Ellery Queen (TV series)
| Ellery Queen | |
|---|---|
Main title design: Jack Cole & N. Lee Lacy
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| Created by |
Richard Levinson William Link |
| Starring |
Jim Hutton David Wayne |
| Theme music composer | Elmer Bernstein |
| Composer(s) |
Elmer Bernstein Dana Kaproff |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 22 (23 with pilot) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Richard Levinson William Link |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 45–48 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Fairmount/Foxcroft Productions Tom Ward Enterprises Universal Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 11, 1975 – April 4, 1976 |
Ellery Queen is an American TV series featuring the titular fictional sleuth. Starring Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen, and Tom Reese as Sgt. Velie, it aired on NBC during the 1975–76 television season. It was created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link. The title character investigates a murder in each episode, and the series uses some of the same dramatic devices found in the early Queen novels and radio shows.
A pilot for the series premiered on March 23, 1975, with the made-for-TV movie Ellery Queen (also titled "Too Many Suspects"), adapted from the 1965 Ellery Queen novel The Fourth Side of the Triangle. A total of 22 episodes followed in the show's single season. The theme music was by Elmer Bernstein. The last episode aired on April 4, 1976.
Set in post-World War II New York City, the show followed the "Challenge" format of early Ellery Queen mystery novels and radio shows, in which the reader (or listener) was given a chance to solve the mystery. In the series, this tradition was followed by having Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton) "break the fourth wall" late in each episode, telling audience members that they had all the clues to solve it themselves.
The final act always used the time-honored detective cliché of calling together all the suspects, with Ellery Queen presenting the solution (except in one episode when the elder Queen took over). The great detective's detailed exposition allowed audience members to assess how they had guessed right and wrong. In some episodes, Queen's explanation disproved the theory of a rival sleuth.
The series departed from the original stories in two respects. An element of mild humour was added by making the Ellery Queen character slightly physically clumsy, and the character of rival radio detective Simon Brimmer (John Hillerman) was created for the series.
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