Dragnet was also a comic

The 21st Precinct vs. Dragnet

I happen to enjoy both the 21st Precinct and Dragnet.  Both shows are in my top 10 favorites, for sure.  Dragnet lasted a lot longer than the 21st Precinct did and eventually wound up on television.  To my knowledge, the 21st Precinct never made it to the screen.

Both are police shows; Dragnet was the West Coast variety, the 21st Precinct was East Coast.  Dragnet was hard-hitting, (realistic but) monotone and somewhat violent.  The 21st Precinct was much more realistic because you always saw yourself at the same places when you listened.  The Dragnet detectives were in a different department every week.  At the 21st Precinct, you were in the muster room, the Captain's office or upstairs with the detectives.  Sure, you were on location too - and those locations are where Dragnet really gets beat.  The 21st Precinct had many foot traffic officers on the streets of New York City and much of the time while listening to the show, that's where you were.  Dragnet used no call boxes - but in almost every episode of the 21st Precinct, someone would use a call box.

Almost every crime (episode) in Dragnet is about something important.  I suppose the same can be said about the 21st Precinct.  However, take an episode where a little girl is missing in each.  The Dragnet episode is bloody and brutal while the 21st Precinct episode is much more suspenseful and the girl winds up being found, unharmed.  Yes, brutal murders do occur but in the case of the little girl, don't you "pull" for the girl to be found unharmed?

I really enjoyed the career of Jack Webb and there's something to be said about his matter-of-fact style, especially when it came to radio/TV police work.  But the actors on the 21st Precinct were not at all like their robot-like counterparts; they were realistic and human.  They showed emotions (other than anger) and they seemed to care for the welfare of the people involved.

This is truly a case of two very similar shows being very, very different.  If you listen to both shows, drop a comment and tell me how you feel.

Notes that I had leftover in a box; a hodge podge

I have a bunch of little notes that never have been posted for one reason or another.

If I don't post them now, I will throw them away.

Take them for what you will - after all, I was going to throw them away...

In Bold Venture (Tears of Siva) you can hear Peggy Webber (a character actress who was noted for her Dragnet performances on radio and TV as good and bad women; also played Friday's mother on radio.)

In the Bold Venture episode, she plays a creepy character (witch, I think) that sounds like demon-possessed Ma Friday:

---

Every now and then, you come across a contest where they ask you to finish the jingle. There was one on Our Miss Brooks for Palmolive Soap:

A fresher, brighter looking skin,

Is something I would like to win! 

I'll get Palmolive Soap today... 

So, I came up with some "winning lines":

And apply it directly to my shins. 

or
It's just like throwing money away!
or

And bathe until I shrivel away! 

or
If I lose I will not try again!
or... well you get the idea.

---

I have studied Suspense's William Spier deeply in the past few months and I have some things to share. William Spier was the first main director of Suspense. He was the director from 1942-47.

One of the smartest things he did was hire Bernard Herrmann to write the theme. I do believe Alfred Hitchcock may have well had a hand in that also since Herrmann and Hitchcock worked together on a few films (most notably in the 1950's) and Hitchcock actually directed the very first episode of Suspense, "The Lodger" (which was also one of his silent movies in the late 1920's.) Herrmann also wrote the incidental music for that episode and quite a a few others after that, but by the time 1943 came along, Herrmann was no longer working for Suspense.  His powerful theme music remains.

Spier also seemed to have strong ties with the Mercury Theatre/CBS Radio Workshop (same show, by the way) as almost all of the members showed up on Suspense frequently, including Orson Welles.

---

IN OTR, is it more likely the show you are listening to at any moment is taking place in a real town or a fictional town?

Well according to my own survey, it looks to be about 80% real place - 20% fake place. For instance, the Aldrich Family, Great Gildersleeves, Fibber McGee and Molly, Adventures of Superman, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day, Harold Peary Show and Lum and Abner all take place in fictional places. While I am sure there are more, most of the others seems to take place in a world city/state/country/continent (I say continent because who knows exactly Tarzan was?)

©Jimbo 2010/2011

Interview with Adam Graham (The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio)

I am honored today to have Adam Graham answering a few questions, Mr. Graham runs the nicely done, "The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio" website and podcast.

OTR BUFFET: Tell us a little about yourself and about your website.

