Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen is an hour of crime drama and mystery television that first aired on a major broadcast network in the United States. With music by composer Elmer Bernstein and production by the team of Richard Levinson and William Link, the duo of Ellery (actor Jim Hutton) and Inspector Richard Queen solve murder cases in this small-screen adaptation based upon the Ellery Queen detective novels. A detective character of the 1930s, Queen enjoys wide recognition in books and on radio. Some years later, the character finds new life in this series of 23 episodes. Guest stars in the series include George Burns, of the Burns and Allen comedy team, Hollywood horror king Vincent Price and Larry Hagman, who also acts in two other network shows of his own.

Levinson and Link produce four highly-rated network programs, including Ellery Queen, and audiences accept their credentials in the mystery genre. Jim Hutton, playing the character Ellery Queen, gained fame first in 1960 while co-starring with Paula Prentiss in their major motion picture. He went on to several other movies with co-stars John Wayne and Cary Grant. David Wayne, playing the role of Inspector Queen, is a celebrity every fan will recognize, both for his numerous TV appearances and for his extensive motion picture credits. He appears in over twenty major television shows and in an equal number of movies, co-starring alongside Spencer Tracy, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra. Queen's supporting cast includes Ken Swofford as Frank Flannigan and John Hillerman as Simon Brimmer. Clever watchers identify Hillerman from his regular appearances as a cast member on yet another private investigator show that show ran a few years after Ellery Queen on another network.