1 9 5 7 – 1 9 6 0 (USA)
117 x 30 minute episodes
The hard-hitting adventures of tough Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of the Chicago Police Department’s “M Squad”, an elite plain-clothes crime-fighting unit.
Ballinger is a laconic, street-wise, chain-smoking, fedora-wearing gumshoe in the classic pulp fiction tradition. He gets shot occasionally and roughs up a suspect when he needs to, but he always gets the job done.
Guests who appeared in some of the 117 episodes included Don Rickles, Charles Bronson, Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson, James Coburn, Marion Ross, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Mike Connors, Werner Klemperer, Alan Hale Jr., Stafford Repp and Joe Flynn.
The theme music was by Count Basie.
Lieutenant Frank Ballinger
Lee Marvin