General Foods bought the program from Powell as a summer replacement for
December Bride in 1957. The television debut of Richard Diamond occurred on November 22, 1956, when Don Taylor portrayed the character in the "Double Cross" episode on
Chevron Hall of Stars. Powell's company,
Four Star Television, produced the television version of
Richard Diamond, Private Detective, which premiered in the summer of 1957 on
CBS. It returned to CBS in January 1958 for the second season and in February 1959 for the third season, again on CBS. In the fall of 1959, the fourth and final season aired on
NBC.
David Janssen, before
The Fugitive, starred as Diamond, a former officer of the
New York Police Department and a
hard-boiled private detective in the
film noir tradition.
Don Taylor played the title role in a 1956 television pilot, broadcast as an episode of the anthology series
Chevron Hall of Stars. The first two television seasons followed radio's characterization the most closely (several episodes were adapted from the radio series). Diamond, known for his charm and wisecracks as much as his virility, was still based in New York, though Janssen never sat at a piano and sang, as Powell had typically ended most of the radio episodes. In the
noirish opening sequence, clad in hat, suit, and tie, he walks down a dimly lit street toward the camera and lights up a cigarette, the light revealing his face. After the first season when the sponsor was
Maxwell House, the show was sponsored by
Kent cigarettes, and
Frank DeVol’s playfully mysterious theme was heard underneath an announcer hawking either "Maxwell House – Good to the Last Drop" or “Kent with the Micronite filter.” In syndicated rebroadcasts of the series, the revised title,
Call Mr. D., flashes on the screen, and DeVol's music is replaced by
Pete Rugolo’s far more recognizable theme—although that did not appear until Season 3. Following the second season, the setting was switched from
New York City to
Los Angeles, and the production was entirely redesigned. The 18 episodes comprising Season 3 aired from February to mid-June of 1959, and Diamond’s character now bore only slight resemblance to his California-based
noirish predecessors
Sam Spade and
Philip Marlowe. By the late 1950s, the glamour of Hollywood was becoming an irresistible fantasy for millions of viewers, and the popularity of Warner Brothers’
77 Sunset Strip—which involved a good deal of location shooting and began airing four months before Diamond's third season—undoubtedly influenced a newer P. I. image that often seemed more inspired by
Hugh Hefner than by
Dashiell Hammett. Diamond no longer occupied a low-rent, cloistered office, but now operated from a modern, beautifully appointed
ranch house—complete with a
swimming pool—in the
Hollywood Hills. With panoramic sliding glass doors providing views of the mountains and the city, his sunken living room featured a bar and a
loveseat, where he could be found many evenings entertaining young women before a fire. Following the lead of the
Sunset Strip private eyes, he also drove a convertible—in this case a 1959
DeSoto Fireflite. The Hefner-like fantasy was enhanced by gadgets, especially Diamond's
car phone, which connected him directly to an answering service overseen by the shapely, enigmatic “Sam”. Season 3's modern, more youthful ambience was complemented by a jazz score by composer/arranger Pete Rugolo, who created a set of big-band,
Stan Kenton-esque cues for each of the episodes. In the highly stylized opening sequence, Rugolo's robust theme is preceded by tense melodic fragments underscoring a series of frenetic, silhouette images of Diamond running, before walking forward—again in hat, suit, and tie—to light a cigarette, suggesting a re-boot of the original
noirish conception. (Rugolo's score soon became so popular that in 1959 a full album of his
Diamond cues,
The Music from Richard Diamond, was released on the Mercury label.) In the fourth season, which aired on NBC, the writers retained Los Angeles as the setting, but the Hefner-esque fantasy elements were considerably toned down. Now Diamond again operated from an office reminiscent of what he had known in New York, and his beautiful ranch house was replaced by an attractive—though more conventional—apartment. His car phone still connected him to Sam, but he now drove a 1959
Ford Galaxie convertible—absent the impressive tail fins of his DeSoto. Though the opening titles remained, Rugolo's score was replaced by a more sedate theme, "Nervous" by
Richard Shores, later to be used during the highlight sequence that began every episode of
The Dick Powell Show. The CBS Season 3 re-boot had aired on Sunday nights at 10 pm, but NBC moved the time slot to 7:30 pm Monday, and Season 4 began airing on October 5, 1959, with a 17-episode run that concluded late in January. Because its numbers were no longer strong, the season's nine additional episodes were delayed, resuming only as a summer replacement on Tuesday, July 5, 1960, and concluding in early September. Though the old
noirish elements were more prominent, the final season's look seems inspired more by cost-cutting than aesthetics, and the production values appear far less glamorous than Season 3. In addition to Janssen, the series had other recurring characters. Mirroring Diamond's history with the New York Police Department, the radio version featured his friend, police Lt. Walt Levinson (often played by
Ed Begley, Sr.), and on TV, veteran actor
Regis Toomey, portraying Diamond's former superior, Lt. Dennis "Mac" McGough, came aboard in the first episode, which aired in July 1957. Toomey then appeared intermittently in seven more, including “Snow Queen,” the final episode of Season 2, which aired on June 26, 1958. Radio's version also gave Diamond a steady girl friend, wealthy socialite Helen Asher (played by
Virginia Gregg), a story arc that was neglected by television until the first episode of Season 3, when Diamond meets fashion designer Karen Wells, played by
Barbara Bain. But this may have created a conundrum for the producers, since radio's Diamond was also an unrestrained flirt, and Powell's character often shamelessly ogled his beautiful clients before returning to Helen each week. In one TV episode, “Soft Touch,” Karen catches Diamond about to two-time her, and after five episodes, the “steady-girl-friend” arc had disappeared, with Diamond once again playing the field. When he first reached Los Angeles, Diamond had no history with the local police, and his encounters with them are often contentious. In Season 4,
Russ Conway was cast as Lieutenant Pete Kile for five episodes, and their relationship soon turns to one of mutual respect, if not always warmth. The omnipresent Sam entered the picture (at least partially—viewers never saw much of her face) in Season 3 and remained for the duration of the series. She was played for most of Season 3 by
Mary Tyler Moore in her first regular series role, and later replaced by
Roxane Brooks.
