Mr. Lucky

During the summer of 2004 we happened upon the derelict, rusting hulk of the Fortuna moored to a dock in Eureka, California. The harbor master pointed it out to us as what was left of the yacht used on the TV series.

Lord only knows what the poor thing had gone through after being decommissioned by Hollywood. The harbor master intimated it might have been used as a drug running boat to and from Mexico.

In any event, a peek through its windows from dockside revealed it is now being used as a storage facility for various boat machinery and parts.

Mr Lucky was one of a series of half hour crime shows of the late 50's and early 60's.But unlike "Peter Gunn" "Richard Diamond" etc,the hero is not a detective,but a vaguely shady, but basically honest,club owner.The series "Dante" with Howard Duff is probably Mr Lucky's closest relation(that show began the season after "Mr Lucky")."Mr Lucky" is a smooth, enjoyable show with a lot of comedy mixed in the dramatics.John Vivyan,as Lucky is suave and likable. The ever reliable Ross Martin is his sidekick Andamo.It seems strange that Vivyan's career never went anywhere after this show. Martin went on to greater fame in "The Wild Wild West".The shows title sequence, featuring cats,and Henry Mancini's music are great.Interestingly, Mr Lucky's gambling boat,"The Fortuna",turned into just a restaurant about half way through the series-probably in response to the moral criticisms then being directed at some TV shows.

I was nine-years old (and living in New York) when this show premiered, and it quickly became my favorite series. Friday nights meant "77-Sunset-Strip" and then staying up to watch "Mr. Lucky" with a big bottle of Coke and a bag of Fritos. I can still remember the car he drove -- a black 1959 Chrysler Imperial. To me, Mr. Lucky was the epitome of "class."

Some of us who enjoy this show in general and Ross Martin's work on it in particular, have been discussing it episode-by-episode at www.andamoinmrlucky.proboards.com.

Here's an example, from one of my own posts, which provoked argument from another member:

"Anyway, back to 'The Money Game': Notice the difference between how natural Rovacs sounds when he says, "The bird from Wilbur College?" and how unnatural Lucky sounds when he says, "The bird who said this country has no respect for mathematicians . . . ." I think the writer missed it with that line. Lucky just can't use slang terms like "bird." And the writer did it again, though not so blatantly, with Lucky's dialogue with Eddie about the "fish." Lucky has too much respect for his customers to refer to them with derogatory words like that. Poor John Vivyan-- what he must have thought when he saw this week's script. In addition to having to speak out of character, he sure got stuck with some lame lines this time."

In retrospect, I'm not sure I agree with myself there about the fish. We'd sure welcome other voices, other opinions, from people who'd like to watch and seriously discuss the show with us.

"Mr. Lucky" was a half-hour television series attempting to cash in on "Peter Gunn"'s success. Based on an old '40's feature film that had starred Cary Grant, the t.v. "Mr. Lucky" starred John Vivyan as the title character, Ross Martin as his partner Andamo, Pippa Scott as Mr. Lucky's girlfriend, Maggie, and Tom Brown as Lt. Rovaks of the police department, Lucky's sometimes friend, sometimes adversary. Mr. Lucky was the owner of the ship Fortuna, a floating gambling casino moored off of the California coast's 12 mile limit. Each week Lucky and Andamo would become entangled with an assortment of con-men, gamblers, fugitives, even entertainers working for Lucky aboard the gambling casino. Inevitably it would appear that Lucky was either involved in some type of illegal activity or at the least aiding those involved with the activities. This was all done to a modern jazz musical score supplied by "Peter Gunn"'s Henry Mancini.

The series ran one season (during the '59-'60 season) and is probably best remembered for spawning two hit record albums from Henry Mancini, "Theme from Mr. Lucky" and "Mr Lucky Goes Latin".