''21 Beacon Street'' is an American detective television series that originally aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from July 2 to September 10, 1959. Produced by Filmways, the summer replacement series for ''

The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show ''The Ford Show'' (also known as ''The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford'' and ''The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show'') is an American variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired on NBC on Thursday eveni ...

'' consisted of 11

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

30-minute episodes. The show starred

Dennis Morgan Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner, December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame. According to one obi ...

as private investigator Dennis Chase. Other cast members included Joanna Barnes, Brian Kelly, and James Maloney.Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946 – Present'' Ballantine Books, 1979, page 647 The series pilot was broadcast as an episode of '' Panic!''. The show aired on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Reruns were broadcast on ABC-TV on Sundays at 10:30 p.m. from December 1959 to March 1960. Leonard Heideman was the show's creator. The series' first episode was "The Rub-Out".

Premises

Dennis Chase was a private investigator with an office on 21 Beacon Street, in an unspecified city. Chase was aided by Joanna Barnes as Lola, who was a combination of beauty and brains. She was able to glean information and then act as a decoy. Brian Kelly was Brian, a young law school graduate; and James Maloney played Jim, an expert on dialects, as well as a skilled craftsman. Chase and his assistants worked to discover who the criminals were, but then notified the police to come and apprehend the law breakers.

Forerunner to Mission Impossible

The producers of ''Mission: Impossible'' were sued for plagiarism by the creators of ''21 Beacon Street.'' The suit was settled out of court.

Bruce Geller Bruce Bernard Geller (October 13, 1930 – May 21, 1978) was an American lyricist, screenwriter, director, and television producer. Life and education Geller was born in New York City, the son of Dorothy (Friedlander) and General Sessions Judge A ...

claimed never to have seen the earlier show; ''Beacon Street's'' story editor and pilot scripter, Laurence Heath, would later write several episodes of ''Mission: Impossible.''

References

External links

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Cimaclub Online21 Beacon Street on DVD
1959 American television series debuts 1959 American television series endings 1950s American crime television series Black-and-white American television shows NBC original programming English-language television shows Television shows set in Boston Detective television series Television series by MGM Television Television series by Filmways {{US-drama-tv-prog-stub