![]() Its ratings reaching a peak during its second season, The Untouchables began bleeding viewers during season three thanks to competition from-of all things-the family-oriented musical series Sing Along With Mitch. Among the other infamous reprobates who appeared in the series (usually played by top-rank guest stars) were Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Ma Barker, Bugs Moran, Jake Lingle, Mad Dog Coll, Dutch Schlultz and the Genna Brothers (the series sustained the illusion that Ness was in one way or another responsible for the downfall of all these characters, forcing the FBI and other official organizations to register complaints with ABC!) Inevitably, the writers ran out of genuine miscreants and began introducing ficitional villians-though after the series' second season, pressure from various special-interest groups dictated that none of the "imaginary" bad guys and bad guys be given Italian names (which explains why many of the lowlifes were played by such WASPish actors as Robert Redford. During the firs season, most of the villains was drawn from life, notably Capone's second-in-command Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon), who appeared so often that he was virtually a costar. ![]() It proved to be the veteran newshawk's most successful TV venture, even though he almost never appeared on-camera (it wouldn't have made sense anyway, since Winchell's berat was New York, not Chicago) Of course, the series' real selling card was its colorful lineup of gangsters, murderers, thieves and extortionists. Throughout its four-season run, the series was narrated by legendary journalist Walter Winchell in his patented rat-a-tat-tat fashion. Later additions to the "Ness boys" were agents Allison (Anthony George), Hobson (Steve London) and Rossman (Steve London). Wynn was abset for the series proper, in which Ness' team included agents Flaherty (Jerry Paris) and Youngblood (Abel Fernandez)-and, perhaps in a move to counter complaints that many of the series' real-gangsters were Italians, an Italian-American "Untouchable", Enrico Rossi (Nick Georgiade), was prominently featured in several episodes. Stack was seen in the two-part pilot (later released theatrically as The Scarface Mob) opposite Keenan Wynn as a fellow "Untouchable" and Neville Brand as scarfaced Al Capone. ![]() Winning the role of Ness over such candidates as Van Johnson, Van Heflin and Fred MacMurray, Robert Stack brought to the character just the right amount of tough, gimlet-eyed diligence, resisting the tempation to leaven the character with even a trace of humor or sentiment-at least during the first few seasons. Though Ness spent much of the rest of his career in other cities, notably Cleveland, his Chicago years were, understandably, the focus of the series, which debuted Octoon ABC. While assigned to Chicago in the early 1930s, Ness and a small band of dedicated, incorruptible fellow agents-nicknamed "The Untouchables" by the press because of the fact that they could be neither bought off nor scared off-were instrumental in crushing the criminal empire of notorious gangland chieftan Al Capone. It was also one of the most popular, so draw your own conclusions! The series was based on the autobiography of Eliot Ness, a lifelong law enforcement officer and civil servant, and former treasury-department agent. Feibleman, Richard Alan Simmons, Richard Alan Simmons, Richard Levinson, Robert Blees, Robert Malcolm Young, Robert Sherman, Robert Van Scoyk, Roland Kibbee, Shirl Hendryx, Stanley Ralph Ross, Stephen J.An outgrowth of a two-part dramatization on the CBS anthology Desilu Playhouse, The Untouchables was inarguably one of the most violent cop series ever seen on American network television. Dugan, Jonathan Latimer, Larry Cohen, Lester Pine, Luther Davis, Michael Alaimo, Michael Sloan, Patrick McGoohan, Peter Falk, Peter S. Lewis, David Rayfiel, Dean Hargrove, Evan Hunter, Frederick King Keller, Gene Thompson, Gerry Day, Henry Garson, Howard Berk, Irv Pearlberg, Jackson Gillis, James Menzies, Jeffrey Bloom, Jerrold L. Friedman, Anthony Lawrence, Barney Slater, Booker Bradshaw, Brad Radnitz, David P. ![]() Abroms, Harvey Hart, Hy Averback, Jack Smight, James Frawley, Jeannot Szwarc, Jeremy Kagan, John Cassavetes, Jonathan Demme, Leo Penn, Nicholas Colasanto, Norman Lloyd, Patrick McGoohan, Peter Falk, Richard Irving, Richard Quine, Robert Butler, Robert Douglas, Sam Wanamaker, Steven Spielberg, Ted Post, Vincent McEveety, Walter Grauman Writers: Alvin R. Kowalski, Boris Sagal, Daryl Duke, Dennis Dugan, E.W. Directors: Alf Kjellin, Ben Gazzara, Bernard L.
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