A Very Waldo’s Christmas

Television has long scheduled special Christmas episodes of popular series, whether it be The Twilight Zone, Friends, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, or Downton Abbey. Crime dramas aren’t necessarily ideal vehicles for holiday sentimentality, but some have offered up a bit of comfort and joy at this time of year.

Just the other day, for instance, I stumbled upon the December 24, 1959, episode of Johnny Staccato. You remember that half-hour NBC show, right? It ran for only a single season, from September 1959 to March 1960, and starred John Cassavetes as Staccato, a jazz pianist in New York City who earns some cash on the side doing hard-boiled private-eye work. It’s a stylish gem that, sadly, too many modern boob-tubers have never taken the time to watch.



Well, here’s your opportunity. Embedded above is that Yuletide-themed installment, “The Unwise Men.” It finds Staccato helping out a hardworking friend, Tom Raffe (played by Jack Weston), who has a gig portraying Santa Claus at the musician-gumshoe’s favorite Greenwich Village nightclub, Waldo’s, but who’s also being pressed by his ex-con elder brother (Marc Lawrence) to help pull off a heist at Macy’s Department Store. Naturally, Staccato stands up for his buddy, but that only brings Tom more trouble. This 15th episode of Johnny Staccato may be remembered best for its concluding scene, which finds Cassavettes breaking television’s so-called Fourth Wall by turning to the home audience and saying, “Merry Christmas, everybody.”

If you’d like to see more of this series (which Cassavettes apparently “didn’t care for”), there are plenty of episodes available on YouTube. Or spring for the full DVD collection, re-released in 2020.

READ MORE: “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly: Christmas Eyes,” by Kevin Burton Smith (The Thrilling Detective Web Site).