Adam Graham: Well, for me, old time radio started indirectly with a Dragnet spoof on the Kids Math show Square One when I was a kid.  This got me interested in the 1960s TV shows, which I watched for a while on Nick at Nite. Then, when it went off Nick at Nite, I spotted some of those deceptive looking DVD sets that have a picture of Joe Friday and Frank Gannon on it but really feature 1960s TV episodes. I liked the 1950s TV episode but quickly found I'd watched all the ones I could find and then on Ebay I found a DVD with 300 episodes of Dragnet on it. 300 episodes! I bought that as quick as I could. Knowing what I know now, it was a bad deal on poor quality 24kbps encodes that I could have gotten for free. However, I was just very happy to be able to listen to Dragnet.

In 2007, I was getting into podcasts and it occurred to me that Old Dragnet episodes would make for an interesting podcast and that others would enjoy the episodes. So, I charged off into the wilds of podcasting with the Old Time Dragnet Show, made a few mistakes (mainly because I didn't know what I was doing), got some helpful criticism, some surpringly nasty comments, and found the difficulties of 24kbps recordings. The sound quality got better as I discovered higher quality encodes of Dragnet, and Andrew Rhynes came on board as my volunteer sound engineer.

Anyway, bit by bit, we built up a great audience from all over the world that liked the show and enjoyed my company as I shared what I was passionate about, and I got a lot of demand to do other Old Time Radio Detectives, particularly Johnny Dollar. I really had not listened to other OTR Detectives, but stumbled onto a few and fell in love with the genre. In 2009, I had an idea for a new podcast called, The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio. My initial idea for the show needed work. I figured we'd podcast five episodes a week, Monday-Friday and go completely through a radio series. I figured to start off with Pat Novak for Hire.

After recording 15 episodes, I realized the model wouldn't work well, because different detective shows appeal to different people. If you Podcasted through Pat Novak for Hire and then you did Sherlock Holmes, you'd lose a bunch of audience. So, I went with a different format. Every day, Monday-Friday would be a different detective.

The initial lineup was Monday-Box 13, Tuesday-Pat Novak for Hire, Wednesday-Let George Do It, Thursday-Sherlock Holmes, Friday-Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Our Mondays and Tuesdays have changed quite a bit. (Barrie Craig currently is on Monday and Tuesday is Rogue's Gallery) but Wednesday-Friday won't change for quite a while yet. In addition to this, every 50 episodes, we do a Special on Saturdays with a Mystery episode of Suspense, Lux Radio Theater, or some other program.

Our main website not only includes the show notes and the actual radio episodes, but also articles on the weekend, and I really write about a variety of things, but everything ties into detective stories, old time radio, classic television, or classic movies.

Beyond the website, I'll say that I'm a Writer with a day job living in a townhouse with my wife and cat. :)

OTR BUFFET: What's your favorite detective shows and why?

My top three would be Philip Marlowe with Gerald Mohr, Dragnet, Let George Do It, and the Johnny Dollar serials with Bob Bailey.

Gerald Mohr really brought the character of Philip Marlowe to life, with this embodied balancing of contradictions. His Marlowe is a bundle of contradictions. The writing is spot on and the opening of the show can't be beat.

Dragnet is just so well done with some groundbreaking storytelling methods, great sound effects, and the most fascinating minor characters you can imagine. Webb had a great talent for getting his listeners interested in every minor character. We would laugh, we would cry, or do whatever we were supposed to do. Joe Friday has got great lines to close episode and every so occasionally delivers a classic speech.

I love Let George Do It because it really was unique. The show often walked the line between soft boiled and hard boiled schools of detective. Some plots from Let George Do It could easily have been Philip Marlowe stories, while others could have been adapted for Sherlock Holmes. The writing is usually spot on, with the talent of Jackson Gillis (who would later write for Colombo) and great chemistry between Bob Bailey and the two Brooksies (Frances Robinson and then Virginia Gregg) with Wally Maher often providing the perfect police foil in Lieutenant Riley.

I love the Bob Bailey Johnny Dollar serials because they are usually much more complex stories with a lot of twists, and usually fairly good cliffhangers.

OTR BUFFET: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorites.  I love Basil Rathbone as Holmes but I almost like Tom Conway just as much.  What is your opinion of those two and the show in general?

