This was a one hour crime drama show shot in spartan black and white that lasted four seasons and supposedly followed the exploits of Elliott Ness (Robert Stack) and his Untouchables (unbribable) during their time in Chicago, 1931- 1933, although the details are very fictionalized.
It managed to stay interesting and creative by centering loosely on the criminal exploits of Al Capone and mainly Frank Nitti, played by Bruce Gordon throughout the series, but branching out to other Prohibition era criminals, often without the involvement of the Capone gang, and sometimes even without much mention of the Untouchables themselves. In fact, the Untouchables are often shown dealing with issues such as local murders that would be outside the purview of federal law enforcement and more in line with what the local police would have dealt with.
The guest stars are like a who's who of 1960s TV and even film - Elizabeth Montgomery, Lee Marvin, Cliff Robertson, Victor Buono, Rip Torn, Werner Klemperer, Brian Keith, etc. - as well as some veteran film stars such as William Bendix, Barbara Stanwyck, and J. Carroll Naish.
The show is episodic, skipping around in time, and it is interesting that with all of the talk of bringing criminals to justice that Ness ends up shooting it out with and ultimately killing almost all of the criminals at the end of the show. Either that or rival criminals ended up killing each other. The Department of Justice couldn't have been happy about that.
Ness died shortly before this series began, and it is ironic that the best days of his career were during his time with the Untouchables. Afterwards his life went on a downwards trajectory and included a couple of divorces, a failed election campaign for mayor of Cleveland, and failed business ventures. His time with the Untouchables largely forgotten by his death, this TV show resurrected interest in that period of history and thus that period of Ness' life.
