Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, I watched a lot of TV. I especially liked 70’s Cop and Detective Shows – Hawaii Five-O is still my favorite TV show of all time with Cannon in the top 10 as well was a relatively obscure show called Banacek.
Banacek (pron: BAN-a-chek) starred George Peppard and aired from 1972 to 1974 on NBC as part of the NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie wheel, which means it was a 90-minute show. The pilot movie was 2-hours and it is said that Peppard signed on for a weekly 1-hour show but NBC decided to run it every 3-4 weeks with a 90 minute runtime instead. Only 17 episodes were made (pilot + 16) and all but the pilot movie can be seen on COZI TV Saturdays at 12:30pm CT or streaming on FreeVee.
An American detective TV series about Thomas Banacek (George Peppard), a suave, Polish-American freelance insurance investigator. He uses his unique set of skills as a solver of cases involving theft. Banacek collects a portion of the insured value of the property he recovers, allowing him to maintain a rather lavish lifestyle in Boston.
COZI TV
Cop and detective shows largely replaced the westerns of the 60’s, and each show had some kind of character hook to them: Think about Colombo, Cannon, Kojak, McMillan and Wife, Charlies Angels, Rockford Files and Starsky and Hutch just to name a few, and each had a “hook” that made them unique. Banacek’s hook was his lavish lifestyle, proud polish heritage (complete with terrible Polish proverbs), and a fee of 10% of whatever he recovered for the insurance company.
I love smart investigative shows, and Banacek was one. Banacek only took on cases that interested him and that seemed unsolvable. The cases solved were all very interesting in their own way – from a football player that disappears after being tackled to a room-sized main-frame computer that vanishes to a 3-ton statue that disappears at its unveiling. Banacek is definitely the smartest man in the room, but will grin and admit it only when necessary.
Thomas Banacek is also proudly Polish, which in 1972 may have been groundbreaking considering the prevalence of hurtful “Polish jokes”. He frequently spouts “Polish Proverbs” such as “No matter how warm the smile on the face of the Sun, the cat still has her kittens under the porch.” and “A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn.” All indications are that the “proverbs’ were all made up.
The show was renewed for a third season, but Peppard quit the show to prevent his ex-wife Elizabeth Ashley from receiving a larger percentage of his earnings as part of their divorce settlement (!)
I think Banacek would be a very cool show to reboot.
When I watch this show, it takes me back to growing up in the late 70’s since so many other shows had a similar style. Universal produced this show and shot it mostly on their back lot, so it has the look and feel of a lot of 70’s dramas that aired on NBC. I DVR the show on Cozi every week and just love watching and transporting back to back then. Check it out, you might like it