|
Naked City – A Television Drama Classic
by Guy Belleranti
Several of the best television programs of the 1950’s and 1960’s are
today largely forgotten. Naked City is one of these.
Based on the 1948 motion picture The Naked City directed by Jules Dassin,
this series ran on ABC for 4 seasons.
The first season, 1958 –1959, featured 39 thirty minute episodes. The
program went on hiatus for a year, and then in the fall of 1960 it
returned with a primarily new cast and a lengthened sixty minute format.
This new format ran for 3 seasons and 99 episodes.
Both the 30 and 60 minute episodes were filmed entirely in New York City
in black and white. The program had a dramatic semi-documentary format,
with each episode featuring an opening narration by Lawrence Dobkin.
Dobkin also did a closing narration, speaking the show’s tagline: “There
are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.”
Naked City centered on a precinct of the NYPD, on the criminals they
encountered and on the criminal’s victims. It featured intelligent human
drama, and included moments both comic and tragic. The on location
filming and black and white cinematography added immensely to the
program’s gritty atmosphere. So did the acting from both series regulars
and name guest stars.
The first season featured John McIntire as Lt. Dan Muldoon and James
Franciscus as Detective James “Jimmy” Halloran - the same characters
(but the not the same actors) featured in the 1948 motion picture.
Suzanne Storrs also appeared as Janet Halloran.
Partway through the season McIntire’s character was killed off in a car
crash and Horace McMahon was brought in as Lt. Mike Parker.
McMahon’s crusty Lt. Parker returned as a character when the program
went to the hour length in 1960. Paul Burke replaced Franciscus, playing
idealistic Detective Adam Flint. Also appearing in the hour long seasons
were Nancy Malone as Flint’s girlfriend, Libby, and Harry Bellaver as
Officer Frank Arcaro, Flint’s partner. Bellaver’s Arcaro had also been a
character in the first season’s 30 minute episodes.
Both big name and up and coming actors appeared as guest stars on Naked
City. Included among them were Burgess Meredith, Sandy Dennis, Martin
Balsam, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Robert Duvall, Eileen Heckart, George C.
Scott, Nina Foch, Peter Falk, Claude Rains, Lee J. Cobb, Walter Matthau,
Dustin Hoffman, Eli Wallach, Keir Dullea and David Janssen.
Over its four season run Naked City won four Emmy’s and was nominated
for 11 others. It featured a jazzy theme song, striking cinematography
and strong writing. One of the program’s major writers was Sterling Silliphant, the man who wrote the majority of the episodes for the early
1960’s television program Route 66. Silliphant also wrote for film,
including the Oscar winning screenplay for 1967’s Best Picture winner In
the Heat of the Night.
Today Naked City is forgotten by many. However, its influence has been
reflected in many modern television crime dramas, programs like the Law
and Order series and NYPD Blue. And for those who want to check it out
there are now a number of episodes available on DVD.
Go
to Rewind the Fifties Home
|
|
