(DuMont Primetime, 1950 - 1954)
[original title: "Inside Detective"
aka: "Rocky King -- Inside Detective";
This was one of the most memorable shows on the DuMont Network,
which had only a few affiliates in large cities; It was a network
created by the manufacturers of DuMont Television Sets.
The character "Rocky King" was a New York police inspector; the
series was one of the earliest examples of what has become known
as a "police procedural", with realistic touches years before Jack
Webb's "Dragnet" become known for these same qualities;
Roscoe Karns was a veteran actor who had played a sidekick on
around 140 B-pictures from the 1920s -- 1940s, including "I Was
A Fugitive From A Chain Gang", "Cain and Mabel", "Thanks For
The Memory" and Frank Capra's film "It Happened One Night";
Even after "Rocky King", Karns went on to play a second banana
on the Jackie Cooper TV series "Hennesey" from 1959 - 1962;
"Rocky King" was a real family project, the tailor-made role
for Roscoe Karns -- initials "R. K." -- featured a character with
the same initials; Roscoe Karns' wife Mabel played an offscreen
voice character role "Mabel", and his son Todd Karns played his
assistant in the police department during the final season]
[THEME composer credit from the DuMont Web Site of Clarke Ingram,
who says that the THEME was "composed and played" by Jack Ward,
a DuMont network organist; above is the most likely THEME title]
Composer: Jack Ward (ASCAP)
1978 Publisher: [not found in the 1978 ASCAP Index of Performed
Compositions]
2001 Publisher: [not found in ASCAP or BMI databases]
Copyright Date:
Renewal Date:
Recordings: