Veteran actor Roscoe Karns starred as Police Inspector Rocky King for the Dumont Network from 1950 through 1954 in one of the network's most popular live programs. Earl Hammond (now perhaps best known as a voice-over artist for many children's television shows) played King's fellow police officer, Detective Sergeant Lane; if Lane ever had a first name, I don't know it. Grace Carney, an occasional film and television actress, was the voice of King's wife, Mabel, with whom King would chat over the telephone at the end of each episode.
The following episode, from December 14, 1953, has King and Lane trying to save an innocent man scheduled to be executed in three hours. It was written by Frank Phares, who wrote for six other television series in the 1950s, and was directed by Wes Kenney, who later became executive producer for the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
Enjoy "Murder, Ph.D."
https://archive.org/details/Rocky_King_Detective
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ReplyDeleteDo not think I have heard this mentioned before.
ReplyDeleteBeing the second-most popular series on the DuMont Network isn't the best means for pop-culture currency sixty years later. Except among those who know it was the second most popular series (after CAPTAIN VIDEO).
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only one who ever heard of, much less watched, Rocky King. Except that I watched it growing up on channel five. I think Dupont was five. I am a big fan of Roscoe Karns in just about anything he ever did. He was born to play either a detective, a cop or a reporter. :)
ReplyDeleteDuMont was indeed on (and owned) Channels 5 in NYC and DC, which were the core of the network from 1949-54. Metromedia bought them as DuMont folded, and sold them decades later to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and they are still among the founding Fox Broadcasting Co. owned and operated stations.
ReplyDeleteHm. And "Mike" Nevins notes on Mystery*File today that Richard Coogan, who played Captain Video, and Ellery Queen on the Boucher/Lee radio series, died in March at age 99. A very tenuous thread, but worth the note.
ReplyDelete