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Banacek (1972-1974)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 12:59 am    Post subject: Banacek (1972-1974) Reply with quote



I really enjoyed this series, and I wish there were more than just seventeen episodes. The stories were always about the clever heist of valuable items, and they were always stolen in complex and mysterious ways.

The series pilot concerned a gold-barring armored truck that disappears from a lonely desert highway, after a brief distraction caused the police escort to fall a bit behind it.

The ingenious plan used in this robbery set a precedent that the series often followed. In many of the stories, the solution to the mystery fell into one of two categories.

(a) The stolen item was never actually taken, it was just hidden right on the premises.

— or —

(b) The stolen item was never actually there in first place, it only seemed to be there, and the theft involved simply terminating whatever trick was used to create the illusion.

One of my favorite episodes, Rocket to Oblivion, is a good example of this.

Spoiler ahead. Beware!

A revolutionary new rocket engine is on display at a science exhibit, and the inventor has safeguarded his design by placing a cylindrical shield around it made of shaded Plexiglas to prevent flash photos from being taken. The Plexiglas will reflect the flash back to the camera, and this will spoil the picture.



The shaded plastic also cuts down on the reflected light that reaches the camera, making photography even more difficult. And just to make absolutely sure, the engine is mounted on a turntable that rotates continuously.

Thus it's even impossible to take pictures with a long exposures, because the light from the engine is dimmed by the shaded Plexiglas, and the engine is constantly moving.



During the presentation of the engine to the press and the public at the science exhibit, the lights suddenly go out for a moment — and when they come back on, the engine has vanished from inside the shaded Plexiglas cylinder!



Now, if you haven't seen this episode (but you read my description above anyway), which of the two situations I mentioned would this one be an example of?

Was the engine (a) still there, but somehow hidden, or (b) just an illusion, and it was never there at all?

The answer is (drum roll, please) . . . the engine was never there to start with. And this magic trick was done with pure science. Here's how.

The rotating Plexiglas cylinder created one of those early holograms introduced in the 1970s, and the image of the engine was caused by the light that illuminated the area inside it from above. This made the engine appear three-dimensional to the watching crowd as the cylinder rotated.

When the light above was extinguished, along with the room lights when they went out briefly to mask the deception, the engine seemed to vanish.

This second-season episode was rich in both scientific paraphernalia and pretty girls — making it a sure-fire winner for sci-fi loving twenty-six-year-old with an eye for the ladies! You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a hot honey in this story. And since this was made in 1974, miniskirts were insanely short.

I was fresh out of the Air Force in 1974 and dating like Don Juan was my daddy. The world was wall-to-wall legs back in those days, and my hormones held me hostage on a daily basis. Wink

________

The leggy gal in the pictures below appears in the opening credits during season two. She's Banacek's stunning date as she climbs out of his limo and stops the hearts of men all over America.



I'm sure this had absolutely nothing to do with my eagerness to watch this show each week.



Honest. Nothing at all.
Embarassed
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Jan 05, 2023 3:42 pm; edited 8 times in total
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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After I started watching the vintage reruns on the various extra digital stations, I quickly became a big fan of Banacek on MeTV. They were running five days at a time in rotation with other series mostly from the old NBC Mystery Movie period. Unforch, they stopped running him before I'd seen them all.

The series is unlike the typical detective series in a few ways. George Peppard plays the character with a suave, confident style and is no self-sacrificing hero. He's unapologetically in it for the money and makes more at his job than any TV hero I can recall.

Another thing I like about the series is that the plots are very much like magician's illusions and the solution is never revealed until the end. While we do see a lot of clues along the way, Banacek always keeps plenty under his hat until the final reveal.

I understand the series wasn't actually canceled by the network, but by Peppard himself. He was involved in a difficult divorce from Elizabeth Ashley at the time and apparently loosing the third season of the series got him off lighter with alimony.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 9:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rocky Jones wrote:
George Peppard plays the character with a suave, confident style and is no self-sacrificing hero. He's unapologetically in it for the money and makes more at his job than any TV hero I can recall.

Interesting stuff, Rocky. That's one of the things I like best — Banacek is stinking rich and damn proud of it. He's living the life of Riley, and lovin' every minute of it.

Rocky Jones wrote:
Another thing I like about the series is that the plots are very much like magician's illusions and the solution is never revealed until the end.

When I read what you said I suddenly realized that this series has a lot in common with Now You See Me, the movie about the magicians who commit astounding robberies.

Rocky Jones wrote:
He was involved in a difficult divorce from Elizabeth Ashley at the time and apparently loosing the third season of the series got him off lighter with alimony.

So, we've got a greedy woman to blame for the end of the series. That's a shame.

I've been downloading as many of the episodes as I can find, and I now have 11 of the 17. The picture quality is acceptable, but some of the episodes have jerky motion when things are moving around quickly.

However, since the DVD set — with it's 17 whole episodes — is priced at over $250 on both Amazon and eBay, these will just have to do.

One last comment: I said the picture quality of the downloads was "acceptable", but after making these two screen shots of Stella Stevens from Ten Thousand Dollars a Page, I think I may have sold the downloads a bit short.

What do you guys think?






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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Jan 05, 2023 2:35 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess I let spell check correct my "unapologetically" and it came out "apologetically". Oh, well.

