Anyone remember the "Peter Gunn" t.v. series?

[warrprayer]

The theme song alone is golden...

I saw it as a kid, revisited on youtube. It was interesting to note the differences between the "beatniks" and the "hippies". Beatniks = jazz, literature, hard boiled. Hippies = acid, music, nonviolence. (Manson being the exception.)
The beats seemed to give us more literature, the hippies more music.

Thoughts?

[Downtown Hound]

1. Never saw the show

Only know the theme because it was on the video game Spy Hunter, which I played the hell out of at our local Domino's Pizza whenever my family went there when I was a kid.

Awesome theme.

60's counterculture also gave us a lot of our greatest film directors: Spielberg, Coppola, Stone, Kubrick, Lucas (questionable, I know), and many others either came of age or experienced their heydey in the 60's.

[warrprayer]

4. the theme song just reeks

of booze, sex, and fisticuffs!!!

[Paladin]

19. Mancini, at the top of his musical skills.

They show the series on an oldies station I get, but it's on at like 4:00 AM or so, something ridiculous like that. The episodes I've seen indicate the show has really held up well over the years. And jeez, that amazing musical score......

[TreasonousBastard]

2. That theme is killer, but the real question is-- do you remember...

Sam, and those great legs?

10 points if you know who that was without looking it up.

[warrprayer]

3. you got me

... I will have to look it up!

[rurallib]

5. Mary Tyler Moore

[warrprayer]

6. you win....

[rurallib]

7. just couldn't come up with any good snark with that answer

[warrprayer]

8. edited...

[TreasonousBastard]

9. And not her first gig, either, but her last uncredited one.

[IADEMO2004]

20. Remind me to never play "Trivial Pursuit " against you.

[Ptah]

21. hmm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Tyler_Moore#Television

Moore's first regular television role was as a mysterious and glamorous telephone receptionist on Richard Diamond, Private Detective. To add to the mystique, her voice is heard, but only her shapely legs appear on camera.

[Bombero1956]

24. wasn't Mary Tyler Moore

on Richard Diamond Private Detective? All you saw were her legs.

[Brother Buzz]

10. Here's some more detective/film noir saxophone music

It's really a shame the TV series, Mike Hammer, totally sucked.

[warrprayer]

11. I enjoyed

Stacy Keach, if that is the show you refer to. Not in the same league as Peter Gunn, though. Way too slick and commercial.

[Brother Buzz]

16. Stacy Keach is a fine actor and I've enjoyed really him in other roles

It's just that Mike Hammer was extremely unmemorable. I blame the writers and producers for cranking out such mediocre work after the first couple of episodes. Would have, could have, should have been.

[RebelOne]

15. I always liked Stacy Keach. Too bad Mike Hammer fizzled. n/t

[In_The_Wind]

12. The cheerleaders at my high school did a routine to the Peter Gunn theme song.

[warrprayer]

37. WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!

You were surely missed!!!!!

[In_The_Wind]

38. Gone & back again.

I got snowed on in the village of Lake Placid yesterday morning.
I may have found my next (used car) while driving around up there.
My very small car needs to retire so I can drive it just for fun.

Great video!

[HarveyDarkey]

13. He does a nice job

Sounds much better, even on my computer speakers, that those old TeeVee speakers. B&W TeeVee & monophonic sound.

[RebelOne]

14. Uses to watch it, but it has been so long ago

that I do not remember it that well.

[trof]

17. Oh hell yes. Craig Stevens. Henry Mancini wrote the theme music.

[Jenoch]

18. We played the theme song in high school pep band.

Of course the theme is one of the most recognizable themes in TV history.

Last winter, I get a DVD for a few episodes of Peter Gunn from the public library. He was one cool cat. The TV show seemed to have a lot of night scenes.

[mucifer]

22. Every episode has a jazz fight. People throwing punches with jazz music in the background

[sarge43]

23. I remember this one from Peter Gunn

Mancini would write music that could melt your bones.

[El Supremo]

25. This one was better:

[progressivejazzredux]

28. I'll second that.

Mike Hammer was one tough dude in that series. Mean.

[liberal N proud]

26. Theme song was the best part of the show.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. We used to break into that theme song spontaneously

Last edited Fri Oct 18, 2013, 07:20 PM - Edit history (3)

in strings class when I was in junior high in the 60s (upright bass, cello, viola, and violin - I played the latter) while waiting for the teacher to get in gear. I remember when the top 40 radio stations actually played some jazz tunes, like Cast Your Fate To the Wind or Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto doing Girl From Ipanema, or even Brubeck's Take Five. Cannonball Adderly's Mercy, Mercy, Mercy? Windy by Wes Montgomery. Grazin' In The Grass by Mongo Santamaria. The In Crowd by the Ramsey Lewis Trio. Stan Getz' Desafinado. Walk on the Wild Side, by Jimmy Smith & The Big Band. There were quite a few others like Jankowski's A Walk through The Black forest or even Nelson Riddle's Route 66. Jazz on AM radio on top hits stations is probably extremely rare today.

Examples of 60s jazz tunes making it into the Billboard Pop 100 and getting AM radio air play:

[Still Blue in PDX]

29. I heard the theme song on a commercial yesterday.

I knew the theme because my brother had it on a record. Never saw the show as it came on way past my bedtime.

[pinboy3niner]

30. It's in the new Cadillac commercial

I just heard it on a cable news break just now.

[NewJeffCT]

31. My dad used to have the 45 of this song

I used to play it over & over when I was young. Loved it.

[warrprayer]

32. Here is another cool P.I. theme song from that era

77 Sunset Strip - with office next to Dean Martins club!!!

[warrprayer]

33. sorry was away for a while... to all who posted

the Harley Davidson Topper Scooter from 77 Sunset Strip!

[warrprayer]

34. Magnum P.I.

My all time fav t.v. P.I.!!!




"Is that an UZI"?!? (great line from "Air America" )

[progressoid]

35. Duane Eddy can still twang that song...

[warrprayer]

36. oh hell yeah!

thanks!!!