Adam Graham: Tom Conway was definitely a downgrade from Basil Rathbone, there’s no question about that. Rathbone was a true talent, a master actor of stage and screen who was more than Sherlock Holmes. In fact, listening to the last season with Rathbone, the writers worked in a lot of parts where Rathbone had the opportunity to demonstrate his true talent through various accents and occasionally doing a stage role as part of the radio play.  But Conway made the downgrade a much smaller one. He did hit a stride after the first few episodes, and with a voice that sounded a lot like Rathbone’s and he and Bruce began to work fairly well together. Conway had a tough act to follow and he did it admirably.

The Sherlock Holmes radio franchise as a whole is fun because it allows us to see Sherlock Holmes in adventures nowhere else chronicled. While Doyle’s original stories are great, they can also become well-worn. These “New Adventures” really bring the character to life and for that reason will always be a favorite.

OTR BUFFET: What is your opinion of humor in detective shows?  Which detective do you think was the most humorous?

Adam Graham: Humor takes many forms in old time radio detectives: from the wisecracks of the hardboiled eyes to the uncharacteristic chortling of Nero Wolfe to the romantic interplay between the Abbotts or Mr. and Mrs. North, humor is present in the vast majority of shows. As long as it’s not stupid or inappropriate, it definitely is a bonus.

In terms of the most humorous detective show, I’d say without a doubt, it’s Pat Novak for Hire. Other hard boiled detective may throw out a half dozen similes in an episode like they were using a revolver to fire them, Pat Novak is a machine gun. There are dozens of prime quotes in every episode, add to that, the inebriated pontificating of Jocko Madigan, and you’ve got quite a combination.

OTR BUFFET: Obviously, both radio and film detectives were affected by the pulps.  My question is, do you feel like radio affected films more or vice versa?

Adam Graham: I think films had more impact on radio. Take for example, the hard boiled detective genre which Dick Powell launched on the radio in 1945 with Rogue’s Gallery.  Hard boiled detectives had been popular in movies since The Maltese Falcon had been released years before. To the extent that one affected the other, radio was the one that copied from the movies.

OTR BUFFET: What's the best detective show we should be listening to but probably aren't?

Adam Graham: If you haven’t listened to, Let George Do It, you should. It’s not as well known as other detective show due to it being a West Coast only syndication, but you’d have to search hard to find a better one for reasons listed above.

If you do listen to Let George Do It, then I would recommend the very unique series, A Life In Your Hands which features as its hero a rich lawyer who steps into cases as an Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) and with the permission of the judge, cross-examines and calls witnesses without working for either prosecution or defense but simply to get at the truth. It was an interesting concept.

OTR BUFFET: Do you consider the newspaper crime fighters to be detectives?

Adam Graham:  As long as they’re dealing in crime and mystery on a regular basis, I’m on-board. It really doesn’t matter whether a crime’s solved by Philip Marlowe or Randy Stone (Nightbeat). While the newspapermen aren’t detectives by professions, if they do the same work as a detective, then it works for me. I do make a distinction between  crime drama shows like Big Town and mystery programs like Night Beat, which are really the best analog for detective shows.

OTR BUFFET:  Who is your favorite female actress in radio detective old-time radio?

Adam Graham: In terms of character and supporting actresses, I’d have to say Virginia Gregg. As a character actress, Gregg could be made anybody. She could just as easily play a teenage girl or an old lady as a femme fatale. She also was the 2nd Brooksie on Let George Do It and played girlfriends to Richard Diamond and Bob Bailey’s Johnny Dollar. It’s hard to imagine what radio detective shows would have been like without her.

In terms of leading actresses, I tend to think most of Alice Frost as Mrs. North and Mercedes McCambridge in Defense Attorney. Frost played Mrs. North as this very sweet and feminine, but also very clever and daring person that made her a great amateur detective. McCambridge’s acting skill and voice talent are very unique and it’s a shame that we don’t have more episodes of Defense Attorney in circulation due to the fact that it broadcast over ABC.

OTR BUFFET: Do you consider the Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon to be detective shows?

