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Burke’s Law: A Mystery Comedy Combo
by Guy Belleranti
Beginning in September of 1963, Burke’s Law was one of the
campiest mystery programs to ever grace television.
Gene Barry starred as Los Angeles chief of detectives Amos Burke.
A dashing and debonair millionaire, Burke lived in a mansion and was
chauffeured from crime scene to crime scene and suspect to suspect in
his Rolls-Royce. He romanced the ladies, questioned the suspects and
always figured out “who done it”.
Burke was assisted by Detective Tim Tilson (played by Gary
Conway), Detective Les Hart (played by Regis Toomey) and Sergeant Gloria
Ames (played by Eileen O’Neill). Burke’s chauffeur, Henry, was played by
Leon Lontoc. The program was 60 minutes long and filmed in black and
white.
Barry’s performance as Burke was perfect, as were the
performances of many of the actors and actresses who played the bizarre
and eccentric suspects. Among these guest stars were such names as Gena
Rowlands, Betty Hutton, Don Rickles, Agnes Moorehead, Zsa Zsa Gabor,
Paul Lynde, Dick Clark, John Cassavetes, Basil Rathbone, Chill Wills and
Gloria Swanson.
All episodes in the first two seasons began with the title “Who
Killed. . .”. It was fun to try to figure out who did it while watching
this quirky, tongue-in-cheek program. Just how tongue-in-cheek was it?
Well consider the following episode titles and you’ll get an idea: “Who
Killed Mr. Colby in Ladies Lingerie?”, “Who Killed Nobody Somehow?”, and
Who Killed Rosie Sunset?”.
Indeed, it’s too bad the producers changed the show’s format in
the third and final season. But change it they did. Amos Burke became a
secret agent, and his supporting players were dropped from the cast. The
program’s title was even changed to Amos Burke, Secret Agent. I guess
the reason for the change was to jump on the popularity bandwagon of spy
shows like The Man from Uncle, but it spelled the doom of this program.
Each of the first two seasons had consisted of 32 episodes; the third
season was cut short after only 17.
A couple interesting side-notes about Burke’s Law:
- The character Amos Burke was first seen two years earlier in a 1961
episode of The Dick Powell Show. Powell himself played Burke. When it
was decided to continue the character in a series, Gene Barry became
Burke because Powell had recently passed away.
- In 1994 (almost 30 years later) the show was brought back to
television. Gene Barry was again Amos Burke millionaire policeman with a
Roll-Royce. This time Burke was assisted by his son. Unfortunately, the
program didn’t attract a large enough audience and was cancelled after
two half seasons of 27 total episodes.
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