Johnny Staccato

The detective series starring John Cassavetes as a jazz pianist turned private eye lasted one season (1959-60). Jay Maeder in the Daily News writes that Johnny Staccato “was regarded as just too downbeat and strange – too hip for the room, as they say.” But there are twentysome episodes circulating. A commenter on IMDB.com provides sampling:

MURDER FOR CREDIT with Charles McGraw as an egocentric jazz musician; THE NATURE OF THE NIGHT with Dean Stockwell as a psychotic slasher; EVIL with Alexander Scourby as a corrupt religious leader; FLY BABY FLY with Gena Rowlands as the target of a bomb planted on an airplane that Staccato’s also on; TEMPTED with Elizabeth Montgomery as an old flame of Johnny’s; DOUBLE FEATURE with Cassavetes in a dual role; THE LIST OF DEATH with the great Paul Stewart, SOLOMON with Elisha Cook Jr as a megalomaniac attorney and Cloris Leachman as a mysterious vixen; THE MASK OF JASON with a pre- Dick Van Dyke Mary Tyler Moore; A NICE LITTLE TOWN, a Twilight-Zonish episode and THE WILD REED with Harry Guardino as a heroin addicted jazz musician.

Here’s an essay in Senses of Cinema about “The Shop of the Four Winds” episode. And there’s an SCTV parody: Vic Arpeggio.