Colonel Humphrey Flack
Colonel Humphrey Flack is an American sitcom which ran Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET from October 7, 1953, to July 2, 1954, on the DuMont Television Network, then revived from 1958 to 1959 for first-run syndication.
Colonel Humphrey Flack | |
---|---|
Also known as |
|
Directed by | John Rich Seymour Robbie |
Starring | Alan Mowbray Frank Jenks |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 39 (original DuMont run) 78 (total) |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company | Desilu (revived series) |
Distributor | CBS Films Viacom Paramount Television CBS Paramount Television CBS Television Distribution (current as of 2007) |
Release | |
Original network | DuMont |
Picture format | Black-and-white |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | October 7, 1953 – 1959 |
The series also aired under the titles The Fabulous Fraud, The Adventures of Colonel Flack, and The Imposter.
Overview
The series is about a con man who conned other conmen, then gave some of the money to the needy. Colonel Humphrey Flack starred prolific British actor Alan Mowbray as the Colonel, and Frank Jenks as his sidekick, Uthas P. ("Patsy") Garvey. The TV series was based on a popular series of short stories by Everett Rhodes Castle published in The Saturday Evening Post.
The pilot for the series aired on May 31, 1953, on an episode of the ABC Album/Plymouth Playhouse.[1]
When the series was revived in 1958, it was retitled Colonel Flack. The 39 episodes (all remakes of the original 39 episodes) aired from October 5, 1958, to July 5, 1959 in syndication.[2] The syndicated programs were made by Desilu Productions and featured Mowbray and Jenks in their original roles.[3]
Episode status
At least 12 episodes of the DuMont series are in the collection of the UCLA Film and Television Archive[4] and two episodes are at the Paley Center for Media.
See also
References
- The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 943. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
- epguides.com: Colonel Flack Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine
- Erickson, Hal (1989). Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-1198-8. P. 56.
- UCLA archive entry
Bibliography
- David Weinstein, The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) ISBN 1-59213-245-6
- Alex McNeil, Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) ISBN 0-14-024916-8
- Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964) ISBN 0-345-31864-1