DECISION "Man on a Raft" 1958
Decision was a summer replacement series that ran during 1958. It featured one off episodes of various pilots that the networks hoped to run in the fall. They used this as a sounding board with the viewing public. This particular episode is a take on the Michael Shayne detective books and films. This one has Mark Stevens playing Shayne.
A schooner sinks on the way to Cuba leaving three survivors. The men spend 10 days on a raft before two of the men are rescued. Shayne (Mark Stevens) is hired by the wife, Diane Brewster, of the man who died on the raft. It seems that there is a hefty inheritance involved. This inheritance though depends on which day the man died. Brewster needs Stevens to find out which day her husband died.
Stevens agrees to have a look into the matter. Miss Brewster suggests that her father in law might be a suspect worth checking out. Also in the mix here is a missing diary kept by one of the two surviving sailors. The diary happens to be in the hands of a newspaper reporter. Stevens pays the man a visit but finds him beaten and the diary missing.
Stevens now seeks a talk with the father in law, Gage Clarke. The man clams up when Stevens asks if he knows anything about the missing diary. All he gets from Clarke is that one of the sailors, Steve Mitchell, had come calling wanting cash to produce the diary. Now we find out that the inheritance stays with in the family if Brewster's husband died before his birthday.
There is something wrong here and Stevens detects a strong odour of rotting cheese. Now Miss Brewster is at the top of the list to look into. And of course it turns out that the woman is really a gold digger who had sent her hubby out die on a leaky boat. Stevens has his man, William Kendis, follow Brewster. Needless she leads Kendis and Stevens to her confederate in crime, Steve Mitchell. Brewster gets herself shot, while Mitchell catches a severe beating. The Police are called and the case is closed.
Mark Stevens also directed the episode from a script by Steve Fisher.
The show showed enough that NBC decided to buy 32 episodes. They reworked the concept expanding the episodes to an hour runtime. They also replaced Mark Stevens with Richard Denning. The series ran during the 1960-61 season.
Decision was a summer replacement series that ran during 1958. It featured one off episodes of various pilots that the networks hoped to run in the fall. They used this as a sounding board with the viewing public. This particular episode is a take on the Michael Shayne detective books and films. This one has Mark Stevens playing Shayne.
A schooner sinks on the way to Cuba leaving three survivors. The men spend 10 days on a raft before two of the men are rescued. Shayne (Mark Stevens) is hired by the wife, Diane Brewster, of the man who died on the raft. It seems that there is a hefty inheritance involved. This inheritance though depends on which day the man died. Brewster needs Stevens to find out which day her husband died.
Stevens agrees to have a look into the matter. Miss Brewster suggests that her father in law might be a suspect worth checking out. Also in the mix here is a missing diary kept by one of the two surviving sailors. The diary happens to be in the hands of a newspaper reporter. Stevens pays the man a visit but finds him beaten and the diary missing.
Stevens now seeks a talk with the father in law, Gage Clarke. The man clams up when Stevens asks if he knows anything about the missing diary. All he gets from Clarke is that one of the sailors, Steve Mitchell, had come calling wanting cash to produce the diary. Now we find out that the inheritance stays with in the family if Brewster's husband died before his birthday.
There is something wrong here and Stevens detects a strong odour of rotting cheese. Now Miss Brewster is at the top of the list to look into. And of course it turns out that the woman is really a gold digger who had sent her hubby out die on a leaky boat. Stevens has his man, William Kendis, follow Brewster. Needless she leads Kendis and Stevens to her confederate in crime, Steve Mitchell. Brewster gets herself shot, while Mitchell catches a severe beating. The Police are called and the case is closed.
Mark Stevens also directed the episode from a script by Steve Fisher.
The show showed enough that NBC decided to buy 32 episodes. They reworked the concept expanding the episodes to an hour runtime. They also replaced Mark Stevens with Richard Denning. The series ran during the 1960-61 season.
