The Adventures of Ellery Queen

Yeah, this was REAL low budget stuff. The entire musical score was some apprentice on a Hammond Organ. The sets were made of cardboard and the acting was just as stiff. Watching this gives you a chance to see just how desperate the post-war generation was for at-home entertainment. the best part of the episodes I saw were the Kaiser-Frazier auto commercials. I guess I'll add this so the school-marms at this site will give me credit for 10 lines. Have I made it yet? No, not yet. So let's try a few more words here. There, I think that does it. No? Maybe this will be enough. Good lord, how many more words do these folks want? Someone needs to send them to effective writing classes.

Let's first put aside the budgetary restraints of television in its infancy for a moment and focus on story instead. Granted, I have only seen one episode of the 1950s Ellery Queen series. The story itself is more than adequate, but hardly the hero of Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee's creation, Without the complete cast of characters, and the novelty of letting the viewer decide who the killer was, this is at best a curio of early television before it found its own way. Even the two creators of Ellery Queen and his father the Inspector didn't truly see their creations come to life until the Jim Hutton/David Wayne series of the 1970s. Still, it was interesting to see a curio of the days of TV before I came into the world. And it is fascinating to read about how the demise of Dumont television came about.