''Front Page Detective'' is an American crime drama series which aired on the
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
on Fridays at 9:30 p.m. ET from July 6, 1951, to September 19, 1952, and in October and November 1953. The program was then in
broadcast syndication
Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
for several years thereafter.
[Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1979). ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows: 1946-Present''. Ballantine Books. . P. 213.]
Synopsis
''Front Page Detective'' stars
Edmund Lowe as David Chase, a newspaper columnist who helps police solve especially difficult mysteries. The title derived from a popular true-crime
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
of the same name, and stories were based on material from the magazine.
Other cast members were
Frank Jenks as Lieutenant Rodney,
Paula Drew as Sharon Richards, and George Pembroke as Lieutenant Andrews.
[
]
Personnel
Jerry Fairbanks
Gerald Bertram Fairbanks (November 1, 1904, San Francisco — June 21, 1995, Santa Barbara, California) was a producer and director in the Hollywood motion picture and television industry.
Biography
Fairbanks survived the 1906 San Francisco eart ...
was the producer and distributor, and Arnold Wester was the director. Gene Levitt and Robert Mitcher were the writers.
Reception
A review in '' The New York Times'' of the series's initial episode found that its drama paled in comparison to that of the Kefauver Commission
The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was a special committee of the United States Senate which existed from 1950 to 1951 and which investigated organized crime which crossed state borders in the Un ...
hearings that were then being televised. The reviewer suggested that the killer was fairly obvious and described the episode as "too cut and dried ...". A review in the trade publication '' Variety'' panned the June 27, 1952, episode, describing it as "a dull affair which the actors seemed to realize and refuse to help".[
]
Episode status
UCLA Film and Television Archive has 17 episodes of this series.
See also
* List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network
* List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts
* 1951-52 United States network television schedule
Bibliography
*David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004)
*Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980)
*Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'', Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains ...
, 1964)
References
External links
*
List of episodes at CTVA
DuMont Television Network original programming
Black-and-white American television shows
1951 American television series debuts
1953 American television series endings
1950s American crime drama television series
English-language television shows
Television series about journalism
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