TV’s First Detective Series, ‘Martin Kane, Private,’ Turns 75

Let’s see…when you think of the typical TV detective you think of series like Murder She, Wrote, Blue Bloods, The Wire, Monk, Sherlock, Luther, Kojak, Columbo, Mannix, any of the Law & Order series, Pysch, Veronica Mars, True Detective…and the countless others over the past eight decades. They were endless. But did you know that first first detective-themed scripted drama, Martin Kane, Private Eye, debuted on this day in 1949?

Martin Kane, Private Eye was a live detective series, which was simultaneously a radio series of the same name, and it originally featured actor William Gargan as a smooth, wisecracking operator who worked in close cooperation with the police. His base of operation was New York, and the crime was usually murder.

Speficially, the night was Thursday, the time period was 10 p.m. ET, and Martin Kane, Private Eye followed a comedy-variety series on NBC’s schedule called Fireball Fun for All. It launched on September 1, 1949.

Fun factoid: There was in fact a real Martin Kane, who was an executive with advertising agency J. Walter Thompson at the time, which produced the series.

In 1953, the title was changed to just Martin Kane and the emphasis shifted to more mystery and suspense. With the change came a new actor to play Martin Kane, Lloyd Nolan, who did so in the third season. In later years, from 1968 to 1971 to be exact, Lloyd Nolan was known to TV audiences as Dr. Morton Chegley, the gruff on the outside (but lovable on the inside) boss to Diahann Carroll as nurse Julia Baker on the NBC sitcom Julia.

Julia was the first weekly series to star an African-American woman in a non-stereotypical role.

Ultimately, actor Lee Tracy replaced Lloyd Nolan in season four of Martin Kane, Private Eve. And Mark Stevens stepped in for Lee Tracy in the fifth, and final, season in 1953-54.

Three years after Martin Kane, Private Eye exited NBC it was revived in a syndicated series titled The New Adventures of Martin Kane. It this version, Kane was doing his sleuthing in London and Paris and William Gargan returned in the role.

Historically, The New Adventures of Martin Kane is considered the second series to be rebooted following sitcom The Life of Riley, which featured Jackie Gleason (pre-The Honeymooners) as bumbling Chester A. Riley for one season, from 1949 to 1950, and William Bendix in the reboot from 1953 to 1958.

All together now…Bang! Zoom!