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.

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.

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.

The Warner Brothers detective clone factory came out with a model that didn't sell. Perhaps had Jack Warner actually shot the thing in New Orleans, taking advantage of the many sights and wonders the Big Easy has to offer Bourbon Street Beat would have had a longer run.

This show featured three detectives Richard Long, Andrew Duggan, and Van Williams with a curvaceous secretary named Melody played by beauty queen Arlene Howell. As with the other shows 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, and Surfside Six detectives in a hands across the studio policy helped each other out on cases. Certainly did save Jack Warner on spending money for pricey guest stars.

Bourbon Street Beat only lasted one year, the shortest of any of the clones. But the resourceful folks at Warner Brothers had Van Williams move to Miami Beach and open a detective agency on a houseboat there, long before Frank Sinatra and Don Johnson would operate from same. Williams took his Ken Madison character and over to Surfside 6 and co-starred with Lee Patterson and Troy Donahue. In the meantime Richard Long as Rex Randolph moved to the other coast and joined the guys at 77 Sunset Strip..

As for Andrew Duggan, a few years after Bourbon Street Beat was canceled he popped up on a 77 Sunset Strip episode assisting Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. when a case took him to New Orleans. Duggan's Cal Calhoun character had gone back to the New Orleans PD from whence he came.

It was like they cannibalized parts from one model fix up their other cars. It maybe what makes Bourbon Street Beat unique among forgotten television 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.