Johnny Staccato: The Complete Series

First of all, I have to compliment Timeless Media on the quality of the recordings in their complete Johnny Staccato Box Set. I'm pretty well used to the somewhat poorly aged prints that dominate TV reruns and public domain video. Somebody put a lot of work into making Johnny Staccato a great release. The video and sound are great even on my old analog set. It was a pleasure to see and listen to. While some would complain about the lack of extras, I can't really expect many extras when we're dealing with a 51 year old show that was cancelled mid-season and where the star has been dead for 20 years. I'm thankful they got the show out and in such a beautiful form.It can be tempting to write Johnny Staccato off as merely a ripoff of Peter Gunn. After all, both Staccato and Gunn are New York P.I.'s that hang around the jazz scene. The big difference with Staccato is that jazz isn't just something he hangs around for information, but he's truly a part of it as a musician. The scenes of Staccato on the piano are priceless. The music of the lates 50s pulses through Johnny Staccato.In addition, every episode of Peter Gunn seems to end with at least two, and usually four dead bodies. Staccato often ended the show with no dead bodies. Cassavettes influence made Johnny Stacatto much more a Detective Drama than it did Peter Gunn's shooting gallery.Also, another big difference between Peter Gunn and Johnny Staccato is that while "Mother" in Peter Gunn seemed to exist in the story primarily as a plot device and the owner of Peter Gunn's favorite hangout, Waldo (Eduardo Ciannelli) who owns Johnny's favorite spot is a far more fleshed out and there's an almost father-son dynamic of their relationship.As a Private Detective, while Craig Stevens who played Peter Gunn looked and sounded like he was out of central casting for a detective hero, Cassavettes didn't have the look of a great detective hero. Perhaps, it was because I first saw him playing the murderer in the Columbo movie, "Etude in Black", but it took me a while to buy him as a hero. However, Staccato after a while Staccato's looks became a plus.Staccato was a Korean War Veteran who rarely became involved in cases for the money. He rushed off to help his friends and solve cases with little concern for fees. He was the proverbial knight in tarnished armor.According to the first episode, Johnny abandonned full-time piano playing for the life of a private eye when he realized he didn't have the talent to make it big. In the first episode, Johnny states he had turned in his musician's union card years before, but still seemed to play part-time at Waldo's.Staccato's cases occassionally fell under the category of "typical PI fare" such as in, "House of the Four Winds," where Johnny deals with trouble in Chinatown and "Night of Jeopardy," where Johnny shoots a counterfeiter and now the mob is after him for the plates. In "Act of Terror," Johnny is hired by a hypnotist to find his missing wife but Johnny becomes suspicious that the man (and his dummy) may know more than they're letting on. In these sort of rough and tumble situations, Staccato handled himself as well as any detective on television.Other episodes had far deeper dramatic and even moral meaning. In "Evil," Johnny takes on a huckster who is using a mission to scam people out oof money. This episode took a few clever turns. In, "Tempted," Johnny has a chance to take a beautiful woman and $200,000 necklace. In the, "Return," Johnny has to stop a Korean War Veteran who escaped from a mental hospital from killing his wife. In, "Solomon," Johnny is asked to commit perjury by the city's greatest defemse attorney in order to acquit a client the lawyer believes to be innocent.Of the first 23 episodes, I'd say 22 are are among the best half hour detective shows of the era (the exception to this being, "Double Feature" which added nothing to the silly "everyone has a double" plots that many shows just have to try.) It was towards the end of the run that the show began to fade. Cassavettes wanted out, and it began to show on the screen starting with, "An Angry Young Man" in which the story was weak and had Johnny unbelievably moving rhythmically to the polka. The show bounced back a bit with "The Mask of Jason" which featured a young Mary Tyler Moore as a beauty queen scared of an ugly man, but by the end of the episode, the audience has to wonder where the real ugliness lay.The last two episodes were straight downhill. In "A Nice Little Town," the writers go literally out of their way to make a political point, sending Johnny out of New York to a small town where a former U.S. soldier who had defected to the North Korean side had been murdered by two men in absurd masks. We then get to watch unlikable townfolks attack Johnny for not having an American name and for being either a commie or stupid. The episode concludes without Johnny capturing the killers, so that Johnny can make a speech to the strawman anti-communist town. Whether Cassavettes was concerned with making a political point, trying to impress avante garde activist types, or pushing the storyline in hopes that it would help the show get cancelled due to public outcry and get him out of his contract, or some combination of the three, we don't know. However, no record exists suggests that the episode played any part in Staccato's exit.The last episode of Johnny Staccato was, "Swinging Long Hair." The episode had some great music, but was one of the shabbiest shows of the series in terms of its writing. It ends with Stacatto remarking that one of the bad guys still needed to be killed but as someone else would have to do it as, "I've had it." Thus star and character bid farewell together.While the show's quick decline was sad to watch, the quality and greatness of the first 23 episodes make this set well worth owning and I'm glad that I do. Johnny Stacatto was a great show and there may have been more episodes if John Cassavettes had agreed.

