The Untouchables

The Untouchables on DVD TV Commercials on DVD Untouchables on DVD Good Times Season 5 on DVD Tennesee Tuxedo on DVD Fractured Fairy Tales on DVD
TimeLife.com
TV Shows on DVD/ / / / / TV Blog/ / / / / Punk Book/ / / Holiday Specials on DVD / / /Classic Commercials

 

 

 

Honey West on DVD

The Untouchables
Thursday 9:30 / ABC
October 1959 - September 1963

With the controversy over negative portrayals of Italian-Americans on 'The Sopranos' and 'A Shark's Tale,' it's interesting to note another time when Italian-American tempers flared against a television production.

The Untouchables was considered one of the most violent television shows of its time. Of course, by today's standards it's not that bad, but it was violent enough at the time to spark protests from concerned parents. Protests also came from 'concerned' Italian-Americans who didn't appreciate the whole 'Goombah of the Week' approach to the show.

'The Untouchables' starred Robert Stack ('Unsolved Mysteries') as real-life Chicago gang-buster and prohibition agent Eliot Ness circa 1930. The first episode was a two-part presentation on CBS's 'Desilu Playhouse' broadcast in April, 1959. The story centered around Ness' attempt to bust up Al Capone's Chicago syndicate. Neville Brand appeared as Al Capone and Barbara Nichols was his gun moll in this brutal and violent telefilm.

Robert Stack of The UntouchablesMGM stalwart Van Johnson was originally slated to play Eliot Ness, but he backed out the weekend before filming was to start in a dispute over money. Robert Stack was hastily recruited on Sunday morning (found at 2:00 am in Chasen's), fitted for costumes that afternoon, and started filming on Monday morning.

The two-part pilot was a critical and ratings smash, so much so it was later released to movie theatres. CBS bid for the series, but ABC won the rights and 'The Untouchables' weekly series debuted in the fall of 1959. It was bloody and violent, just like the pilot - the network demanded that each episode be action packed. Ratings were not spectacular during the first few weeks, but by the second season the show was solidly in the top ten.

Series director Walter Grauman summed up the initial concept of the series: "The show is dramatic fiction with documentary authenticity." While the teleplays started out as a semi-documentarian treatments illustrating the aftermath of the roaring twenties, they eventually relied on more fictionalized stories. "You don't realize how lousy strict documentaries are - plus the fact that you're libeling someone every thirty-seven seconds," series star Robert Stack stated in 1960. "If we limit it to actuality, we might as well go to newsreels."

The hyper-active announcer on The Untouchables was the voice of the 1930's and '40's newsreels - Walter Winchell. He had devolved into a cheesy, radio and newspaper gossip columnist by the fifties.

"Winchell is marvelous," Untouchables' producer Josef Shaftel was quoted as saying. "All he has to do is say: 'On the night of Oct. 5, 1931, Eliot Ness went down to the delicatessen' and people are sure he did."

THE LUCY CONNECTION

'The Untouchables' was a Desilu production, the co-presidents of Desilu were Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. This was the second series they produced with Walter Winchell in the cast. Television insiders were surprised at his casting because it was Winchell who accused Lucille Ball of being a communist during the height of the American commie witch hunt in 1953.

Lucy recalled the experience of being falsely 'outed' this way: "I was terrified. That first day I was in a panic. I was absolutely bewildered. It was a terrible experience."

PROTESTATIONS

The real Eliot Ness disbanded his agents in 1932, but the show took the gangbusters well into the forties, wrestling with mobsters that Ness never encountered like 'Bugsy' Seigel, 'Bugs' Moran, 'Ma' Barker and even Nazis and presidential assassins.

Italian-American groups protested over what they felt was an unfair presentation of their people as Mafia-types. "We are plagued with lawsuits after certain shows" one of the show's producers Josef Shaftel explained, noting that the series was "heavily insured against libel." With good reason - the first lawsuit against the show was instigated by Al Capone's angry widow. She didn't like the way her deceased husband was made into a running villain on the show and wanted a million dollars for unfair use of his image.

The FBI was pissed off too. They were the ones who collared the famous names that Ness was supposedly busting each week on TV and they rightfully wanted credit for it. Even the Bureau of Prisons took offense, complaining that the show made their treatment of Al Capone look soft.


PART TWO: Tough Tony vs a TV show.
Guess who takes the hit?