Adam Graham: Elements of detective mysteries will show up in the darnedest places. On radio, I’ve heard episodes of the drama series, Mayor of the Town which had elements of detective fiction in it. Ditto for Superman. On television, many episodes of series such as Star Trek or MacGyver, that have strong elements of the detective story in it. These elements are borrowed a lot because they work. It shows the influence of detective fiction beyond strict detective stories.

I tend to look at a series and ask what the series is really about. Is it about someone whose major thing is unraveling mysteries or is the occasional mystery somewhat incidental to the overall plot? Mayor of the Town is a family drama, Superman is a juvenile superhero adventure show, Star Trek is a science fiction series, and Macgyver is an Adventure Series. I feel we could similarly categorize the Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon.

However, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that these are some of the shows that people could spend forever debating. I know Thrilling Detectives considers Have Gun Will Travel to be a private eye series. It’s a fun discussion with good arguments on both sides.

OTR BUFFET: Who are the 5 best radio detectives?

Adam Graham: Recently, I did a series of blog posts where I ranked the best detective shows by Network. I would follow somewhat with that. I think in the list, you’d have to have Philip Marlowe, Dragnet, and Let George Do It. In addition, I would add Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and Richard Diamond to the mix.

OTR BUFFET:  Thank you Adam for your answers and your time!

Adam Graham: Thanks so much. Always a pleasure. 

©Jimbo 2010/2011

Newspaper Promo Dump [#12]

My interview with Jon at OTRCAT.com

Jon helps run the website and company known as OTRCAT. It is my please to have him join me today for an interview.
 


OTR Buffet: Jon, thanks for joining me. What can you tell us about OTRCAT?

Jon: Thanks for inviting me, Jimbo. After many years of listening and collecting old time radio shows, the OTRCAT.com (Old Time Radio Catalog) web site opened in 1999. We offer thousands of old time radio shows on MP3 and audio cd for just $5.00 per disk.

OTRCAT.com offers hundreds of show descriptions with images of the original actors and sponsors. We feature original compilations and thousands of free downloads on the OTRCAT.com website including an "Daily Download" section (which has broadcasts from the same date in history).

Proceeds from the OTRCAT.com website offset the price of machinery, supplies, and growing old time radio collection; every month OTRCAT also sends out free CDs of old time radio shows to various low-income retirement homes, centers for the blind, and American field troops based in Iraq and Afghanistan in hopes they will enjoy the nostalgia of these classic radio recordings.

OTR Buffet:  Do you do all the research over there yourself?  How do you go about researching a subject?

Jon: OTRCAT.com is a family-run business and represents over a decade work & thousands of hours of  researching and writing.  Many hard-print resources and logs available, but the Internet has made research and correspondence with collectors and contributors more convenient than ever.  Researching the individual series and writing about them has been a passion.  We’ve recently been working on old time radio articles including texts on Atomic Radio, Soap Operas, Espionage and Horror and Mystery shows.  We’ve also had guest authors write about Aimee Semple McPherson, Cathy Lewis, War of the Worlds, Kay Kyser, Hans Conried & Arch Oboler and others which I hope are a compelling and entertaining read.

OTR Buffet: Please tell me how you first got into old-time radio.   (I'd like to know some of your first memories of OTR and what were some of the shows you listened to.)

Jon: I missed hearing the golden age of radio when it was broadcast live, but I listened to some comedy and horror radio shows when I was a kid on cassette tapes and father's open-reel player.  While living in Los Angeles, I found myself addicted to old time radio during long commutes and subsequently spent a lot of time sitting in the driveway waiting for THE WHISTLER show to end when they broadcast the shows on AM in the evening.  With the advent of digital recording, being able to store and listen to the shows on demand is easier than ever.  One of the beautiful things about the MP3 format: you can have virtually an entire series stored on a single disk and can fast forward, rewind and resume listening to any episode at any point in time!

OTR Buffet:  When we chatted earlier, you mentioned you liked Dragnet.  Dragnet is a unique show with it's own style.  Can you talk about that style, tell us some fond Dragnet memories?

Jon: Jack Webb's Dragnet are some of my favorite old time radio detective shows.  My wife and I have listened to the series many times through.  His no nonsense questioning of suspects and witnesses are really entertaining (as are the stories – based on true life crime).  The stories are tastefully written and cover some fascinating crime history.  The suspects and witnesses are great memorable characters and the plots, delivery, one-liners and sound effects are all top-notch from the golden age of radio!

