‘Peter Gunn,’ the Suave Private Eye

“Peter Gunn” is today best known as the driving jazz theme that won, for composer Henry Mancini, the very first Grammy ever awarded for album of the year (1958).

What few people remember is that “Peter Gunn” was also a popular TV detective series. In fact, the show catapulted both Mancini and its creator-producer, Blake Edwards, into feature-film careers. Thirty-two episodes of the series, which starred Craig Stevens, were released on DVD Tuesday by A&E; Home Video.

“‘Dragnet’ was TV’s first important detective show, but it had been a radio show before that,” says Ric Meyers, author of “Murder on the Air.” “’Peter Gunn’ was the first important mystery show to be created specifically for television.”

And in 1958, it was a sensation, as much for its stylish look and attitude as for its groundbreaking jazz score. It won eight Emmy nominations in its first season , including nods for all four members of its cast; two for Edwards’ script and direction on the pilot; Mancini, for his music; and as best dramatic series.

Stevens played the title character, a suave and sophisticated guy whose wit was as sharp as his wardrobe--but who didn’t seem to have an office. Clients generally found him at Mother’s, a waterfront nightspot where his girlfriend, singer Edie Hart (Lola Albright), performed.

Proprietor Mother was played by Hope Emerson in the first season, Minerva Urecal in the second. Gunn was friendly, but just as often at odds, with sourpuss police Lt. Jacoby (Herschel Bernardi).

The atmosphere was decidedly noir, with colorful characters, dimly lighted streets and plenty of mayhem. “I wanted a fantasy kind of quality for that world,” Edwards recalls. “I liked being in Gunnsville, as we called it, on the wet streets, constructing our own kind of jazzy, dark environment.”

For radio, Edwards had created another detective series, “Richard Diamond,” with Dick Powell as the star. Stevens, who at the time was “sort of a limp, second leading man at Warner Bros.,” Edwards says, reminded him of Powell’s own cast-against-type transition from ‘30s singing star to tough-guy detective in the 1944 film “Murder, My Sweet.”

“He had a certain sophistication and a great sense of humor, a unique appeal that is hard to define,” Edwards says. Once the actor signed, Edwards says he told him two things: “I want to take you to my tailor, because I think the character should set a style, clothes-wise. I don’t want him as part of the underworld, visually. And I want to cut all your hair off; I want to give you a ‘butch.’”

Gunn’s short hair and classy attire set him apart from the Philip Marlowes and Mike Hammers of the time; the settings may have been seedy but the protagonist was not.

That, to historian Meyers, was a key factor. “It was relevant but old-fashioned, avant-garde but familiar,” he says. “It had the solid scripting of a radio drama and a film noir look. Gunn was a combination of the hard-boiled private eye and the gentleman detective. [Edwards] had all of these wild and crazy characters, and this very calm, crew-cut rock of a guy [in Gunn]. Nothing ever seemed to ruffle him.”

Stevens and Albright

Made Beautiful Music

Stevens’ chemistry with Albright was also remarkable. The two would often play love scenes with a minimum of cryptic dialogue, always with the clear implication that there was a lot going on after-hours at Pete’s pad. Interestingly, she didn’t have a great singing voice.

“She was perfect casting for that role because she had an off-the-cuff kind of jazz delivery that was very hard to find,” Henry Mancini said in a 1992 interview. “Just enough to believe that she’d be singing in that club and that she shouldn’t be on Broadway or doing movies.”

At least half the success of “Peter Gunn,” Edwards says, was attributable to Mancini’s contribution. To Mancini, though, the approach was obvious. “Mother’s was a jazz club, and I think the minute that hit, the rest of it fell into place. I could think of nothing else to put in.

“I certainly didn’t want to use any strings. That band--we only had 11 men in the ‘Peter Gunn’ band--had some unique sounds that people are still using. Unique playing techniques, fall-offs on the ends of notes, the use of alto flutes and bass flutes for dramatic purposes.”

The music was immensely popular. Two RCA albums sold millions, brought wide public attention to TV scoring for the first time, and ushered in an entire era of jazz for private eyes. Within a year, detectives were all over the tube, all with jazz accompaniment. (Edwards left his agency, MCA, in a row over its TV studio Revue’s all-too-similar 1959 show, “Johnny Staccato,” starring John Cassavetes.) Because of Edwards’ growing involvement with movies, notably “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) and “Experiment in Terror” (1962), “Peter Gunn” lasted just three seasons. It enjoyed a brief run in syndication (locally, on KDOC-TV in the 1980s). A&E; expects to release all 114 half-hour episodes on DVD.

Edwards tried twice to revive the show, first in 1967 with a feature film starring Stevens, then in 1989 with a TV movie starring Peter Strauss. Mancini died in 1994, Stevens in 2000. Now, Edwards’ son Geoffrey is attempting a fresh spin on the old concept, developing a two-hour TV movie that would serve as a series prototype.

“It’s the right time,” says Geoffrey Edwards, noting that “martinis and thick steaks and cigars are back with a vengeance.” The revised “Gunn,” he says, would still be a music-driven crime drama, “dark and hip, with a beautiful noir quality that’s going to appeal to the [younger] demographic.”

For his part, Blake Edwards says that he didn’t set out to create a landmark in TV: “I just did the best I could, had the most fun with it that I could have, and hoped it would be a huge success and make me a lot of money. It was a huge success. It didn’t make me a lot of money.”