The “Checkmate” Defense

The ever-nostalgic Ivan G. Shreve Jr. champions the recent DVD release of two boxed sets of the 1960-1962 TV series Checkmate, which starred Doug McClure, Anthony George, and Sebastian Cabot as San Francisco sleuths. He writes:

Checkmate--a crime-drama where the premise of the series focused not so much on crime solving but crime prevention--was created by celebrated mystery author Eric Ambler ... whose original concept of the series focused on the exploits of a detective, his girlfriend and her professor father. As the story goes, Revue/MCA tinkered with Ambler’s co-ed idea supposedly because actor Doug McClure was under contract to the studio and they wanted to utilize his services since he was already collecting a salary. I have no doubt that this is the case, but in watching some of Checkmate’s episodes I can’t help but notice a slight resemblance to many of the Warner Brothers-produced private-eye shows (Hawaiian Eye, Surfside Six) that were on at the same time; indeed, it’s not much of a stretch to see Checkmate as a more cerebral 77 Sunset Strip. (The only characters missing are a comical sidekick and the luscious girl singer/gal Friday.)

Shreve isn’t so sure, though, how warmly Checkmate will be received nowadays. “Let’s be honest,” he remarks, “it’s an old series ... in black and white ... rarely rerun today, despite the fact that it would be perfect for either TV Land or RTN ... plus it’s saddled with an additional handicap in that it’s both witty and intelligent--anathema to a DVD-buying, television-watching public that considers crap like One Tree Hill to be on the cutting edge of TV today.”

Read all of Shreve’s post here.

Having never watched an entire episode of that last series, I might be just the right audience for Checkmate. Another selection for my already Dead Sea Scrolls-long Netflix queue, it seems.

READ MORE: “Uncommonly Dangerous: Eric Ambler on TV,”
by Tise Vahimagi (Mystery*File); “Checkmate, 1960-1962,” by Stephen Thompson (Booksteve’s Library).