Peter Gunn: Dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum....

Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn.

When the Cafe conducted an online poll in November 2009 to determine the Top 25 TV Themes of All Time, the No. 1 spot went to Peter Gunn. It's no wonder--Henry Mancini's signature tune is not only instantly recognizable from its opening notes, but Mancini's music was integral to the success of the Peter Gunn TV series.

Debuting on NBC in 1958, the half-hour Peter Gunn series centered on a suave, cynical private eye who worked in a crime-infested, fictional city. Though he rarely looked ruffled, Gunn wasn't afraid to use his fists or revolver. In the episode "The Kill," Gunn threatens to murder a thug (Jack Weston) if a friend dies--and it's clear from the detective's steely voice that he's willing to carry through on his threat. When not investigating cases, Gunn frequented Mother's, a nightclub operated by an elderly woman called (what else?) Mother and featuring his girlfriend Edie as the in-house chanteuse. While Gunn didn't have a partner, he often received unsolicited--but timely--assistance from homicide detective Lieutenant Jacoby (Herschel Bernardi).

Stevens and Lola Albright.

Photographed in a film noir style and with voiceover narration, Peter Gunn comes across as a small-screen version of tough private eye films such as Murder, My Sweet. It also borrows heavily from the earlier series Richard Diamond, Private Eye (with Dick Powell playing the lead on radio and David Janssen on television). That's no surprise, since Diamond and Gunn were both created by writer-director Blake Edwards. Although Peter Gunn looks great, moves quickly, and features snappy dialogue (sometime penned by Edwards), it ultimately adds little to the private eye genre--except for the music.

Henry Mancini was still a relative unknown in 1959. He had played piano with Glenn Miller's Orchestra and done uncredited work on numerous films, such as The Creature from the Black Lagoon. He and Edwards had also worked together on the movies Mister Cory (1957) and This Happy Feeling (1958). When Edwards turned to Mancini to create a jazz score for Peter Gunn, magic happened. "The Peter Gunn Theme," with its driving beat and blaring horns, was an instant classic. Mancini won an Emmy and two Grammy awards. The soundtrack album, Music from Peter Gunn, was such a big hit that a follow-up, More Music from Peter Gunn, was released. The theme has been covered by artists as diverse as The Art of Noise, Herbie Hancock, the Blues Brothers, and even Jeff Beck.

While its music earned acclaim, the Peter Gunn series only cracked the Nielsen top 20 shows once, peaking at #16 for the 1958-59 season. It was probably always a niche show, lacking the mainstream appeal of more popular crime shows like 77 Sunset Strip. Its limited success may also be due to star Craig Stevens, who certainly projects "cool" but comes across as detached and, frankly, not very interesting. The sultry Lola Albright fares only slightly better as Edie, but that's because her character comes across as desperate--mooning over the emotionally-detached Pete. The most likable character is Mother, played by Hope Emerson (who died in 1960) and then Minerva Urecal.

When NBC dropped Peter Gunn after its second season, Blake Edwards took the series to ABC for a third and final season. He never gave up on the character, though. By 1967, Edwards had enough clout to mount a theatrical version called Gunn, co-written by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist). Craig Stevens returned as Peter Gunn, but the rest of  the TV series' cast was replaced. Alas, with action heroes like James Bond dominating the box office, audiences weren't interested to see a movie about a TV private eye and the film faded quickly.

Edwards revived the character again in a 1989 made-for-television movie with Peter Strauss as the urbane private eye. It received respectable reviews, but didn't generate enough interest to warrant a revival TV series. Since then, there have been a couple of attempts to produce another Peter Gunn theatrical film, but none has materialized.

What remains is a pretty good TV series with a deliciously moody atmosphere...and that incredible Mancini theme. It's a testament to the music that you'll find people who recognize it by sound, without even knowing that it came from a private eye TV show called Peter Gunn.