Burke's Law (1963 TV series)
| Burke's Law | |
|---|---|
Burke's Law 1963 series intro card
|
|
| Also known as | Amos Burke Secret Agent |
| Genre | Crime drama |
| Created by | |
| Starring |
|
| Theme music composer | Herschel Burke Gilbert |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 81 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 mins. |
| Production company(s) |
Four Star Television Barbety |
| Distributor | 20th Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 20, 1963 – January 12, 1966 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Burke's Law (1994) |
| Related shows | Honey West |
Burke's Law is an American detective series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1966. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II. The original series was converted from a detective show to a spy drama, Amos Burke Secret Agent, in its third and final season. The series was revived in 1994–95 on CBS with Barry again playing Burke having returned to detective work.
The show shares stylistic similarities with Barry's previous series, Bat Masterson, in which he had played the debonair lawman of the Old West. During the opening credits, as the title flashed onscreen, a woman's voice was heard seductively pronouncing the words "It's Burke's Law!" The title also reflected Burke's habit of dispensing wisdom to his underlings in a professorial manner, e.g.: "Never ask a question unless you already know the answer. Burke's Law."
The title of each episode started with the words "Who Killed...?" with the name or description of the victim (who invariably died in the show's opening minutes) completing it. Five or six "special guest stars" comprised the list of suspects. Burke then was driven to the crime scene in his Rolls-Royce by his loyal chauffeur, Henry.
In the original series, Burke was assisted by Detective Tim Tilson (Gary Conway), Detective Les Hart (Regis Toomey), and chauffeur Henry (Leon Lontoc). Two recurring characters were coroner George McLeod (Michael Fox) and lovely desk sergeant Gloria Ames (Eileen O'Neill). Tilson was a go-getting young man whose skill at finding clues and trace references did not result in his solving the murders, being always outflanked by Burke's cool intuition, while Hart was a no-nonsense, seen-it-all veteran, perhaps a nod to Toomey's numerous roles as cops in feature films.
...
Wikipedia