Television Noir

[HosManHatter]

I was inspired by the Film Noir thread and got to thinking...

Do you think there any classic or vintage television series or shows that have most/all of the characteristics of film noir?

I think most of the first season of THE OUTER LIMITS could be considered as televison noir--both visually and dramatically.Early episodes were dark and somewhat disturbing and made excellent use of light and shadow,unconventional camera angles/closeups and tragic/pessimistic storylines. Here`s the episodes of OL I feel are most television noir: "The Forms of Things Unknown", "The Invisibles", "Second Chance", "The Bellero Shield", "A Feasibility Study", "The Guests", "Nightmare", "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork", "The Man Who was Never Born", "The Chameleon", "Demon With a Glass Hand", "The Inheritors"(pt.1&2), "The Duplicate Man", "Cry of Silence", "O.B.I.T.", "The Sixth Finger"(my favorite episode) and "The Hundred Days of the Dragon".

The original TWILIGHT ZONE,ONE STEP BEYOND,PETER GUNN,DARK SHADOWS and selected episodes of NIGHT GALLERY also come to mind.

Would you call it "Televsion Noir","TV Noir" or "Film Noir Televsion"?

Can anyone add to my wimpy little list?
HMH

 

[Mr E Train]

Classic private eye and police shows come to mind. Peter Gunn, Johnny Staccato, Dragnet.

 

[Nighthawk]

Batman: The Animated Series is often considered to be part of this category.

NH

 

[HosManHatter]

Thanks,Nighthawk.I totally forgot about BAS.It is Cartoon Noir I guess.
That series is what made the BatMan cool again (before the movies).The whole series has a 30/40`s look to it--from the cars,clothing and architecture.Can`t believe I left that one out.

HMH

 

[Nighthawk]

What is considered noir is, of course, very debatable. Some more items for discussion:

I havn't watched 60's secret agent TV shows in years, but would Mission: Impossible, I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and The Avengers count?

Certainly episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents / The Alfred Hitchcock Hour would count as noir. As would The X-Files (one of my favorites) and its precursers Twin Peaks and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Some others to maybe consider:
Cimmmaron Strip - havn't seen this
The Green Hornet
Miami Vice

You mentioned "Demon with a Glass Hand" from The Outer Limits. Harlan Ellison, who wrote the episode, also had it published as a graphic novel.

http://www.islets.net/illustrata/demon.html

 

[Mr E Train]

Thanks,Nighthawk.I totally forgot about BAS.It is Cartoon Noir I guess.
That series is what made the BatMan cool again (before the movies).The whole series has a 30/40`s look to it--from the cars,clothing and architecture.Can`t believe I left that one out.

HMH

The Tim Burton Batman movies actually made Batman cool again (although looking back and comparing them the current movies, they look almost as campy as the 60's TV show), but the coolness was short-lived after Joel Schumacher got hold of the franchise. Despite the excellence of the Christopher Nolan movies, I still think the Animated Series and related projects like the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series with Batman voiced by Kevin Conroy (who also played him in the recent and excellent Batman: Arkham Asylum videogame) have done the best job of capturing the essence of Batman outside of comic books and graphic novels.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Newer folks should note that we have discussed Batman: The Animated Series in some detail before:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=28659

 

[HosManHatter]

Harlan Ellison is one of my favorite authors,Nighthawk.Did`nt he also write/work on the original Star Trek pilot "The Menagerie"? I think he ended up sueing because he was`nt credited(?)Not sure.

X-Files.Definately tv noir in my book. Some of the Avengers episodes were extremely noir.Twin Peaks...David Lynch can`t not be noir.Nightstalker was a great show and had some creepy episodes.




The Aeon Flux animated shorts first aired on Mtv`s Liquid Television were rather noir and confusing(non linear story).The Prisoner was strange and a bit surreal but is it noir?
A few of the early b/w episodes of Lost In Space were noir as I recall.

Turning out to be an interesting thread.
HMH

 

[Doctor Strange]

No, not "The Menagerie". Ellison wrote "The City on the Edge of Forever", then essentially disowned it when Roddenberry and Fontana rewrote it to make it a filmable TV script. Since then, despite it constantly being voted the best Trek episode, Ellison has bitched continuously. (Of course, that's one of the things that he's famous for!)

As an old-school Trek guy, I had to note that.

 

[Mr E Train]

n linear story)
A few of the early b/w episodes of Lost In Space were noir as I recall.
HMH

That's an interesting thing to say, because I would never have thought of Lost in Space as noir. I guess I could see that, though, because Dr. Smith was much more of a malicious character at the beginning rather than the lovably cowardly and curmudgeonly bumbler that he became.

 

[HosManHatter]

Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathon Harris,I believe?) was probably one of the most underrated actors of that era.The man completely made that show.What a classic voice as well--perfect annunciation and erudition.

Lost In Space had some good camera and lighting work early on as well as very sinister monster sound effects.Heck,even Michael Renney for 2 episodes!!

Once they started filming in color it sucked out most of the noir.One or two color episodes were dark (the android machine making duplicate Smith`s)but not noir.

"Oh the pain.The pain of it all."
HMH

 

[Mr E Train]

Well, they started filming it in color, and they realized that kids thought Dr. Smith was funny, so they started playing up the humorous aspects of his character. Either way, he was great, though.

 

[dhermann1]

Johnny Staccato, with John Cassavetes ran for only 27 episodes, accordiing to Wikipedia. A great show. Very noir.
There was an excellent series, "The Naked City", spun off from the great film of the same title. For a while the phrase "There are eight million stories in the Naked City" was heard all over the place in this country.
Before there was "Mannix" there was "Tightrope", also with Mike Connors. Very similar to "Johnny Staccato".
Lee Marvin first gained fame with a cop show called "M-Squad".
Moving forward to an era I wouldn't consider "early" TV, but still quite a while ago, "Kojack" certainly qualifies.
Interesting topic.

 

[HosManHatter]

I remember Mannix very well. Cassavettes is a fine actor so I`ll have to hunt down the series.

HMH

 

[Mr E Train]

Cassavettes is a fine actor so I`ll have to hunt down the series.

HMH

A fine director as well, although his films aren't to everyone's taste.

 

[HosManHatter]

He played the husband in the original "Rosemary`s Baby" did`nt he? Not too familiar with his directing but I`ve heard he`s somewhat avant-garde and had an odd approach in his film making.

 

[The Wolf]

The early episodes of the George Reeves show Superman were surprisingly film noir. I recommend them.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[HosManHatter]

Nice one,Wolf! I remeber the episode with the tiny subterrainian people.When they turned that ray cannon on the villian and his blood curdling scream of agony.That scene haunted me for years after from that too-real scream and the slowness the weapon was taking to either kill or disable the poor soul.Maybe it was some torture device?

Either way original SuperMan was noir cool!
The 40`s(?) Fleischer SuperMan animated shorts were also definte noir.

HMH

 

[Atomic Age]

I'm a huge Perry Mason fan, and I love that the show just has the look of a film noir. All 9 seasons were shot in B&W. Many of the episodes have noir themes with Mason's client often seemingly on a path of self destruction. Great show.

Of course there was the short lived Private Eye from the mid 1980s. Only lasted about 13 episodes.

I would also put The X-Files in the noir category.

Doug

 

[HosManHatter]

I rember not liking Perry Mason (most children did`nt) because all they did was talk. You`re right,Atomic Age,that series had a real dark feel to it.It felt sort of creepy whenever the folks had it on.Honorary TV Noir status....GRANTED!

Don`t remeber Private Eye.So many promising series were snuffed out before their time.

HMH