NAAR PAGINA: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7

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
       Director: Donald Richardson
       Writers: H.R. Hays, Henry Gilfond
       With: Hilda Vaughn, Helen Wagner, Elliott Sullivan, Martin Brandt, Lester Mack,
       Sandy Kennedy (5)

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

       Ellery Queen’s TV bow last Thursday (19) via WABD, N Y. and the DuMont net
       was marked by good acting that overshadowed an unpleasant, mediocre story. For
       the series initialer, “The Case of the Bad Boy” emerged as a disturbing
       psychological study of three characters, none of whom excited audience sympathy.
       Aunt Sarah, a miserly rooming house proprietor, Coveted her sister’s ill-behaved
       10-year-old son. His widowed mother was a spineless woman who chose neither
       to train her offspring correctly nor challenge the boy’s dominating aunt. Into
       this strained atmosphere came Ellery Queen and his inspector-father to probe
       an attempt upon the aunt’s life. In no time- at all the writer amateur criminologist
       perceived that the aunt earlier took some of her own arsenic by mistake and
       correctly traced her subsequent murder to a switch of dinner plates deftly
       executed by the boy. If the solution was obvious to the sleuth, it was even more
       obvious to viewers. Richard Hart was suave and thorough as Queen, while the
       bumbling inspector was competently portrayed by Florenz Ames. Thesping honors,
       however, were copped by Hilda Vaughn, as the aunt, who reveled in exhibiting the
       symptoms of arsenic poisoning. Supporting cast was also good, as was Donald
       Richardson’s direction. It’s fairly evident that the success of the EQ video version
       depends upon what original Queen story the adaptors choose for the visual
       medium. Plugs for Kaiser Frazer cars were relatively innocuous, with most of the
       pitch conveyed via film. - Gilb.
                                                          (Variety, Wednesday October 25, 1950)

2* "The Mad Tea Party"
       10/26/50
        Adapted from the short story collected in The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934)
       Director: Alex Siegel
       Musical director: Ray Carter
       With: Felicia Montealegre

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

       Variety reported on May 3, 1950 that Norman and Irving Pincus were having a
       kinescope made that week of the "Adventures of Ellery Queen". The title of the
       kine show was "The Mad Tea Party".

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 Men"
       11/16/50
        Script: Richard Morrison
        Adapted from the short story collected in The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934)
        With: Elliott Sullivan

        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
        With: Hope Miller, Roger DeKoven

10* "The Hanging Acrobat"
              aka "Carnival Acrobat"
              aka Carnival Killer (?) or "Murder at the Carnival" (?)
          12/21/50
          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. 

                                      
        
         ("The Hanging Acrobat" - YouTube ComicWeb)

11* "The Star of India"
         12/28/50
          Script: Ethel Frank
          With: George Reeves (4), Margaret Hayes Swope (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.