Shark Bytes

RIP Jim Hutton. A major hunk who died much too young. EQ could've been total crap, and I'd've still tuned in every week just to see him. As it was, fortunately it was also a good, fun show.

I agree with many of the posts (in fact all that I read!) that this was the best TV show ever. I hated the day it was canceled. I was only a teenager, but I loved Hutton and how he conducted himself, and the fact that he made you think, but then explained what really happened in a non-condescending way. It was interactive, if you will, before it's time. It is a classic example that idiots run the networks -- on the other hand, they gave it to us in the first place.

NEVER JUMPED!!!
For me the best tv show ever.
Great episodes, great regular actors, great guest stars (just to remember: Ray Milland, Vincent Price, Joan Collins, Sal Mineo, Don Ameche ... an andless list).
I can't believe they don't editate on DVD here in Europe.
Ciao from Italy

FYI, I've just ordered my brother the entire 1975 Ellery Queen series for Christmas. We were teenagers when it was on NBC and my he was a huge fan. Can't wait to see his face. It's for sale by The Old Time Theatre.com.
They look to be legit. Just thought other EQ fans would be interested.

This has to be one of my all time favorite shows.

It was unique because it made the viewing audience part of the show. The viewer didn't know who the murderer was, they had to figure it out at the end of the show using all of the clues.


It reminds me of those murder mystery dinner parties. Great fun.

I was very young, when Ellery Queen was on TV, and I never missed an episode. It was great! Never Jumped! It was pure mystery from Scene 1 to the Revelation. I have never seen another show this great.
Jim Hutton and David Wayne were brilliant as Dad & Son.

And yes, I have read the books.

Followed the original "challenge to the reader" of the early EQ novels. Required more thought than most TV viewers are capable of.

Never jumped. Yep, it was too intelligent for the 1970s. The show required you to play detective too. Terrible to see it cancelled after just one season. I remember Jim Hutton and David Wayne showing up at a baseball playoff game in a last-ditch effort to promote the show (i.e. save it from being cancelled). Major disappointment when it got the ax. By the way, the 1950 date is for the original show that ran until 1954 starred Richard Hart. The later show (which we all seem to be discussing) ran from 1975 through 1976. A&E used to show it on Thursday afternoons about 10 years ago.

NBC's ELLERY QUEEN was one of the best mystery shows in the history of TV and I still wonder today why it was cancelled. This show had interesting stories and the late Jim Hutton was the personification of charm in the title role. And I absolutely loved it every week, when ten minutes before the show was over, Queen would gather all the suspects together to announce the killer but before he did, he would speak directly to the audience and review the clues with us to see if we knew. Absolutely loved that! No show had ever done that before and I found it wonderfully refreshing and the camera just loved Hutton. Wonderful show that never jumped the shark.

Another gem from NBC, ELLERY QUEEN never jumped the shark and never should have been cancelled. A fun and sophisticated whodunnit show made all the more enjoyable by the effortless charm of its star, the late Jim Hutton. With solid support from David Wayne and Ken Swofford, Hutton anchored one of the smoothest and most entertaining murder shows ever, far superior to later bastardizations of the formula like MURDER SHE WROTE and DIAGNOSIS: MURDER (two shows that put me to sleep). And I absolutely LOVED when, every week, as he gathered the suspects together to announce who the murderer was, they would just break the fourth wall and have Ellery talk directly to the audience and recap the clues to see if he we knew who did it. No show that I recall had ever done that and I thought it made the show infinitely more enjoyable to the point where I was actually conversing with Hutton as he recapped what we had learned. I miss Jim Hutton. He was taken from us much too soon but he has a permanent place in entertainment history because of this show. I hope enough people post about this show that it can someday be moved to the "Few and the Proud" thread because that's where this show belongs. The shark couldn't find ELLERY QUEEN.

Never! It was my favorite show when I was nine or 10. Well acted, great feel for the period, and the mysteries were always smart and challenging. The plots always kept my young mind thinking.

Ellery Queen never did jump the shark, IMO. I always enjoyed that show, and have been part of a lobbying effort to bring it to DVD, but without success, thus far. I have seen a few people here say that Jim Hutton WAS Ellery Queen. Although I can appreciate their enthusiasm, as I also enjoyed Hutton's portrayal, as one who has read most of the books and listened to many of the original radio broadcasts, via old-time radio tapes, Jim Hutton was no more Ellery Queen than Nigel Bruce was Dr. Watson in the 1040's Sherlock Holmes movies. Bruce played a bumbling Watson, whereas the real Watson was intelligent and eriudite. In the case of Hutton's EQ, the REAL EQ smoked incessantly, was very serious (not the seeming devil-may-care character that Hutton's role portrayed), and was a bit of a ladies man, which the TV Queen never was. I think those who say Hutton WAS Ellery Queen must be comparing him to some other EQ they may have seen (Lawford?). I believe had these people read the novels and/or listened to the old radio broadcasts, which were somewhat more faithful than this series, even though there were liberties taken on the radio, too, they would not have claimed that Hutton WAS EQ. Having made that diatribe, I think Jim Hutton played a VERY charming and believable EQ, in his own right, as far as TV is concerned. David Wayne was GREAT as Inspector Richard Queen, who, even in the novels, was a crusty, taciturn man who doubted Ellery throughout much of the stories, even though he always asked Ellery to help because of his insight. Wayne played his part to the hilt. Given my affection for the EQ of the novels, it still never JTS, because of Hutton's likeability and charm, and Wayne's wonderful Inspector Queen character.

This show was not on long enough to jump and maybe that is a good thing. The formula did not grow old and I also ended up taping as many of the episodes as I could while being shown again on A&E and mourning the loss when the show ended. I fear the same result for Timothy Hutton's Nero Wolfe which I also really enjoy.

The overused the device of the victim leaving a dying clue (eg marking off 23rd April, St George's, day on a calendar to indicate that George did it). One of the worst of these was when a woman was murdered in hospital and was found clutching a violet jade broach, telling Ellery Queen that the murder was the person who brought the victim violets when everyone else brought roses

BEST mystery show ever on TV. ONLY the Jim Hutton and David Wayne series though. DO NOT throw in that horrid Peter Lawford thing that they claomed was ELLERY QUEEN! That was horrible. I wish it was on up here in reruns...and I was devastated when Jim Hutton died. He was great. LOVED the Ellery Queen series and still love the Ellery Queen books...I've read them all.