The adventures of proud Polish-American freelance insurance investigator Thomas Banacek.
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A royal wedding coach disappears from its shipping container, leaving only an approximate 12" square hole behind. Enter Banacek to make sense if it.
A jetliner blows its tires as it emergency lands in a middle-of-nowhere kind of small Nevada town. Through crippled, by dawn it's completely gone, and the pilot on guard duty dead. Banacek flies out ...
Oxford Don - currently THE most valuable race horse in the country - returns from his pre-race morning run a completely different horse. His new owner demands Banacek.
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Title: Banacek (1972–1974)
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Nominated for
1
Primetime Emmy.
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Cast
| Complete series cast summary: | |||
| George Peppard | ... | Thomas Banacek 17 episodes, 1972-1974 | |
| Ralph Manza | ... | Jay Drury 17 episodes, 1972-1974 | |
| Murray Matheson | ... | Felix Mulholland 16 episodes, 1972-1974 | |
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Storyline
Thomas Banacek is a clever and well-to-do freelance insurance investigator living in Boston. He makes good money by solving the most intricate and unusual mysteries, and is very proud of his Polish heritage. His contacts include his street-smart chauffeur Jay and British bookstore owner Felix. Written by Marty McKee <mmckee@soltec.net>
Plot Keywords:
insurance company | insurance investigator | bookstore owner | chauffeur | polish american |Parents Guide:
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Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
20 March 1972 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Banacek: Kova kyttä See more »Company Credits
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Technical Specs
Runtime:
(16 episodes)Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
4:3
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The show had good ratings and was set to go for a third season until George Peppard pulled out. He was going through a divorce at the time, and he quit to prevent ex-wife Ashley from receiving a larger share of his earnings. Sadly, this permanently ended the show's run. See more »Quotes
Thomas Banacek: Twelve good horses and silver candlesticks won't stop the snow from falling in Bialystock.See more »
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After years of playing what he described to TV Guide as "tight-jawed men of action" in routine theatrical films, George Peppard made his small-screen bow as the star of "Banacek," one of three series ("Madigan" and "Cool Million" were the others) that rotated under the umbrella of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie when it premiered in September 1972 (following in the successful footsteps of the original Mystery Movie trio of "Columbo," "McCloud," and "McMillan and Wife" which moved to Sundays for their second season).
Almost every TV cop had a gimmick in that era, be it a wheelchair ("Ironside"), a Stetson ("McCloud"), or a walking stick ("Longstreet"). Thomas Banacek's appeal had much to do with his being Polish, and the sleuth (actually an insurance investigator) had enough confidence and sex appeal to counter any ethnic joke that came his way. When he wasn't seducing the leading ladies, he was correcting those who mispronounce his name ("It's Bana-CHECK"), more often than not with a smart-a** response.
Like "Columbo," this show's mysteries weren't who-done-its so much as they were how'd-they-do-it? Each episode opened with a mysterious disappearance (a football player vanishes after being tackled in one show, a priceless artifact or an airplane disappears in another) that Banacek would spend the bulk of each 90-minute episode attempting to solve. Smoking fine cigars, and displaying an expertise on the more elegant things in life that would make James Bond envious, Banacek could be insufferably arrogant, and Peppard inhabited the character to perfection.
"Banacek" was introduced in a two-hour World Premiere movie which aired on NBC in the 1971-72 season, then went on to headline 16 episodes from 1972-74. Despite healthy ratings, Peppard, whose contract with Universal and NBC originally called for a weekly series, and was therefore easily broken, bowed out in the hope of producing and directing a film about Long John Silver. When that project failed to materialize, he returned to series TV in the lesser "Doctors Hospital" in 1975 but enjoyed his greatest success as the leader of "The A Team" in the 80s. But "Banacek" remains his finest work in the television medium.