Just received this set this evening and am watching it for the first time. Being a long time fan of the classic Noir show "Peter Gunn" this is extremely close to Peter Gun since both solve crimes and spend a lot of time in a Jazz Bar. This show is great and surprisingly never heard of it before. Lots of cameos from familiar actors, cool jazz background songs, and lots of action and plot twists.

Love all the old tv shows

There are interesting elements to this series of 27 episodes, but it rarely comes together. Cassavetes is a good actor, more interesting than Craig Stevens, but "Peter Gunn" makes far better use of its half hour. The soundtrack is jazz, but Johnny Staccato as the "jazz detective" is merely an affectation. He's a sometimes pianist and hangs out at a club owned by his buddy Waldo (Eduardo Ciannelli), but the show's creators don't seem to know what to do with the music or Mr. Ciannelli, who was apparently a gifted opera singer - though one wouldn't know it from watching the show. There's also a disturbing lack of Black characters - none of the jazz musicians are Black until the middle of the series. Episode 25 is interesting, featuring young Mary Tyler Moore as a bad person. The final episode is also interesting, showing the nexus of classical music and jazz - it also shows us what the show might have been.

Most of these '50s, '60s shows have scripts that fall into a formula. And if you stop to examine many, they don't even make sense. Maybe even the premise of a jazz-playing private eye doesn't make sense. But the show is good fun. Cassavetes isn't the suave, poor-man's Cary Grant that you see in Craig Stevens as Gunn. Johnny is living in lower-rent circles. But he makes a fine protagonist. And although the thing was filmed on a set for the most part, you'll see some real New York City "b roll" of the street. Johnny goes for the same walk in real New York of the '50s in most episodes. TV was plenty violent back in the '50s and '60s. But no one ever bled when they got shot. They just fell down.

This is the best purchase I have ever made from Amazon.There are three discs - Nine Episodes on Each.John's acting is superb in every single scene. He plays a dual role as a jazz pianist in a New York City club and at the same time, a detective, named Johnny Staccato. The time is the 1950's in Greenwich Village. The object allows the viewer to see what it was like back then, i.e. with regard to crime in the streets. Needless to say, both jobs kept him busy.He was not tough but very professional and respectful of others no matter who they were. He had some fist fights when he had to but that was not his choice of correction. He turned the offenders over to the police. He never took advantage of his position.I cannot say enough about this wonderful DVD but I had waited a long time to see a movie that John made in which he was the main character throughout.There is no foul language whatsoever nor inappropriate scenes.This set is John Cassavetes as the fine actor that he really was and will be remembered for as his best role.

AWESOME

Oh they really don't make 'em like this anymore-this has got to be the coolest detective show i have ever seen-never heard of it b4-it was shown on NBC & ABC in 1959 & 1960-not sure if it was ever shown in the UK-filmed in New York City it stars John Cassavetes as jazz pianist Staccato who is also a PI. Each episode is like a mini film noir,a lot of the action takes place in the jazz club 'Waldos'in Greenwich Village-27 episodes full of violence,guns,cheap broads,booze,jazz,smoking-what more do u want to relax to? -great quality prints.

Classic Cassavetes with the best ever score in a TV private dick show.

Naked City and Johnny Staccato were my two favourite series in the late 50s and early 60s, and were an important part of my love for the city of New York and Jazz. I've was so pleased when I stumbled across the collection of all 27 episodes of Johnny Staccato featuring the great actor John Cassavetes and so many future-to-be well-known movie actors.The stories hold up, are well produced and directed, and, being black-and-white, show off beat generation NYC to its nourish best. Lots of good on-the-street footage and great music. Highly recommended.

Kooky fun.