The Five Best Episodes of "Banacek"

Banacek with his trademark cigar.

George Peppard starred as free-lance, Boston-based insurance investigator Thomas Banacek in a pilot movie and 16 episodes of Banacek. The series aired as part of the NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie in 1972-74. He was assisted in each episode by his friend, bookstore owner (and researcher) Felix (Murray Matheson) and chauffeur Jay (Ralph Manza). The episodes were typically 75 minutes (without commercials) and focused on elaborate thefts. Here are our picks for the five best episodes:

Stefanie Powers.

1. Let's Hear It for a Living Legend  - A professional football player disappears from the field during a nationally televised game. An ingenious, yet deceptively simple, crime highlights this episode that also features Stefanie Powers as a guest star. She and series star George Peppard have great chemistry; it's a shame she couldn't return for a second outing. An added bonus for NFL fans is the brief appearances from real-life former players John Brodie, Ben Davidson, and Deacon Jones.

2. No Stone Unturned - A massive three-ton piece of modern art is stolen from a museum. We're talking an object so large that the museum's glass front had to be removed so the artwork could be emplaced by a crane. So how was it nabbed during an opening night party without anyone knowing? I admit that my enjoyment of this episode was enhanced by the fact that I figured out how the basics of how the theft was accomplished!

Margot Kidder.

3. A Million the Hard Way - A Las Vegas casino has one million dollars stolen from a tamper-proof display case in the middle of a busy room with an armed guard on duty. This may be the most complex caper in the Banacek series. Plus, Margot Kidder is on hand as a part-time photographer, displaying the kind of spunk that would earn her the role of Lois Lane in Superman (1978).

4. Fly Me — If You Can Find Me - A jet has to make an emergency landing at a small desert airport. One pilot stays with the aircraft while the other crew members spend the night in a nearby motel. The next morning, the airplane and the pilot are gone! This is another crime which is clever despite its simplicity. If you think about it, there's really only one way the plane could have been stolen. But, in this case, another question is why was the plane stolen? The above-average guest star cast features Sterling Hayden and a pre-Dallas Victoria Principal.

5. Now You See Me, Now You Don't - An amateur magician, wanted for embezzling, disappears from a theatre surrounded by the police. This caper employs a trick featured prominently in one of Agatha Christie's mystery novels. It works effectively here, though there's a secondary impact that's pretty hard to swallow (no plot spoilers!).

Seven Things to Know About George Peppard

Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

1. George Peppard didn't get along with either of his female co-stars on the set of Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). According to Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion, he and Patricia Neal were friends when they attended the Actors Studio in the 1950s. However, her opinion of him had changed by the time they made Tiffany's: "Boy, he'd gotten rotten. At the Actors Studio, I'd adored him." As for Audrey Hepburn, she and Peppard seemed unable to overcome their different personalities. He sometimes referred to her as the "Happy Nun" on the set (she had made The Nun's Story two years earlier).

2. George Peppard was married five times. His second wife was actress Elizabeth Ashley, who commented  in a 2015 interview: "I married a movie star 11 years older than me because I was looking for a father. Big mistake! Granted, he was gorgeous. Maybe too gorgeous! And good for breeding. But I believe it was doomed from the start." Peppard and Ashley had met on the set of The Carpetbaggers (1964) and they shared top billing the following year in The Third Day. Their marriage lasted six years and they had a son, Christian (also an actor).

George Peppard as Banacek.

3. After Peppard's film career hit a lull, he starred in Banacek, one of the rotating series that aired as part of the NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie in 1972. Thomas Banacek was a very successful free-lance insurance investigator who lived in a plush house on Boston's Beacon Hill and had a chauffeur. In the first season episode "Project Phoenix," Banacek mentioned that he learned "combat judo" in the Marine Corps. Peppard actually served in the Marines from 1946-48 and rose to the rank of corporal.

4. At the 2004 SF Ball X, A-Team regular Dwight Schultz talked about working with George Peppard. On Schultz's first day on the set, Peppard walked up to him and said: "Hello, I’m George Peppard. I’m not a very nice man. I used to be a drunk. I tell everybody that. I’m not a drunk anymore." Schultz also said that both Peppard and Mr. T considered themselves to be the star the show. So, when Peppard started leaving the set at 5:00 pm each day, so did Mr. T. The shooting schedule had to be rearranged so that Schultz and Dirk Benedict could stay late to complete any scenes without the show's "stars."

