The TV show Peter Gunn ran for three seasons from 1958 to 1961. Created by Blake Edwards, later famous for the Pink Panther movies among other things, the show starred Craig Stevens as the ultra-cool, very well-dressed private eye for hire who used jazz joints like the one named Mother's as his office. The house bands played music composed and arranged by Henry Mancini, who also supplied the innovative background score with its propulsive main theme. Usually fronting the band was Gunn's singer girl friend Edie Hart, played by Lola Albright. Other regulars included bar owner Mother herself, played by Hope Emerson in season one and Minerva Urecal in season two, Barney the Bartender (uncredited associate producer Byron Kane) and house pianist Emmett (Bill Chadney, who was married to Albright from 1961 to 1975 -- the actual pianist heard on the soundtrack was a guy named Johnny Williams, who later went on to write music for things like Star Wars). Gunn's connection to the police department of the unnamed city where the show took place was Lieutenant Jacoby (Herschel Bernardi).
Each Peter Gunn episode is like a mini film noir, cramming an amazing amount of detail into 24 or 25 minutes. They contain quirky individuals, many of whom were played by well-known character actors or up-and-coming stars, atmosphere typical of the times (beatnik coffee houses, mobsters and hoodlums whose roots are in the Depression which ended only 20 years before), often a song by Edie or some other music featuring Los Angeles studio musicians like Shelley Manne or the Candoli brothers, surprisingly erotic moments between Gunn and his girl friend, and photography which harkens back not only to film noir, but German expressionism. And then there is the iconic music.
Peter Gunn has been well-served on records and CD. Mancini's music was re-recorded for two soundtrack albums (see below), and the main theme has been covered by many musicians since its release in the late 1950s. Amazingly, there are some people who don't recognize anything about the music or the show. Here is a brief sample of the
On video, episodes have been released on video tape, laser disc (2 volumes) and DVD. Quite a few of the shows have fallen into the public domain and the quality of these media often leaves a lot to be desired, especially the tape and DVD releases, some of which are in compilations with other old police and detective shows.
A&E Video released the first season on four DVDs in two box sets in 2002, each containing two DVDs. The video and sound of the prints used was mediocre, and, despite the fact that it said on the boxes that the episodes were uncut, this was not correct. Here is one example. The A&E sets are now out of print.
In England, Liberation Entertainment released the first two seasons in 2007 in two box sets, each containing five DVDs. There was a huge improvement in quality compared to the A&E versions. The prints were mostly either very good or cleaned up. These DVDs were in the PAL (European standard) format, though they are region-free and will play on many North American DVD players. These sets may be still available on Amazon UK.
In the USA, Timeless Media Group released the complete Peter Gunn on DVD in October 2012, and subsequently released each of the seasons separately. One
In creating this episode guide, I have tried to keep my comments brief, since there are almost 40 episodes for each season. The quality of the scripts is very high, particularly the first season -- there are only a couple of episodes which don't make the grade. Most of the reviews are taken up by the plot summaries, with additional comment where applicable, similar to what I have done with Hawaii Five-O.
If you have any comments or questions,
THE EPISODES:
NEW (2024) BOOK – PETER GUNN: DREAMSVILLE
The table of contents is as follows: Introduction; 1. Gunn for Hire; 2. The First Season (1958-59); 3. The Gunn Albums; 4. Before, and Behind, the Cameras; 5. The Second Season (1959-60); 6. Mr. Lucky; 7. The Lucky Albums; 8. Interviews: Henry Mancini and Blake Edwards; 9. The Third Season (1960-61); 10. Gunn Goes to the Movies; 11. Gunn Returns to Television; 12. After Peter Gunn; Bibliography and Sources; Acknowledgments and Photo Credits; Index.
Click on these links to see the front cover and back cover of the book.
(Disclosure: My WWW site is mentioned in the book - MQ.)
The RCA Peter Gunn RCA soundtracks
Click on images to see larger. These are Japanese CD reissues.
Peter Gunn "mosaic" cover
This RCA mono version of the Peter Gunn soundtrack (RCA LPM-1956) uses a stock cover (the back cover is identical to the original issue). When signing his way through some of my albums after a Vancouver Symphony concert, Mancini told me that RCA substituted this cover temporarily when Peter Gunn proved to be a runaway success and they ran out of the regular covers.
