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Richard Diamond, Private Detective

Detective Drama

Broadcast History:

• April 24, 1949-Dec. 6, 1950, NBC.  Various 30m timeslots, Sundays, then Saturdays, also Wednesdays.  Rexall, from April 5, 1950.

• Jan. 5, 1951-June 27, 1952, ABC.  30m, Fridays at 8 for Camel Cigarettes until the summer break, June 29, 1951;   reurned October 5, Fridays at 8 for Rexall.

• May 31-Sept. 20, 1953, CBS.   30m, Sundays at 7:30.  Substitute for Amos'n' Andy (repeat broadcasts from an earlier season).   Rexall.

Cast:  Dick Powell as Richard Diamond, private detective.  Virginia Gregg as his girlfriend, Helen Asher.  Frances Robinson also as Helen.  Ed Begley as police lieutenant Walt Levinson.  Arthur Q. Bryan as Levinson later in the run.  Wilms Herbert as police sergeant Otis.  Wilms Herbert also as Francis, Miss Asher's butler.   Supporting casts from Hollywood radio:  Betty Lou Gerson, Betty Moran, Ted de Corsia; etc.
Orchestra:  David Baskerville, Frank Worth.
Producers/Directors:  Don Sharpe, producer, with William P. Rousseau, director; Blake Edwards, writer, graduating to the director's booth;  Jaime del Valle later producer-director. Many other directors from week to week.
Writers:  Blake Edwards, Harvey Easton, etc.
Theme:  Leave It to Love, by Henry Russell whistled by Dick Powell.

Though a lighthearted, wisecracking detective show, Richard Diamond could be heavy on demand.  It was the right show at the right time for Dick Powell, babyfaced singer of Hollywood musicals in the early '30s who had struggled for years to change his image.

Diamond was a happy-go-lucky detective who answered his telephone with atrocious commercial jingles and was a master of the verbal put-down (especially with police).  His relationship with frustrated Lt. Walt Levinson was abrasive but rooted in honest affection, and his special delight was ribbing the stupid desk sergeant, Otis, a stock character inserted strictly for laughs.   The opening each week set up the problem and propelled the sarcasm with the cops;   the ending usually found Diamond in the Park  Avenue penthouse of his girlfriend, the rich redhead Helen Asher.  He would sit at Helen's piano and sing a song, usually a standard from Broadway or Hollywood, sometimes a chestnut from the earlier career of the younger Dick Powell.  Miss Asher's butler, Francis, always arrived at the most inopportune moment and left stammering in embarrassment.