This is a great show, and I know it was quite popular in it's day. My question then is, why only 4 seasons? Did the Producers decide to end it?, did the ratings take nosedive? Does anyone know the answer or have a theory?? Four years seems awful short for something of this calaber.
shareThe ratings for the show dropped in its watered down fourth season but ABC still wanted to bring the series back for a fifth year. Unfortunately, star Robert Stack was tired of the grind of a weekly series and wanted out. Since Stack's contract was up and without him there could be no show, The Untouchables breathed its last after only four seasons.
share What a shame! I have not seen any of the fourth season shows yet but have heard that there were a few gems. Anyway thanks for the answer to my question. Cheers
I keep thinking of a line from The Apartment... "The Untouchables!....WITH BOB STAACK!!"
Season Four was the weakest of the four but there were some good episodes. A Fist of Five with guest star Lee Marvin was probably the best of the lot with Globe of Death (which marked the swan song of Bruce Gordon on the series as Frank Nitti) being a close second.
shareAccording to Paul Picerni (Ness's sidekick) in his 2007 autobiography, the reasons were as follows:
1. Competition from other police shows, who came about based on the popularity of "The Untouchables."
2. Ths show was expensive to produce and was barely breaking even.
3. The producers believed they could make more money in syndication (re-runs).
I also understand that in 1962 we had one of the periodic fusses about too much violence on TV, which did not help matters much.
The Untouchables was not a huge sucess in syndication. However, of course, Lucy and Desi hit the jackpot with Syndication in a show that came along four years after the Untouchables went off the air...a little item called Star Trek....
I'll Teach You To Laugh At Something's That's Funny
Homer Simpson
Just like with Miami Vice, 21 years later, all the celebrity Guest Hoodlum (or once in awhile Good-Guy) appearances probably hurt their profits considerably.
You may walk on the beach, you may swim in the ocean... under SWAT team surveillance, of course.
I guess the poorer runs of episodes at the later seasons did not help the ratings.
Its that man again!!
that is correct. the guardians of the public morality back then, like now decided that it was too violent for tv.
isn't it strange that they worry more about fictional violence on tv than they do about real violence in the streets.
that's because they haven't a clue what to do about the ladder.
the series was literally run off tv by watering it down to nothing and it was worth it because 50 years later we have no more violence..right???
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The reasons behind the cancellation have all pretty much been covered, but I'll just add from a fan's perspective, the impact of those reasons was very noticeable by S4. With a very few exceptions, Season Four was tremendously disappointing. Watered down action, thin/far-fetched plots, and some horrible casting decisions (Harry Morgan as Bugs Moran? Ack!)
sharePeople mention "watered down" episodes late in the series, and that, and the show's end, may have been caused by the outrage the series caused in the Italian-American community by its depictions of most of the criminals as Italian American gangsters.
Wiki has content related to this:
The show drew harsh criticism from some Italian-Americans including Frank Sinatra,[6] who felt it promoted negative stereotypes of them as mobsters and gangsters. The Capone family unsuccessfully sued the Columbia Broadcasting System,(CBS), Desilu Productions and Westinghouse Electric Corporation for its depiction of the Capone family.
On March 9, 1961, Anthony Anastasio, chief of the Brooklyn waterfront and its International Longshoremen's Association, marched in line with a picket group who identified themselves as “The Federation of Italian-American Democratic Organizations.” In protest formation outside the American Broadcasting Company, (ABC) New York headquarters, they had come together to urge the public boycott of L&M, (Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company) products, and its Chesterfield King cigarettes, which sponsored "The Untouchables". They expressed displeasure with the program, which to them vilified Italian-Americans, stereotyping them as the singular criminal element. The boycott and the attendant firestorm of publicity had the effect Anastasio and his confederates wanted. Four days after the picket of ABC, L&M, denying that they had bowed to intimidation, announced it would drop its sponsorship of "The Untouchables", maintaining their decision was based on network-scheduling conflicts. The following week, the head of the production studio Desilu, Desi Arnaz (who had attended high school with Capone's son Albert), in concert with ABC and the “Italian-American League to Combat Defamation,” issued a formal three-point manifesto:
There will be no more fictional hoodlums with Italian names in future productions.
There will be more stress on the law-enforcement role of “Rico Rossi”, Ness’s right-hand man on the show.
There will be an emphasis on the “formidable influence” of Italian-American officials in reducing crime and an emphasis on the “great contributions” made to American culture by Americans of Italian descent
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Make what you will of that but it wouldn't be altogether fantasy to speculate the mob may have had something to do with the end of the Untouchables.
I know you are but what am I?
That’s still a lot of episodes.
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