George Peppard is Banacek in Detour To Nowhere

Movie star George Peppard (THE CARPETBAGGERS) turned to network television in the fall of 1972 as BANACEK, which rotated with Richard Widmark’s MADIGAN and James Farentino’s COOL MILLION under NBC’s WEDNESDAY MYSTERY MOVIE banner. Before that, however, Peppard gave the character of Thomas Banacek, a proudly Polish freelance investigator based in Boston, a test run in DETOUR TO NOWHERE, an acceptable pilot movie directed by Jack Smight, with whom Peppard had worked on THE THIRD DAY and would work again on DAMNATION ALLEY.

BANACEK’s gimmick, introduced in this pilot written by series creator Anthony Wilson (LOST IN SPACE), is the “impossible crime,” akin to the classic locked-door mystery. Banacek is called in to investigate the baffling theft or disappearance of an expensive item. In DETOUR TO NOWHERE, the object is an armored car carrying nearly $2 million in gold that vanishes from a desert highway, its drivers left dead at the bottom of a cliff with no trace of the vehicle. Obstacles between Banacek and the mystery’s solution include corrupt sheriff Don Dubbins (THE ILLUSTRATED MAN), grinning tycoon Ed Nelson (PEYTON PLACE), and rival investigator Christine Belford (TO KILL A COP).

The pilot was clouded with controversy. During location shooting in Boston, a 24-year-old female extra accused Peppard of rape. He was eventually cleared in court of all charges. Also, KNBC, Los Angeles’ NBC affiliate, threatened to not air the pilot because guest star Ed Nelson was running for city council in San Dimas, California, and his opponents wanted air time under the equal time rule. Nelson withdrew from the race, and DETOUR TO NOWHERE aired on KNBC as scheduled.

Oscar-winning cinematographer Sam Leavitt (THE DEFIANT ONES) was nominated for an Emmy for his photography here (he lost to KUNG FU’s Jack Woolf). BANACEK was the only NBC WEDNESDAY MYSTERY MOVIE spoke to earn a second season, where it rotated with Dan Dailey’s FARADAY AND COMPANY, James McEachin’s TENAFLY, and Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick’s THE SNOOP SISTERS. Belford, Ralph Manza as chauffeur Jay Drury, and Murray Matheson as bookstore owner Felix Mulholland made the jump from pilot to series with Peppard. Sixteen BANACEK episodes aired in total. Peppard, of course, found greater television success as the leader of THE A-TEAM.