1 9 6 1 – 1 9 6 3 (USA)
60 x 25 minute episodes
Nat Hiken followed up the hugely successful Phil Silvers Show with this NBC show featuring the antics of two NYPD patrol vehicle officers as they cruised the streets of the 53rd precinct in the Bronx.
Fred Gwynne played the tall and sombre Francis Muldoon, and his hopelessly dim-witted partner, Gunther Toody, was played by Joe E. Ross who had previously been seen as Bilko’s regular foil, Rupert Ritzik.
Hiken even retained some of the old Bilko chemistry by employing actress Beatrice Pons to appear as Ross’s wife, as she had done back at Fort Baxter.
To complete the comic connection Al Lewis appeared as Officer Leo Schnauser, before teaming up again with Gwynne in The Munsters, at the end of Car 54‘s two-season run.
Officers Toody and Muldoon were among the most unlikely patrol car partners ever seen on a police force. Toody was short, stocky, friendly, and just a bit nosy, a marked contrast to the tall, quiet Muldoon.
Although they were assigned to New York’s 53rd precinct – a run-down area in the Bronx – they always seemed to encounter more comedy than crime.
Much of the series was shot on location on the streets of New York. To avoid confusion, their police car was painted bright red (pictured at left) so it would not be mistaken for an authentic police vehicle. This obviously did not show in the black and white film.
As the 1990s dawned, and Hollywood movie producers began to look back fondly and with covetous eyes at their childhood TV favourites, so Car 54 was updated for the big screen. It could have worked, had it been done well, but it was not.
The Car 54, Where Are You? movie was a crass, insulting shambles, made without regard to the qualities of the original and an ill-judged wholesale embrace of the ‘rap’ culture that heaps embarrassment upon the production.
David Johansen starred as the gravel-voiced Toody, John C McGinley was cast as Muldoon and Rosie O’Donnell as Lucille.
One nice touch was that two veterans of the TV series were employed: Al Lewis as the about-to-retire Leo Schnauzer (clearly, no regard was paid to spelling either) and Nipsey Russell appeared again as Anderson, now promoted to the rank of station captain.
When completed, the best possible thing happened to this travesty of a movie: Orion Pictures, the production company, went into bankruptcy and it never came out. It has however aired on television.
Officer Gunther Toody
Joe E. Ross
Officer Francis Muldoon
Fred Gwynne
Captain Martin Block
Paul Reed
Lucille Toody
Beatrice Pons
Patrolman Leo Schnauser
Al Lewis
Sylvia Schnauzer
Charlotte Rae
Patrolman Ed Nicholson
Hank Garrett
Desk Sgt. Sol Abrams
Nathaniel Frey
Officer Rodrequez
Jack Healy
Officer O’Hara
Al Henderson
Officer Anderson
Nipsey Russell
Officer Steinmetz
Joe Warren
Officer Wallace
Fred O’Neal
Officer Murdock
Shelly Burton
Officer Nelson
Jim Gromley
Officer Reilly
Duke Farley
Officer Kissel
Bruce Kirby
Officer Antonnucci
Jerry Guardino
Mrs. Bronson
Molly Picon
Mother Muldoon
Ruth Masters
Peggy Muldoon
Helen Parker
Al
Carl Ballantine
Rose
Martha Greenhouse
Bonnie Kalsheim
Alice Ghostley
Mrs. Block
Patricia Bright
Charlie, the drunk
Larry Storch
