Burke's Law

At a time when Angela Lansbury's wildly successful "Murder She Wrote" was winding down, and Dick Van Dyke was in the throes of his late-career resurgence with the equally popular "Diagnosis: Murder", CBS, smartly recognizing the trend of uncomplicated, viewer-friendly mysteries that skewed toward an older demographic, rolled out a reboot of Gene Barry's famous Aaron Spelling-produced '60's series "Burke's Law"! The fact that Spelling had been able to consistently reinvent his product throughout the years to continue producing hit shows marketed toward a younger audience only helped him in the creation of this new "Burke's" endeavor! The fact that star Gene Barry was still a commanding presence in his later years greatly bolstered the seamless execution of this reboot! The new "Burke's Law" benefited from the apparently unlimited budget Spelling threw into the first year of all of his shows! He could place in guest-star roles just about any of the esteemed older actors of one-time prominence, and mix them with the popular younger actors who'd appeared in one of his many nighttime soaps! The solutions to the various "mysteries" were largely, arbitrarily resolved, but the real fun lay in Gene Barry's infectiously fun lead turn, ably supported by his TV "son"---the reliably stoic Peter Barton! This "Burke's Law" reboot was, to my mind, every bit the satisfying, cotton candy-mystery TV puffery that these other hit CBS mystery series were! It was far from amazing, but it was genuinely enjoyable as a latter-day example of pure formula TV made uniquely entertaining and compellingly watchable by all the ingredients that comprised the singular imprint of an Aaron Spelling production!

Burke's Law was a 60s police detective series when it started out. First two seasons were anyway. The third season was a bizarre attempt to turn it into a Man From UNCLE type show. This reboot is a throwback to how the original show began. Burke is a swave and wealthy police captain who excels as a detective. That was the original series. Here, much of the work is not done by Amos Burke who by this time is a police chief.

The newer shows make me think ofn he Columbo reboot episodes more than the newer Perry Mason episodes. The format was always good. The writing is not quite up to the level of the original series but it is still pretty good. Recommend searching this one out. I didn't have the easiest time managing that.

I love detective stories. I saw them all: Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, even the short-lived Blacke's magic. The revived Burke's Law would have been a welcome addition, if not for the derivative style. It's the same plot device over and over again, a murder, one suspect leading Burke and Son to another suspect, then finally calling all suspects in one room and Burke eliminating the non-murderers before naming the real one. Even Agatha Christie knew how to manipulate the storyline so it wouldn't be the same story as the last one. Sadly, the new Burke's Law was just trying to be the next Murder She Wrote without the variety. It feels like it's trapped in the 1930's, like those cozy murders in an English cottage.

The only positive thing: it's in color!

Amazingly,producer Aaron Spelling brought back his most famous show which produced 27 episodes and ran for one season on CBS from 1994-1995. The title again became "Burke's Law",and Gene Barry was back in his most famous role as Chief of Detectives,Amos Burke,who was still head of operations for the Los Angeles Police Department. This time around,Burke is assisted by his son,Peter Burke(Peter Barton). The revival,even more than the original program,was widely regarded as camp,but it was still a good murder mystery with a cast of "whodunits" leading up to Burke and his son to solve the crime and catch the killer. Also,Gene Barry's character was back chasing crooks in his fabulous Rolls-Royce only this time the producers along with some of the writers including Richard Levinson and William Link along with Harlan Ellison,Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts along with Ernest Kinmoy dusted off the original scripts for this new incarnation. Only on occasion did we see the old spark of creatively that made the original show from the early 1960's so great. Some of these episodes did have a touch of a 90's retrospective,such as a victim freezing to death on the hottest day of the year;an ambulance chasing lawyer getting run over by an ambulance. Who would have thought of bringing back guest stars such as Efrem Zimbalist,Jr. as a greedy tycoon accused of murder while practicing his golf swing from the roof of a building and doesn't care who it falls on?

And other stars such as Brian Keith,as an ex-marine turned novelist accused of first degree murder,who puts on a dress just to get into the mood to write? And other stars as suspects such as Hugh O'Brian, Richard Crenna,Stella Stevens,and Carolyn Jones to name a few. This show also featured guest appearances by many of Gene Barry's peers from the 1960's spy-fi genre including Patrick Macnee(The Avengers), Robert Culp(I Spy),David McCallum(The Man From UNCLE),Peter Lupus and Barbara Bain(Mission:Impossible),and Anne Francis(Honey West). It also have some well-known detectives including Mike Connors(Mannix)and Karl Malden(The Streets of San Francisco). After one season on the air,CBS cancelled it and replaced it with the Dick Van Dyke mystery series "Diagnosis Murder",which was the greatest travesty of its kind and to say CBS kept it on the air for seven years killing one of the greatest mystery shows of all time.

Well, maybe my summary will take place of puurakek's, but he (or she?) is totally right! (so read this summary) In one episode (the one w/ Robert Vaughn) there was an identical twin brother who took place of the murdered one, and I only thought, please, don't let this be the one who is believed to be the murdered one and who took his brother's place after he murdered him. Guess what? But somehow I like that show, I don't think it's a total waste of money like "Baby Talk". I don't think, I could stand this show for more than one season, this was enough, but for one season the show was fine. I would have wanted a second or third season of Mr. Merlin, or a new concept.