Television episodes -The Adventures of Ellery Queen ('a Kaiser-Frazer Adventure in Mystery')

he Adventures of Ellery Queen t e r u g
('a Kaiser-Frazer Adventure in Mystery')

Dumont, 14 Oct 1950-1951
ABC, 1951- Dec,1952

Producers: Norman and Irving Pincus
Directors: Donald Richardson, William Hart, Alex Cohen.
Scriptwriters: Helene Hanff, Reginald Denham,
Mary Orr, Eugene Burr, ...
Composer "Ellery Queen Theme"(the same theme that was used on the last 2 Radio series): Chester ("Chet") Kingsbury. Music Arranged by Ray Carter
Set designer: J.R. Lloyd
EQ: Richard Hart, Lee Bowman
Inspector Queen: Florenz Ames

Being broadcast at the beginning of TV, the series were allegedly broadcast live. Although ABC made recordings which somehow seem to have survived. At first Richard Hart, big and strapping and sporting an incongruous Errol Flynn moustache, was the star "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" also known as 'a Kaiser-Frazer Adventure in Mystery'. This first series was aired live and was well done for a Dumont net program. Florenz Ames played his father, Inspector Richard Queen. The show appeared on the Dumont Network beginning in 1950 and each episode took 25 minutes. It was broadcast on Thursdays from 9:00 to 9:30 PM.
The program won the TV Guide Award for best television mystery of 1950 and it lasted until 1952. They kept about five writers busy via a rotation routine, due to the shortage of good actors that quintet is often forced to rewrite a script so a character will fit one of the "dependable six."
Some episodes were announced at the end of each episode, often titles were changed by the next week...

The first season consisted of 38 episodes.

First Season

Starring Richard Hart

1* "The Bad Boy"
     10/19/50
       Adapted from the Queen radio play with the same name broadcast on July 30, 1939

     Investigation by Ellery and his father of the poisoning of a hateful old matriarch in a
       rooming house.

2* "The Mad Tea Party"
     10/26/50
        Adapted from the short story collected in The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934)

     At a house party a private performance of Alice in Wonderland triggers a series of
       mad doings.

3* "The Invisible Lover"
     11/02/50
        Script: Ethel Frank
        Adapted from the short story collected in The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934)

     In a boarding house an artist who was romancing his landlord's daughter gets
       murdered

4* "The Long Count"
      11/09/50
         Script: Richard Morrison

    Apparently this was a boxing story, but no description or cast names are available.

5* "The Three Lame Man"
     11/16/50
        Script: Richard Morrison
        Adapted from the short story collected in The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934)

     At first glance the case of the three cripples who kidnapped a banker an left the
       girlfriend to suffocate to death. Ellery and his dad look further...

6* "The Human Weapon"
     11/23/50
        Script: Alvin Sapinsley
        Likely adapted from the Queen radio play with the same name broadcast on
       April 1 and 3, 1943

     Mr. Sykes has been placed in an insane asylum by his wife. He must be released
      today so that he can kill his wife...and he asks Ellery for help! Abel Sykes escapes
      from the asylum and does in fact murder his wife...or does he?

7* "The Crooked Man"
     11/30/50
        Script: Ethel Frank
        Likely adapted from the Queen radio play with the same name broadcast on
        03-12-47

        A private eye is blackmailing culprits of crimes, many of them have commited
      suicide. Ellery sets a trap by framing himself for Nikki's murder.

8* "The Blind Bullet"
     12/07/50
        Script: Blanche Gaines and Henry Misrock
        Likely adapted from the Queen radio play with the same name broadcast on
        06-30-40

        A ruthless tycoon feels threatened as he received a precise minute and day of his
        death. The magnate turns to Ellery to protect him from this anonymous enemy

9* "Two Pieces of Silver"
12/14/50
Script: Ethel Frank

10* "The Hanging Acrobat" aka Carnival Acrobat aka Carnival Killer (?) or
          12/21/50                                               Murder at the Carnival (?)
          Repeated on 10/11/51
          With: Sono Osato (Louise), Kurt Katch (Hugo), Frank Tweddell (Sheriff),
                     Ray Bramley ( Colonel Day), Don Kennedy (Tex)
          Donald Richardson (director), Gilbert Braun (adaptation), Eugene Burr
         (script editor), Trew Hocker (settings), Ray Carter (music), Rex Marshall
         (announcer: uncredited).

         Amy Muller, a carnival acrobat with too many boyfriends, is found strangled
         to death. The prime suspect is "Tex," but Ellery Queen soon discovers who
         really did it.

(YouTube The Video Cellar)

11* "The Star of India"
         12/28/50
          Script: Ethel Frank
          With: George Reeves (4)
          Later adapted for an episode of (TPA) the Adventures of Ellery Queen
          "The Star of Kashmir" broadcast on 04/29/56

        Ellery tries to solve the theft of a valuable jewel and a connected murder.

