it out again in his Chinatown TV movies some years later (as 'There's an old Chinese proverb', of course).

Okay, Banacek wasn't exactly a P.I.-he was an investigator for the Boston Insurance Company who tracked down stolen goods for a generous commission. This show starred the late George Peppard ten years before he entertained us all as Hannibal in the A-Team.

Before I first saw this series, I thought to myself, "An insurance investigator-how boring." This series proved me wrong. Yes, Banacek was an insurance investigator but it was the items he tracked down that provided the entertainment. They were never small relatively cheap items, always something costing millions of dollars. In one of my favourite episodes, Banacek tried to track down a missing football player (yes, really).

Fans of Columbo will like this show as Banacek solved his cases whilst the rest of us scratched our heads wondering what was going on. There was a fair bit of action at times but it was the way in which Banacek would systematically solve the case that provided the bulk of the entertainment.

All in all, a fantastic show.

George Peppard starred as Thomas Banacek, a private insurance investigator of Polish descent based in Boston who became involved in various insurance fraud cases involving art, books, coins, horses, etc. He demanded and received a big fee for his services, which made him a very wealthy man, and enabled him to live well indeed, and he was quite the natural ladies man, in just about every episode! He was helped by his sidekick/chauffeur Jay Drury, played by Ralph Manza, whose theories about the cases were always wrong, and also Murray Matheson as Felix Mulholland, a book seller who provided Banacek with vital information he needed to solve his cases, all of which were very entertaining.

This had a memorably breezy theme, and was great fun to watch. Sadly, this only lasted two years and 17 episodes, because Peppard quit for personal reasons, which was a great pity, since this show could have gone on as long as "Columbo" did.

George Peppard WAS the show. Short hair when long hair was cool, wealthy and Bostonian, a ladies man with no equal, and the ability to solve impossible thefts for the insurance reward money. He was the man to see when all else failed. I still watch the re-runs when I get the chance. Sadly, too few shows were made. It was one of the four rotating Mystery Movies on NBC for a time. Supposedly, George Peppard walked away from a successful series because of the grind of the show. He was in nearly every scene and had to do voice overs too. Or else, one problem with the show that may have led to the decision to end the series was that, although entertaining and having great characters, the crimes were starting to get derivative and easier for the viewer to know the general solution to the problem in hand.

The inspiration for this show, for me, was the movie, THE THOMAS CROWNE AFFAIR. Take the important bits of the movie, a brilliant crime, Boston, wealth, the upper-crust life style, an insurance detective, and change the star from the thief to the recovery expert and you have the TV series, BANACEK. Of course, the added "hook" was making him Polish. This brand of Polish was the antithesis of every joke you've ever heard.

It would have been nice had George Peppard made some BANACEK REVISITED shows before he died. Like the NEW PERRY MASON, they would have been welcomed by his many fans. Peppard owned the role. Someone may play a similar role again, but they will not re-create the BANACEK mystique. George Peppard put his mark on that character for all time.......