The Untouchables
- TV Series
- 1959–1963
- 50m
Special Agent Eliot Ness and his elite team of incorruptable agents battle organized crime in 1930s Chicago.Special Agent Eliot Ness and his elite team of incorruptable agents battle organized crime in 1930s Chicago.Special Agent Eliot Ness and his elite team of incorruptable agents battle organized crime in 1930s Chicago.
- Won 2 Primetime Emmys
- 4 wins & 7 nominations total
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to testimony from Aladena Fratianno, (Jimmy the Weasel), a Mafia boss-turned-FBI informant, the Chicago family of the Mafia ordered the assassination of producer Desi Arnaz, because they didn't like (a) the fact that the success of the show was focusing attention on the Mafia and (b) the show's portrayal of Italians. Fratianno said that two hitmen hid themselves near Arnaz's house one night waiting for him to show up, but he never did. Shortly afterwards, the assassination order was rescinded when it was realized that Arnaz's murder would cause the Mafia more trouble than it was worth.
- GoofsThe opening credits for the fourth season show a book open to a page that reads "The Untouchables, 1929--1933". This contradicts the chronology of several episodes set in 1934 or 1935.
- Quotes
Police Officer: There is nothing in that area... except an old abandoned warehouse.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Scarface Mob (1959)
Featured review
One of the greatest television series ever
I must differ only slightly from the praise of one who precedes me, but yes, it was a cracking good show! When a local station ran the series in syndication at midnight in 1967, I turned into an insomniac.
Part of it was my youth; part was/is the b&w presentation giving it a brooding, "gritty" (pardon the cliche) flavour; part was the musical score. Frankly, I found it much superior to the colour and more mature (?) series recently under the same title. Possibly the early '60s series had the elements of a morality play that move some part of me that the more ambiguous -- and in places historically accurate -- new UNTOUCHABLES can not.
One thing bothers me, however, although I fully understand that in the television productions of forty years ago one had to be discrete. It concerns the depictions of violence. I do not object (within reason) to violence per se, but THE UNTOUCHABLES showed a lot of it without the horror. With a more jaundiced eye of the 1990s, when on very rare occasions I have been able to see an old time episode, I am struck by the trivialisation of violent scenes. Even the point-blank firearms shots are comically muted, and there is never a hint of flying blood.
That said, however, I consider the advent of THE UNTOUCHABLES and BONANZA in the 1959-60 season as the beginning of the REAL "golden age of television" in the United States.
Post scriptum: I am sure there were a couple of spin-off "made for TV" movies in the 1960s from the series. Of that I know nothing more save the title of one of them: THE GUN OF ZANGARA.
Part of it was my youth; part was/is the b&w presentation giving it a brooding, "gritty" (pardon the cliche) flavour; part was the musical score. Frankly, I found it much superior to the colour and more mature (?) series recently under the same title. Possibly the early '60s series had the elements of a morality play that move some part of me that the more ambiguous -- and in places historically accurate -- new UNTOUCHABLES can not.
One thing bothers me, however, although I fully understand that in the television productions of forty years ago one had to be discrete. It concerns the depictions of violence. I do not object (within reason) to violence per se, but THE UNTOUCHABLES showed a lot of it without the horror. With a more jaundiced eye of the 1990s, when on very rare occasions I have been able to see an old time episode, I am struck by the trivialisation of violent scenes. Even the point-blank firearms shots are comically muted, and there is never a hint of flying blood.
That said, however, I consider the advent of THE UNTOUCHABLES and BONANZA in the 1959-60 season as the beginning of the REAL "golden age of television" in the United States.
Post scriptum: I am sure there were a couple of spin-off "made for TV" movies in the 1960s from the series. Of that I know nothing more save the title of one of them: THE GUN OF ZANGARA.
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Details
- Runtime50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 4:3
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