$250? I can just wait until it turns up on TV again. I'm no collector-- at least not deliberately.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 10:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________________

Rocky, that was my fault! I saw that "unapologetically" was flagged by the spell check when I quoted you above, so I snuck in to fix it -- and I screwed it up!

Sorry. . Embarassed

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember one episode where trucks were being robbed, despite the yard, and trucks being watched by TV cameras. Banacek figured out that the wall behind the trucks was painted chroma key blue. The trucks were being robbed by people dressed in chroma key blue body suits, who covered the swag in chroma key blue coverings. This rendered them invisible to the cameras. There was even an article in the TV Guide on the episode.

It was a great premise for a mystery show, it didn't rely on a murder-of-the-week. It was a battle of wits between Banacek, the insurance company agent and the criminal. It is a wonder that there hasn't been another show like it.

David.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 10:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was also a fan of Banacek.

Enjoyed watching the theft unfold & then trying to figure out how they pulled it off.
I usually did not figure out how the theft was done with one exception. It was the theft of a sculpture. I was quite proud of myself.

The actress who played Carley Kirkland in a semi-recurring role was a cutie.

I'd read that the reason George did not return to Banacek for a third season is that he wanted to direct some episodes but NBC said no.


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
I'd read that the reason George did not return to Banacek for a third season is that he wanted to direct some episodes but NBC said no.

Unfortunately, the reason for the cancellation is pretty frustrating for the fans. Wikipedia says this.
_______________________________________

Banacek was well received by television critics, and as a result was picked up for a third season. However, before the third season could start, Peppard quit the show in order to prevent his ex-wife Elizabeth Ashley from receiving a larger percentage of his earnings as part of their divorce settlement. The complication ended any chance of reviving Banacek during Peppard's lifetime. A&E continued rebroadcasts of Banacek in syndication.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
It is a wonder that there hasn't been another show like it.


I agree. The murder mystery shows have their place, but it would be nice to see more variety of format, such as this show. I was thinking it would be really cool to have a sequel series, perhaps with the original Bancek's adult offspring as the investigator. I've often said that the only movies that should be remade are the bad or unsuccessful ones--and made into better ones. The same might be done with TV series. Bancek was a good series, of course, but it didn't last nearly long enough, so more could be done with the idea, I think.

When thinking about this series I have to wonder if there really are any freelance insurance investigators like Banacek who specialize in recovering missing item claims. I believe most insurance investigators spend their time checking up on health care claims, which might not be so entertaining for TV audiences.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
I was thinking it would be really cool to have a sequel series, perhaps with the original Bancek's adult offspring as the investigator.

Hey, what a great idea!

In The Vanishing Chalice we're treated to a wonderfully different relationship between Banacek and Carlie Kirkland, the lovely insurance investigator he competes with in several episodes, going all the way back to the series pilot, Detour to Nowhere.



But in this episode, Carlie takes a leave of absence from her insurance company, and she imposes herself on Banacek as his "apprentice", confessing to our hero that she wants to learn how he works his magic when he unravels the mysterious disappearance of valuable objects.

She tell Banacek she wants to be a freelancer like him someday.



The chemistry between the two is wonderful, and it made me wonder if the series' producers were grooming the couple to become the next Nick and Nora Charles (aka The Thin Man series).



Sadly, that never happened, but suppose it had, and the couple raised a bright young fellow who possessed his parent's gift for solving high-tech robberies. The new series would be about Thomas Banacek Jr. (or whatever name we like), who is making a name for himself by following in his parents footsteps.

I love the idea!
Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
The new series would be about Thomas Banacek Jr. (or whatever name we like)...


In today's TV world I'm thinking it might be a female offspring, but that could work, too. I'm thinking maybe Eliza Dushku, but whatever.

And, yes, I did forget an "a" or two in Banacek up there, but, hey, it's the ideas that count, right?
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 6:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rocky Jones wrote:
The series is unlike the typical detective series in a few ways. George Peppard plays the character with a suave, confident style and is no self-sacrificing hero. He's unapologetically in it for the money and makes more at his job than any TV hero I can recall.

That was Peppard's specialty -- he often played smug, self-serving yet likeable characters. Or sometimes just smug and self-serving.

One episode that stands out in my mind is "Project Phoenix," in which Banacek investigates the seemingly impossible theft of an experimental prototype car from a moving train. The gorgeous actress Joanna Pettet played the world's sexiest automotive engineer.



When Banacek pays her a visit, he comments rather snidely about the absence of any feminine touches in her home-cum-workshop, as if she's overcompensating for being a woman in a male-dominated profession. But she greets him dressed in tight jeans and a midriff-baring tied shirt. Engineer, schmengineer. When you've got it, flaunt it!


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 12:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rocky Jones wrote:
And, yes, I did forget an "a" or two in Banacek up there, but, hey, it's the ideas that count, right?

Hey, that's what the "edit" button is for! Very Happy And yes, it's the ideas that count. I get regular PM's from orzel-w to alert me about my frequent typos. He does it at my request, and appreciate the heck out of it!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 3:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
I get regular PM's from orzel-w to alert me about my frequent typos.

...with the understanding that I'm only proofing Bud's initial posts for new threads. Any posts after those are unadulterated. Very Happy
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2016 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
. . . with the understanding that I'm only proofing Bud's initial posts for new threads. Any posts after those are unadulterated. Very Happy

Don't be silly, Wayne. I can't even spell unadultraited . . . unadoltrated . . . what you said. So how could my post be . . . ummm . . . that? Embarassed
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
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