Colonel Humphrey Flack

Colonel Humphrey Flack is an American sitcom which ran Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET from October 7, 1953, to July 2, 1954, on the DuMont Television Network, then revived from 1958 to 1959 for first-run syndication.

Colonel Humphrey Flack
Also known as
  • The Fabulous Fraud
  • The Adventures of Colonel Flack
  • The Imposter
Directed byJohn Rich
Seymour Robbie
StarringAlan Mowbray
Frank Jenks
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes39 (original DuMont run)
78 (total)
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production companyDesilu (revived series)
Release
Original networkDuMont
Original releaseOctober 7, 1953 (1953-10-07) –
1959 (1959)

The series also aired under the titles The Fabulous Fraud, The Adventures of Colonel Flack, and The Imposter.

Overview

The series is about a con man who defrauded rich people, then gave some of the money to the needy. Colonel Humphrey Flack starred British actor Alan Mowbray as the Colonel, and Frank Jenks as his sidekick, Uthas P. ("Patsy") Garvey. The TV series was based on a popular series of short stories by Everett Rhodes Castle[1] published in The Saturday Evening Post.

The pilot for the series aired on May 31, 1953, on an episode of the ABC Album/Plymouth Playhouse.[2]

When the series was revived in 1958, it was retitled Colonel Flack. The 39 episodes (all remakes of the original 39 episodes) aired from October 5, 1958, to July 5, 1959, in syndication.[3] The syndicated programs were made by Desilu Productions and featured Mowbray and Jenks in their original roles.[4]

Reception

A review in TV Guide noted that the program succeeded as a situation comedy "without benefit of any husband-and-wife team, precocious children, etc." It also complimented Mowbray's and Jenks's portrayals of their characters.[1]

Episode status

At least 12 episodes of the DuMont series are in the collection of the UCLA Film and Television Archive[5] and two episodes are at the Paley Center for Media.

See also

References
  1. "Col. Humphrey Flack". TV Guide. November 27, 1953. p. 18. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  2. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 943. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
  3. epguides.com: Colonel Flack
  4. Erickson, Hal (1989). Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947–1987. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-1198-8. p. 56.
  5. UCLA archive entry

General bibliography
  • Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964) ISBN 0-345-31864-1
  • McNeil, Alex. Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) ISBN 0-14-024916-8
  • Weinstein, David. The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) ISBN 1-59213-245-6
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