OTR Buffet:  I always thought it was kind of strange that Dragnet's Friday lived with his mom.  It's kind of strange, don't you think?

Jon: He's a man dedicated to his job, Jimbo!!  In Friday’s defense, there were several episodes where Joe Friday took out a "police woman" to prove he wasn't a Norman Bates-like character in his personal life.  I recall one where his mother was shocked that the police woman was "pretty."  Joe Friday living at home makes the fodder with his partner (Ben Romero) all the more entertaining; there are a lot of dry-wit skits where Romero bores Joe Friday with his inane troubles and arguments with his wife and mother in law.

OTR Buffet:  Another show you mentioned you liked a lot is You Bet Your Life.  That was indeed a great show and a classic.  Groucho is so very funny.   I think it's a shame that the teens today have no idea who Groucho is.  Even in this current wacky world of Lady Gaga and reality television, I think You Bet Your Life would still do well if they ran the reruns against other televison shows!  How do think Groucho's show would do if it currently ran on CBS on Friday nights at 9pm?

Jon: Every episode of Groucho Marx's YOU BET YOUR LIFE has some laugh out loud moments for me.  It's amazing some of the material passed censors--Groucho's wit always won out. Regarding competing on today's television: the duck that falls out of the ceiling is pretty compelling television!!  There was only one Groucho Marx, but I'm not sure if it would really appeal to a mass audience.  I think there will always be Marx-bros fans out there that will always enjoy Groucho's impromptu one liners although I'm not sure Television format added that much additional humor from the radio broadcasts (there wasn't much visual humor on the television episodes I recall.)  The Marx Bros films on the other hand had all kinds of great visual gags, but the time, budge and game-show format constraints made YOU BET YOUR LIFE just as entertaining as an audio radio broadcast as the video version.  If I recall correctly Groucho has editing control of the radio broadcasts before they were broadcast where he had them cut out dead air time and condense all the jokes – the end product is a great show that always makes me laugh.

OTR Buffet:  You also mentioned you enjoyed the show, Suspense.  I was fortunate enough to have Christine Miller do an interview with me a couple of months back, I hope you will read that on the Buffet.  I enjoy Suspense as well.  What are some of your favorite episodes of the show and why?

Jon: Indeed - I enjoyed your interview with Christine and share her love for Suspense.  Agnes Moorehead’s “Sorry Wrong Number” always comes to mind when I think of Suspense.  SUSPENSE is a top-notch series with broadcasts with top name actors of the era including Jimmy Stewart, Gene Kelly, Dane Clark, Cary Grant, and Jack Webb.  Episodes like “Donovan’s Brain”, “House in Cypress Canyon” , “The Hitchhiker”, Vincent Price in “Three Skeleton Key”, and “The Doom Machine” are some of my all-time favorites that come to mind.  The writing and performances are indeed “well calculated to keep you in Suspense!”

OTR Buffet:  Doing the OTRCAT you probably have come across some shows most of us have never heard of.  Can you recommend any "under-the-radar" shows that we have never heard before and if so, can you tell us something about them?

Jon: OTRCAT.com has a "rarities" section of the website with some of the lesser known shows.  Some of our original genre compilations of Rare Detectives & Rare Soap Operas are fun way to get a sampling of recordings that only have one or two episodes still in known existence.   Recordings like Singing Sam (“The Barbasol Man”) and others are a great listen.  Other rare recordings like "Lonesome Gal" of interest was a music program from the 40's created by Jean King who starts her program swooning " "Sweetie, no matter what anybody says, I love you more than anybody in the whole world."

OTR Buffet: You also mentioned to me that you like the show, X Minus One.  It's a show I have listened to but I haven't listened enough of it to really ask any questions with any kind of authority.  Tell me why you like the show and maybe a memorable episode or two.

Jon: The X MINUS ONE adapted short stories of sci-fi writers Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, Robert Heinlein and Frederik Pohl are outstanding.  Radio is the perfect medium for science fiction as everything in your mind's eye is more realistic than any film you may see.  I've always been a big fan of the sci-fi genre in general  and we wrote a short primer on Sci-Fi in old time radio. X MINUS ONE episodes like "The Martian Death March", "Cold Equations", "The Roads Must Roll", "Perigi's Wonderful Dolls" are all some of my all-time favorites that come to mind, but almost every episode in the series is outstanding and unique.  The sci-fi authors address problems of the 1950s era in a creative format which still are valid and immensely entertaining today.

