1963-1966
This American detective series starred Gene Barry as the millionaire captain Amos Burke of the LAPD’s homicide division, who is chauffeured around in his 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II as he solves various crimes.
Gene Barry’s character and dialog fits every pattern of early 60s sexism and fails amusingly at creating the mix of James Bond and Hugh Hefner it is so transparently gunning for, instead producing a bargain basement version of its own vision.
Extremely formulaic the show drops a body within the first five minutes of every episode, finds our hero dressed to the nines in tuxes or ascots, often in the company of a sexy babe, whom he promptly leaves behind to jump in his Rolls and take off to investigate the heinous crime while a husky voice from the off purrs “It’s Burke’s Law!” over the ensuing credits. Every episode’s title starts with “Who killed…”, which, I presume, is fair enough, given that the main character is captain of the homicide division.
Episodes
