Johnny Staccato — Season 1

Aired 10 September 1959 • 30 min

A young singer is faced with the loss of his promising career because of a scandal magazine's blackmail scheme.

Aired 17 September 1959 • 30 min

A bandleader, making a comeback, learns that someone is trying to poison him. But four people might want him killed...

Aired 24 September 1959 • 30 min

""The parents"" have agreed to sell their child to a black-market racketeer. Now they tell Johnny they want to keep the child.

Aired 8 October 1959 • 30 min

Investigating the murder of a Japanese friend, Johnny uncovers a scheme to swindle immigrants by promising them citizenship papers.

Aired 15 October 1959 • 30 min

Dave, the new young bartender at Waldo's, comes under suspicion when a number of blonde women are slashed nearby. Johnny uncovers some darkly disturbing information.

Aired 22 October 1959 • 30 min

When a Puerto Rican boxer goes missing just before a championship fight, Johnny suspects foul play.

Aired 29 October 1959 • 30 min

Johnny Staccato learns from his friend Barney that Barney's sister has given all her money to a local mission house. Knowing that the mission wouldn't ordinarily accept so much, Staccato suspects a bunco scheme.

Aired 5 November 1959 • 30 min

An underworld boss forces Waldo to hire singer Barbara Ames. Then Johnny gets interested in the girl--and is beaten up by a couple of thugs.

Aired 12 November 1959 • 30 min

A millionaire hires Johnny as part of a plan to murder his wife (Gena Rowlands).

Aired 19 November 1959 • 30 min

Elizabeth Montgomery plays a rare pre-Bewitched role as a floozy jazz groupie who's the ex-wife of one of Staccato's former band mates. Out of the blue she shows up at Waldo's the jazz club (and Staccato's ""office"") to enlist Staccato's help, telling him she's almost just been robbed of expensive jewelry she was taking from work. What she was doing with the jewels and why she was taking them from the store she works at piques Staccato's interest (as does the fast-talking and shapely Ms. Montgomery). He's immediately suspicious, but cautiously takes on the case. While he's escorting her home (supposedly with the jewels) they're accosted by a mugger who knocks Staccato out, grabs the jewels, and takes off. The next morning, nursing the bump on his head, Staccato gets a visit from an insurance adjuster who reads him the riot act. Unfazed, Johnny tells the adjuster to take a hike, goes into the bathroom and viola! pulls the jewels out from the soap dispenser. Who set him up? Could it have

Aired 26 November 1959 • 30 min

Working on a murder case, Johnny Staccato trails two suspects to their hideout. With them is beatnik poet Dick Potter, whom the men attempt to implicate in the crime.

Aired 24 March 1960 • 30 min

When Frankie Aspen's saxophone-playing takes a sudden turn for the worse, Johnny determines to find out what is bothering him.

Aired 10 December 1959 • 30 min

A dance-hall girl is murdered, and Police Sergeant Joe Gillan suspects ex-jockey Stash McGill, a friend of the dead girl. Gillan asks Johnny Staccato if he can help locate McGill.

Aired 17 December 1959 • 30 min

Korean War veteran Eddie Dasko escapes from a mental hospital. Dasko is sure that his wife has been seeing another man, and he intends to kill her,

Aired 24 December 1959 • 30 min

Johnny tries to help a musician who, while moonlighting as a department-store Santa Claus, is being pressured by his ex-con brother to help set up a robbery at the store.

Aired 31 December 1959 • 30 min

A man called Red Top kills Hannah Green, but pianist Romeo Jefferson is the chief suspect until Staccato suspects that Romeo has been framed.

Aired 7 January 1960 • 30 min

A young man enters Waldo's and attacks Pete, the trumpet player. Johnny Staccato learns that the youth thinks Pete is his father, who deserted the family years before.

Aired 14 January 1960 • 30 min

Wealthy racketeer Barney Buford calls Johnny Staccato to ask him to look after his young sister, Karen. As he approaches Buford's apartment, Staccato is shot at by a gunman. Then inside, he finds Buford dead.

Aired 21 January 1960 • 30 min

To evade Federal agents, a gang of counterfeiters hide their plates. Convinced that Waldo knows the hiding place, they threaten his life.

Aired 28 January 1960 • 30 min

A bowling-alley proprietor is found murdered, and Johnny Staccato is identified as the killer.

Aired 4 February 1960 • 30 min

A hunted criminal hires Staccato as a bodyguard and promises to turn himself over to police in exchange for letting him visit family members.

Aired 11 February 1960 • 30 min

Jessica Winthrop, a noted pacifist, is accused of killing her husband. Solomon Bradshaw, the lady's lawyer, comes to Johnny Staccato for help.

Aired 18 February 1960 • 30 min

Ventriloquist Thad Clinton drops in to ask Staccato if he'll help locate his missing wife. Johnny finds out that the woman has been murdered.

Aired 25 February 1960 • 30 min

Johnny becomes concerned when an ambitious young man, whose family he has known for years, starts working in a bookshop that is just a cover for a criminal enterprise.

Aired 3 March 1960 • 30 min

Johnny is hired to bodyguard an aspiring actress (Mary Tyler Moore) who is being terrorized by a man with a horribly scarred face.

Aired 10 March 1960 • 30 min

When a former soldier returns home after having defected to Red China, he is murdered by a group of vigilantes.

Aired 17 March 1960 • 30 min

Staccato is mistaken for a concert pianist who has come to the United States to avoid his repressive government.