 

 

TVparty is Classic TV on the internet!

THE UNTOUCHABLES

 

 


Now that The Untouchables has been released on DVD for the first time, we look back at this powerful network drama.

Untouchables Cast photo

THE UNTOUCHABLES CAST

The Agents -
Nick Georgiade as Enrico Rossi
Jerry Paris as Martin Flaherty
Abel Fernandez as William Youngfellow
Anthony George as Cam Allison
Paul Percerni as Lee Hobson
Steve London as Agent Rossman

The Villains -
Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti
Peter Falk as Nate Selko
Clu Gulagher as "Mad Dog" Coll


The Untouchables was Quinn Martin's first stint as executive producer and on this show he began a long practice of using announcers on his productions like 'The FBI', 'The Invaders' and 'Cannon'.

TV Guide's The Untouchables Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.

 

Local Kid Shows / Movie Stars on TV / Saturday Morning Shows / Video Vault / TV Goodbyes / Fabulous Fifties / Unseen Scenes / Game Shows / Requested Forgotten TV Shows / The Super Sixties / The New * * Shows / 1980's Wrestling / TV Blog

TVparty is Classic TV on the internet!
Classic TV on the Internet!

TV's Embarrassing Moments / Action Shows of the Sixties / TVparty Mysteries and Scandals / Variety Shows of the 1970s / The Eighties / The Laugh Track / 1970's Hit Shows / Response to TVparty / Search the Site / Add Your Comments

Action Shows of the Sixties:
77 Sunset Strip / Warner Bros Crime Shows / Tales From The Warner's Lot
More Action Shows of the 60s / J. Edgar Hoover & The FBI / The Untouchables / Whirlybirds / The Rifleman / Honey West / The Westerns /
Hong Kong / Sea Hunt / Route 66 / Ripcord

Classic TV Commercials / 1950's TV / 1960's TV / 1970's TV / Lucy Shows / Classic Cars / John Wayne / Gene Roddenberry / Rockford Files / Sea Hunt / Superman on DVD / Toy Gun Ads / Flip Wilson Show / Big Blue Marble / Monty Hall / Carrascolendas / Mr. Dressup / Major Mudd / Chief Halftown / Baby Daphne / Sheriff John / Winchell & Mahoney / Fireball X-L5 / Mr. Wizard / Captain Noah / Thanksgiving Day Specials / Disney's First Christmas Special / Saturday Morning Cartoons / The Magic Garden / Amahl & the Night Visitors / Holiday Toy Commercials / Lucy & Desi's Last Christmas Show / Joey Heatherton / Fat Albert / The Virginian / Bewitched / Death of John Wayne / 1974 Saturday Mornings / Chuck McCann / Rudolph Collectables / Shrimpenstein / Local Popeye Shows / New Treasure Hunt / 1966 ABC TV Shows / 1967 TV Shows / 1968 TV Shows / Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes & Baby Doll / Fridays / TV Moms / Red Skelton / George Lindsay / Star Wars / KISS / Lancelot Link / Saturday Morning Cartoons / The Magic Garden / Wonder Woman / Classic Comic Books / Andy Griffith / Cher / TV Shows on DVD / Outtakes & Bloopers / 1967 TV Shows / Romper Room / ABC Movie of the Week / The Goldbergs / Daws Butler Commercials / Saturday Morning Commercials / Captain Kangaroo / Chicago Local Kiddie Shows / Boston Local TV / Philly Local TV / NYC Local Kid Shows / Amos 'n' Andy / Electric Company / Bette Davis / Judy Garland / Christmas Specials / Redd Foxx / Good Times / Sitcom Houses / What's Happening! / Winky Dink & You / Sonny & Cher / Smothers Brothers / Commercial Icons of the 1960s / Soupy Sales / TV Terrorists / Irwin Allen / The Untouchables / Carol Burnett Show / Batman TV Show / Green Hornet / Today Show History / Our Gang / Doris Day Show / 1970's Commercials For Women / Bill Cosby in the 1970s / The Golddiggers / Lola Falana / 1970s TV Shows / David Bowie on TV / Hudson Brothers / Jackie Gleason / Hollywood Squares / Match Game / Bob Keeshan / Gumby / The Flip Wilson Show / Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour / The Bobby Darin Show / The Richard Pryor Show / George Burns / Celebrity Commercials / Rudolph / Movie Posters & More!