The Adventures of Ellery Queen required 25 hours of going through lines and setting scenes. After only four months, less than a third of the way through the season, in January of 1951, Hart died of a heart attack during a rehearsal (January 2, 1951) and was replaced on 24 hours notice by Lee Bowman. older, suaver, and slimmer. Lee recalled "Hart died on a Tuesday and I did the show on Thursday. I had no idea of getting into a live series, but they offered it to me, and I stayed."

detail of a Henry J. add with Lee Bowman

Starring Lee Bowman

12* "The Survivor's Club"
1/04/51
Script: Ethel Frank

13* "Prescription for Treason"
1/11/51
Script: Robert Tallman

14* "The House of Terror"
1/18/51
Script: Nancy Moore

15* "The Hollywood Murder Story" (2) aka
           "Murder in Hollywood" (1)
          1/25/51
          With: Judith Evelyn (Alice Blythe), Dennis Hoey (Ronny Sinclair), Ronald Telfer
                    (Coil Wagner), Neil Harrison (Mrs.Jordan), Peter Chan (Mox)
      adaptation: Ethel Frank, script editor: Eugene Burr, music: Ray Carter

        Ellery goes to Hollywood to write a script for a picture. "I had no idea how to
          write a picture but the salary was excelllent" Suffering from writersblock he finds it
          easiest to solve a 20-year-old crime. An actor was shot in his Malibu beachhouse.
          His wife actrice Alice Blythe and his mother-in-law and co-actor Ronny Sinclair are
          the suspects...

Survives on Kinescope (1)

16* "The Man who Killed Cops"
Lee Bowman and Jean Carson in "The Man Who Killed Cops" (1951)           2/ 1/51
          Script: Henry Misrock
        With: Harry Bellaver, Jean Carson,
           Matt Briggs, (...)

        In New Yorks Lower East Side a Cop is killed and
          a man is beaten-up. A man called Joe Huckleberry
          is selling protection to storekeepers. One
          coffeeshop is a frontend for a card room in the
          back. A lot of gambling is going on. When Louie
          takes Joe "to the cleaners" he gets murdered.

17* "The Hanging Patient"
2/ 8/51
Script: Ethel Frank

18* "The Jewel-Handled Knife"
          2/15/51
          Script: Henry Misrock
          Starring Felicia Montcleagre, Ted Hecht, Kurt Katch (2)

19* "The Falling Corpse"
2/22/51
Lee Bowman with Jean Carter (as Carole Brighton) in 'The Adventure of the Strange Voyage'. Jean Carter as Jean Carson became one of the future Andy Griffith Fun Girls. Script: Ben Radin

20* "The Strange Voyage"
          3/1/51
          Script: Henry Misrock
          with Jean Carter (Carole Brighton)

          Story is about the search for some
          missing jewels, and a murder that
           takes place on a ship.

21* "The Madcap Robbery" (1)
          3/8/51
          Script: Robert Tallman
          "The Chapeau Murder Mystery" (2)
          3/8/51
          Starring Ferdi Hoffman

22* "The Man Hunt"
3/15/51
Script: Bob Patterson

23* "Murder at the Museum"
3/22/51
Script: Russell Beggs

24* "The Man who Enjoyed Death"
          3/29/51
          Script: Henry Misrock
          With Rex Marshall (Announcer) and John Newland (Boone)

       Charles Boone, district attorney, who's career ended when EQ proved that the
          accused couldn't have committed the crime, returns six months later to take his
         revenge.

                                        (YouTube Joe S.)

25* "The Frightened Lady"
           4/5/51
           Script: Ben Radin
           Starring Jerome Cowan (2)

26* "The Baseball Murder Story" (2) aka
         "The Baseball Murder Case" (1)
           4/12/51
           Script: Ben Radin

Episode 4/19/51 apparently pre-empted episode 27 was rescheduled
to the following week (2)

27* "Murder for Twelve Cents"
4/26/51
Script: Norman Lessing

28* "The Key to Murder"
           5/3/51
           With: Donald Briggs, Don Ameche, Constance Dowling
          Script: Henry Misrock

29* "Death Spins the Wheel" (2)
           aka 'Death takes a Spin', aka "Death Spins a Wheel"
          5/10/51
          Adaptation: Ethel Frank, script editor: Eugene Burr, music Ray Carter
        With: Robert Harris (Phil Artel), Evelyn Ward (Janine Carr), James Vender
          (Leo) Howard Erskine (Bob Dawson), Lew Herbert (Longio), John
          Armstrong (Scott)

           Last Summer a piano player in a gambling joint called "the Springs" was
           about to be killed. Bob supossedly commited suicide and was found
           clutching a counterfeit bill in his hand. His fiancé doesn't seem to think
           Bob killed himself. Ellery goes undercover as Eddie Quinto, piano player...

(YouTube Joe S.)

30* "The Frame-up"(2)
           5/17/51
           Script: Norman Lessing
      "Dissolve to Death" (1)
           5/17/51
           Script: Henry Misrock

31* "The Frame-up"
5/24/51
Script: Norman Lessing

32* "The Happiness Club"
5/31/51
Script: Henry Misrock based on a story by Evelyn Goodman

33* "The Chinese Mummer Mystery"
           6/7/51
           Script: Norman Lessing
           With Anne Marno

34* "Murder in the Zoo"
           6/14/51
           Script: Ethel Frank
           With Joan Wetmore, Kurt Katch

35* "Death in a Capsule"
           6/21/51
           Script: Henry Misrock

        Ellery sets out to uncover a narcotics dealing ring.

36* "The Upright Man"
           6/28/51
           Script: Betty Loring
           With John Carradine

37* "The Frightened Child"
7/05/51
Script: Henry Misrock

38* "The Ballet Murder"
           5/12/51
           Script: Helene Hanff based on story by Irving Pincus and Eugene Burr
           With: Tamara Geva, Robert H.Harris.

Second Season...

References
(1) The Live Television of Ellery Queen by Francis M.Nevins Jr in The Armchair
Detective volume 17, 1984)
(2) Brooklyn NY Daily Television and Radio Programs Newspaper, 1951
(3) IMDb
(4) Wikipedia

Last updated July 22, 2016