M Squad

M Squad

Lee Marvin as Lt. Frank Ballinger, from NBC's 'M-Squad' in 1959.
Genre Crime drama
Starring Lee Marvin
Paul Newlan
Composer(s) Main theme by
Count Basie
Stanley Wilson
Incidental music and arrangements by
Sonny Burke
Pete Carpenter
Benny Carter
John T. Williams
Orchestra conducted by
Stanley Wilson
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 117 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) John Larkin
Richard Lewis
Producer(s) Robert Bassler
Maxwell Shane
Editor(s) Lee Huntington
John B. Moss
Stanley Rabjohn
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s) Latimer Productions
Revue Studios
Distributor Universal Television
NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network NBC
Original release September 20, 1957 – June 28, 1960

M Squad is an American crime drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. It was produced by Lee Marvin's Latimer Productions and Revue Studios. Its main sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's star, appeared in its commercials during many episodes.[1][2] Alternate sponsors were General Electric (GE), Hazel Bishop and Bulova watches.

Episodes

Season Episodes First aired Last aired
1 38 September 20, 1957 (1957-09-20) June 13, 1958 (1958-06-13)
2 40 September 19, 1958 (1958-09-19) July 3, 1959 (1959-07-03)
3 39 September 18, 1959 (1959-09-18) June 28, 1960 (1960-06-28)

Set in Chicago, Illinois, it starred Marvin as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of "M Squad", a special unit of the Chicago Police, assisting other units in battling organized crime, corruption and violent crimes city-wide. Paul Newlan co-starred as his boss, Captain Grey. Although Marvin had been appearing in feature films since 1951, it was this series that made him a star, and he later went on to an even bigger film career afterward. Nelson Case was the announcer.[3] The popularity of M Squad was proven in the ratings wars by the NBC network choosing a Thursday night time slot opposite Frank Sinatra's ABC variety show in the fall of 1957 and Phil Silvers' long running CBS comedy, Sgt.Bilko, in 1958. Both series were eventually cancelled.

Guest stars

Music

Trivia

DVD releases

Timeless Media Group released M Squad: The Complete Series on DVD in the Region 1 on November 11, 2008.[5] This release has been discontinued and is out of print.

On November 4, 2014, Timeless Media re-released the complete series on DVD in a new 16-disc special edition collection that contains an entire disc of bonus content.[6]

References

External links

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