Cast •
David Janssen as Richard Diamond •
Regis Toomey as Lt. Dennis "Mac" McGough (seasons 1–2) •
Russ Conway as Lt. Pete Kile (season 4) •
Barbara Bain as Karen Wells (season 3) •
Mary Tyler Moore as Sam (season 3) • Roxane Brooks as Sam (seasons 3–4)
Television guest stars •
Nick Adams •
Philip Ahn •
Charles Aidman •
Claude Akins •
Frank Albertson •
Jack Albertson •
Chris Alcaide •
Merry Anders •
John Anderson •
Eleanor Audley •
Phyllis Avery •
Joanna Barnes •
Baynes Barron •
Patricia Barry •
Harry Bartell •
Arthur Batanides •
Barbara Baxley •
Don Beddoe •
Ed Begley •
Harry Bellaver •
Russ Bender •
John Beradino •
James Best •
Edward Binns •
Joey Bishop •
Patricia Blair •
Whitney Blake •
Dan Blocker •
Willis Bouchey •
Lane Bradford •
Jocelyn Brando •
Steve Brodie •
Charles Bronson •
Hillary Brooke •
Geraldine Brooks •
Robert Burton •
King Calder •
Charles Cane •
Richard Carlyle •
Jack Cassidy •
John Cliff •
Phyllis Coates •
Marian Collier •
Joe Conley •
Ellen Corby •
Jerome Cowan •
Dennis Cross •
Christopher Dark •
Ted de Corsia •
Francis De Sales •
King Donovan •
Richard Devon •
Brad Dexter •
Lawrence Dobkin •
James Drury •
Don Durant •
Jack Elam •
Ross Elliott •
Tommy Farrell •
James Flavin •
Dick Foran •
Robert Foulk •
Douglas Fowley •
Robert Gist •
Ned Glass •
John Goddard •
Barry Gordon •
Saul Gorss •
Tom Greenway •
Dabbs Greer •
Virginia Gregg •
Don Haggerty •
Kipp Hamilton •
Peter Hansen •
Stacy Harris •
Edmund Hashim •
Irene Hervey •
Bern Hoffman •
Jonathan Hole •
James Hong •
Clegg Hoyt •
John Hoyt •
Robert Karnes •
Don Keefer •
DeForest Kelley •
Sandy Kenyon •
Jess Kirkpatrick •
Gail Kobe •
Charles Lane •
Joi Lansing •
Harry Lauter •
Ruta Lee •
Peter Leeds •
Bethel Leslie •
Nan Leslie •
Lisa Lu •
Keye Luke •
John Lupton •
Ross Martin •
Carole Mathews •
Ken Mayer •
Sean McClory •
Howard McNear •
Joyce Meadows •
Joseph Mell •
Troy Melton •
Eve Miller •
John Mitchum •
Rita Moreno •
Vic Morrow •
James Nolan •
Jeanette Nolan •
Jay Novello •
Alan Reed •
Richard Reeves •
Stafford Repp •
Addison Richards •
Mark Roberts •
Carlos Romero •
Hayden Rorke •
Mort Sahl •
Walter Sande •
Gloria Saunders •
William Schallert •
Jacqueline Scott •
Karen Sharpe •
Fred Sherman •
Doris Singleton •
Lyle Talbot •
Gloria Talbott •
Vaughn Taylor •
Lee Van Cleef •
Herb Vigran •
June Vincent •
James Westerfield •
Jesse White •
Jean Willes •
Gloria Winters ==Television episode list==