©Jimbo 2010/2011

Dum-de-dum-dum!

Actress Peggy Miller

Peggy Miller was a frequent character actress in many radio shows. She had many of these roles in Dragnet (The TV version too), often playing a lady whose purse had been stolen or perhaps as someone who wrote bad checks.

But she also (and here's where the dum-de-dum-dum comes in) played Joe Friday's elderly mother! And I'll bet that you - like me - always thought of the actress playing her as a very old lady!

I think finding out who-is-who is part of the fun of researching old radio. (By the way, I haven't given up on OTR People or any of the other sites, I just need a rest for a bit; I was working too hard!)

Sounds of Dragnet

One of the best: Dragnet

There may not be an old-time radio fan anywhere who doesn't listen to Dragnet. It's one of the all-time greats, thanks to Jack Webb's terrific imagination in coming up with the show.

For those who don't know, the radio show is almost a carbon copy of the television show, if you've seen that. Detective Joe Friday is a stern, fast-talking, no-nonsense gumshoe who is (somehow and without explanation) in a different department of the police in every show on radio (and televsion to boot.) He may be in Bunco one show but rest-assured, he'll be Homicide or Forgery or Juvenile the next. It's like a roulette wheel. 

It's not just Friday who acts "robotic" as almost everyone on the show, including the victims, act this way. There are no long pauses and few words are used as possible. While this may seem to make the show cold and uncaring, it's just a directoral approach that now we can look back on and associate with Dragnet. It became it's own genre.

However, whoever was Friday's partner was a bit more slower-talking than Joe but generally this is will be the only "slow talker" in the entire episode. It makes for a nice play off Friday.

Friday was prone to going off on some incredible verbal rant against a criminal to make them feel like a heel. He was pretty vicious when you come down to it - yet the 30-something year-old Friday lived with his mother. Go figure.

This is one of the all-time greats and there are about 300 episodes floating around, most with great sound quality - so if you haven't already, you should go download the entire lot of them and enjoy them.

Radio reality letdown [#01]

Before playing Batman and mega-detectives in shows like This is Your FBI and Dragnet, Stacy Harris played in some sloppy Soap Operas, such as One Man's Family

Stuff I'd buy if I was a millionaire [#11]

Official Dragnet whistle

One of the best: 21st Precinct

Everett Sloan as Captain Frank Kinnelly

One of my greatest joys in life is sitting down a cold afternoon in my warm abode, slipping on the headphones, sipping some hot cocoa and listening to The 21st Precinct.

The show is a lot like Jack Webb's Dragnet, but it has an east coast feel to it; it's smack in the middle of New York City. While Dragnet has a gritty, harsh, noir feel, The 21st Precinct seems more realistic - not some fictional tale.

The actors make mistakes and this lends to the realism. While most of the recordings we have are not in the best shape for this show, that somehow lends credence that we are dealing with history.

One of my favorite episodes was the one where this 14 or 15 year old boy had a "pet" copperhead snake and it had gotten loose somewhere. The kid, fearing for the safety of his snake refused to tell the coppers where he had hidden it.

Another episode that comes to mind instantly is the one where the kids stole some explosives and they had shot off several of them. While that doesn't sound like a horrible crime, you felt the sense of urgency the police had while you listened, as one kid had already been hurt by an explosion.

While the show is not Nightwatch (a reporter actually goes out with the police and records what really happens) this show is as close to real as it gets. It's definitely one of the better shows out there - and I suggest you download them now, if you don't already have them.

Find them here.

Dragnet: Real thriller

Real Thriller

Interesting tidbits about Pete Kelly's Blues

Pete Kelly's Blues is one of those shows that can easily be described as, "different."

Pete Kelly (played by the innovative Jack Webb) is a musician in a speakeasy and the show centers around him and the centers around him and his band on-stage.

Between numbers, Kelly makes his way to the bar or backstage and it's about this time that someone comes to him looking for advice or a place to hide; Pete always helps the person out and then finds himself mixed up in some or a mess.

The show has a definite noir feel to it.  It's too bad there are only a few shows in existance.