"There's an old Polish proverb that says, 'The chicken that clucks the loudest ends up served at the steamfitters' picnic.'" - George Peppard as Thomas Banacek
Banacek: The Second Season DVD Review
By Casey Richards
In the fall of 1971, The NBC Mystery Movie premiered on the network's Wednesday night schedule. Several crime shows rotated under the overarching Mystery Movie concept, including Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife, each playing in the same timeslot during different weeks. When this formula proved to be a success, NBC decided to expand the idea. Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan moved to Sundays and became The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. ItsIt's old timeslot was filled by, you guessed it, The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie, which included three new mystery series, including Banacek. These new shows were not nearly as popular as their predecessors, but as the recent DVD release of Banacek: The Second Season proves, at least one of them was just as entertaining as its more successful cousins.
Thomas Banacek (George Peppard, The A-Team), a Boston-based playboy and self-made millionaire who grew up in public housing, is a first generation Polish American. His father, upon arriving in America, became a mathematician for an insurance company, but was replaced by a computer and thrown away like a broken abacus. Thomas would get revenge for his father, though, by becoming an expert in "restorations." No, he doesn't restore battered antiques. Instead, he investigates big stake insurance claims, like missing airplanes, rocket engines, and racehorses. If he can find the missing object before the insurance company's internal investigators do, he earns 10% of the claim. Needless to say, his help isn't always welcomed-if the internal investigators solve the crime, the company saves the finder's fee.
Helping Banacek is his semi-loyal driver Jay (Ralph Manza), who always seems to have a wacky, illogical solution to each of the cases.case. Felix Mulholland (Murray Matheson), the randy proprietor of Mulholland's Rare Books and Prints, provides Banacek with research and background on the cases when he can tear himself away from his pursuit of much younger women. Banacek is simultaneously helped and hurt by Carlie Kirkland (Christine Belford, Beverly Hills 90210), an investigator with Boston's leading insurance company.
The plots don't always make sense-Banacek seems psychic at times-but the series is always entertaining. The dialogue is snappy, and Peppard plays Banacek as a cool, sophisticated rogue. He also has great chemistry with Belford.
It doesn't take an investigator to find season two's familiar faces, including Don Stroud (Mike Hammer), Anne Baxter (Hotel), Jim Davis (Dallas), Dick Gautier (Get Smart), Cesar Romero (Falcon Crest), Eric Braeden (The Young and the Restless), John Saxon (Dynasty), Anne Francis (Riptide), Tim O'Connor (Buck Rogers), Allen Ludden (Password), Pamela Hensley (Matt Houston), Linda Evans (Dynasty), Andrew Prine (V), Dick Van Patten (Eight is Enough), Jayne Kennedy, Phil Carey (One Life to Live), Victoria Principal (Dallas), Pat Harrington Jr. (One Day at a Time), Peter Marshall (Hollywood Squares), and Gretchen Corbett (The Rockford Files).
The eight episodes that make up Banacek: The Second Season are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in a standard-sized keepcase with an interior swinging arm which holds the two discs.
The menus are simple and functional. Viewers can play all of a disc's episodes or choose them individually.an individual one. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