5. Although known for his film and TV roles, Peppard also performed on stage. He made his Broadway debut in 1956 opposite Shelley Winters and Pat Hingle in Girls of Summer. A young Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the title song, was uncredited in the play's original program.

Peppard and Linda Evans on Banacek.

6. According to TV Guide, George Peppard was the original choice to play Blake Carrington on the TV series Dynasty. He was replaced by John Forsyte due to "creative differences" with the show's producers (interestingly, Linda Evans had been a guest star on Banacek). Peppard did star in another TV series between Banacek and The A-Team. He portrayed a neurosurgeon in Doctors' Hospital, which lasted 16 episodes on NBC in 1975-76. The show co-starred Zohra Lampert and John Larroquette.

7. George Peppard was married five times. In addition to Ashley, his fourth wife Sherry Boucher was an actress. He had three children, one with Ashley and two with his first wife Helen Davies. George Peppard died in 1994 at age 65 from pneumonia. A former smoker for many years, he had been battling lung cancer.

James Cameron, John Sayles, and John-Boy? It Must be "Battle Beyond the Stars"

Hoping to capitalize on the enormous popularity of 1977's Stars Wars, producer Roger Corman turned to John Sayles to craft an outer space adventure about another young man destined to become an unlikely hero. Sayles was on the verge of achieving critical success for his reunion comedy-drama Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979), the unofficial inspiration for The Big Chill. In the meantime, though, he paid the bills by writing witty screenplays for Corman and other budget-minded producers. His writing credits during this period include Piranha, Alligator, and The Howling.

Richard Thomas as John-Boy...I mean, Shad.

Battle Beyond the Stars is one of Sayles' lesser efforts. His intent seems clever enough: Transplant the premise of Akira Kurosawa's epic Seven Samurai (remade as the 1960 Western The Magnificent Seven) to a science fiction adventure. To that end, Richard Thomas stars as Shad, a young lad whose planet is under siege by the evil Sador (John Saxon). After inflicting some random killings, Sador promises: "I will return in seven risings. You are mine."

Not wanting to be "his," the village elders send Shad on a mission to find some mercenaries ("To fight creatures of violence, you must use creatures of violence"). Aboard his talking, smart-aleck ship Nell, Shad scours the galaxy and returns with six companions--only one of which could be described as a mercenary. Still, they prove to be a formidable force when Sador and his army return.

They are Nestor.

The first hour of this galactic hodgepodge has its share of amusing moments, such as the five beings that share a single conscience.

NESTOR: We are Nestor...these five facets. Four of us are required to operate the shop.

SHAD: What about the fifth?

NESTOR: We always carry a spare.

Alas, once Sador returns for the big showdown, Battle Beyond the Stars drops into a black hole. The spaceship battles drag on for over 20 minutes, leaving plenty of time to realize that special effects aren't special when you're working on a tight budget. Many of the effects were devised by a young crew member named James Cameron (and, yes, it is that James Cameron). Don't expect any amazing, innovative special effects, though. It's apparent that Cameron was a novice and had much to learn before developing the stunning visuals in Avatar (and, of course, benefiting from an exponential  budget increase and three decades of technological advances).

Cult fan favorite Sybil Danning.

Richard Thomas is adequate in the lead role, though John-Boy Walton still looks out of place on a spaceship. Robert Vaughn, who played one of the mercenaries in The Magnificent Seven, pays homage to his earlier film (though, oddly enough, Vaughn's role this time around shares many similarities with Charles Bronon's in Magnificent Seven). George Peppard seems bored with his part as the rascally gun-runner Cowboy (think Han Solo). Sybil Danning looks physically imposing, as always, but has nothing to do. Ditto for Marta Kristen, which is sure to disappoint her Lost in Space fans.

It's easy to dismiss Battle Beyond the Stars as a routine Star Wars rip-off. Indeed, that may be an apt description, but it's still worth viewing as a training ground for Cameron, Sayles (who later earned two Oscar nominations for screenwriting), and composer James Horner (who teamed up with Cameron on Titanic and Avatar).