Banacek

George Peppard starred as Thomas Banacek, a private insurance investigator of Polish descent based in Boston who became involved in various insurance fraud cases involving art, books, coins, horses, etc. He demanded and received a big fee for his services, which made him a very wealthy man, and enabled him to live well indeed, and he was quite the natural ladies man, in just about every episode! He was helped by his sidekick/chauffeur Jay Drury, played by Ralph Manza, whose theories about the cases were always wrong, and also Murray Matheson as Felix Mulholland, a book seller who provided Banacek with vital information he needed to solve his cases, all of which were very entertaining.

This had a memorably breezy theme, and was great fun to watch. Sadly, this only lasted two years and 17 episodes, because Peppard quit for personal reasons, which was a great pity, since this show could have gone on as long as "Columbo" did.

A great look back at TV show history and the times. Classic list of actors in every episode.

"Banacek" has also been aired in polish TV during seventies. Polish people were partly proud, partly disappointed watching these series. People were laughing watching it and started to make jokes about this TV series. Main reason of jokes were "typical polish" proverbs often cited by investigator.

I can assure you - none of his proverbs really exist in Polish. All of them were invented by script writers. Many years later, when someone tried to "invent old tradition" saying something which sounded archaic but in fact was invented by him people used to say "Do not be such Banaczek".

Btw. proper polish spelling of his name is "Banaczek" and should be pronounced as "Bana-check"

Okay, Banacek wasn't exactly a P.I.-he was an investigator for the Boston Insurance Company who tracked down stolen goods for a generous commission. This show starred the late George Peppard ten years before he entertained us all as Hannibal in the A-Team.

Before I first saw this series, I thought to myself, "An insurance investigator-how boring." This series proved me wrong. Yes, Banacek was an insurance investigator but it was the items he tracked down that provided the entertainment. They were never small relatively cheap items, always something costing millions of dollars. In one of my favourite episodes, Banacek tried to track down a missing football player (yes, really).

Fans of Columbo will like this show as Banacek solved his cases whilst the rest of us scratched our heads wondering what was going on. There was a fair bit of action at times but it was the way in which Banacek would systematically solve the case that provided the bulk of the entertainment.

All in all, a fantastic show.

George Peppard plays the title role in this series of Thomas Banacek, a street smart detective who works on retainer for insurance companies. He's the furthest thing from Jim Rockford who scrounges for work. No, Banacek is well paid for his cases.

He also has an old time petty crook played by Ralph Manza as a chauffeur and the tweedy and very British Murray Matheson to do his research. I'm sure they're well compensated also.

Peppard's character was interesting and intelligent and favored Agatha Christie like gathering of the suspects when all will be revealed when he solves a case. The show was more of a how it was done rather than a whodunit. With Banacek it was always the 'how'.

Ironically this limited series as it shared the NBC Mystery Movie time slot with three others only had a two season run and 17 episodes. I found it better than the A Team. But that show is what most remember George Peppard for.

Ironic, isn't it.