''Man Against Crime'' (also known as ''Follow That Man'') starring

Ralph Bellamy Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 – November 29, 1991) was an American actor whose career spanned 65 years on stage, film, and television. During his career, he played leading roles as well as supporting roles, garnering acclaim and ...

, one of the first

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

programs about private eyes, ran on CBS, the

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of bein ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

from October 7, 1949, to June 27, 1954, and was briefly revived, starring

Frank Lovejoy Frank Andrew Lovejoy Jr. (March 28, 1912 – October 2, 1962) was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He is perhaps best remembered for appearing in the film noir ''The Hitch-Hiker'' and for starring in the radio drama '' Night Beat' ...

, during 1956. The show was created by Lawrence Klee and was broadcast live until 1952. The series was one of the few television programs ever to have been

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simult ...

on more than one network: the program aired on both NBC and DuMont during the 1953–54 television season.Marsh, Earle and Tim Brooks (1985). ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows 1946-Present'', p. 513. Ballantine. .

Synopsis

''Man Against Crime'' stars Ralph Bellamy as Mike Barnett, a New York freelance private eye. In the 1951 season, Robert Preston co-starred as Mike Barnett's brother, Pat (who also assumed the lead while Bellamy was on vacation that summer). Mike Barnett did not carry a gun. Accompanied by a frantic theme song by

Fred Steiner Frederick Steiner (February 24, 1923 – June 23, 2011) was an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, film historian and arranger for television, radio and film. Steiner wrote the theme music for ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'' and ...

[where is the evidence that Steiner wrote the theme? - the theme is named "Manhunt" and originally was in the Filmusic Library, then the Langlois Filmusic Library, then Cinemusic Library, and now in the APM Music Library - it can be found online at www.APMmusic.com and on YouTube], the film noir-style introduction features an unknown man running down a deserted New York City street while being chased by a black car, all of which is viewed from above. As he knocks on Barnett's door, there is a spray of

sub-machine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automat ...

fire, and the man is killed. Barnett opens the door, hears the click of the bolt on the gun, ducks and is missed by a second, shorter burst of

slugs Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a sm ...

. Barnett then takes off after the killer while ''Follow That Man'' appears in bold letters and the title of the episode is shown on a file folder that is propped up against a telephone. The filmed episodes were syndicated as ''Follow That Man'' because the sponsor owned the original title ee below The show's first prime-time episode aired on CBS on October 7, 1949, and the final prime-time episode was broadcast, on

, on August 26, 1956. In the 1950–51 season, the series finished at #13 in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, followed by a #29 finish in 1951–52.

1956 version

''Man Against Crime'' returned to TV on NBC from July 1, 1956, through August 19, 1956, at 10 p.m. Eastern Time as a summer replacement for ''

The Loretta Young Show ''The Loretta Young Show'' (originally known as ''Letter to Loretta'') is an American anthology drama television series broadcast on Sunday nights from September 2, 1953, to June 4, 1961, on NBC for a total of 165 episodes. The series was hoste ...

''.

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

Production

The program was initially broadcast live from CBS's studio in the Grand Central Terminal building, but by mid-1953, it was being filmed at the Bedford Park Studios in New York City, while exterior sites included the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Que ...

Grant's Tomb Grant's Tomb, officially the General Grant National Memorial, is the final resting place of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, and his wife, Julia Grant. It is a classical domed mausoleum in the Morningside Heights neighborh ...

, the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

, the

Staten Island Ferry The Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry route operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. The ferry's single route runs through New York Harbor between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island, with ferr ...

, and subways. The budget was $10,000 - $15,000 per episode for the initial live broadcasts, but expenses increased with the shift to film. Charles Russell was the producer, Paul Nickell was the director, and Lawrence Klee was the writer. The program originated from

WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station ...

. Philip Reisman Jr. was the script editor. Henry Sylvern provided the music.

Sponsorship and scheduling

Camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...

cigarettes sponsored the series. That sponsorship produced limitations for writers that included "no disreputable person could smoke, nor could anyone smoke nervously or in any unattractive manner. No coughing (implying cigarettes could cause disease) or arson (suggesting cigarettes could cause fires) was allowed." In October 1953, ''Man Against Crime'' moved to NBC, but that network was unable to clear time for the program in approximately 10 cities, including New York City. DuMont had no program scheduled for the show's Sunday night time slot, so it carried ''Man Against Crime'' in those cities. By then,

WOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW (cha ...

in New York City was broadcasting reruns of earlier episodes of the show on Saturday nights.

Episodes

Season 1 (1949–50)

Season 2 (1950)

Season 3 (1951)

Season 4 (1952–53)

Season 5 (1953–54)

References

Bibliography

*David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

, 2004) *Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remain ...

, 1964)

External links

* — 1949 – 1954 series * {{IMDb title, id=0048884 — 1956 series
DuMont historical website
1949 American television series debuts 1954 American television series endings 1956 American television series debuts 1956 American television series endings 1940s American crime drama television series 1950s American crime drama television series Black-and-white American television shows CBS original programming DuMont Television Network original programming NBC original programming Television shows set in New York City Television shows filmed in New York City American detective television series Detective television series