The Brothers Brannagan

The Brothers Brannagan is an American

Mike Brannagan (Steve Dunne) and Bob Brannagan (Mark Roberts) are brothers from San Francisco, who now run a private detective agency out of the Mountain Shadows Resort^{[fn 1]} in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Mike is a smooth-talker, who carries a little notebook filled with erudite quotes for any situation involving women. Bob is more serious, an action guy prone to taking risks in tight situations. They are the only two series regulars; character actors Barney Phillips and Paul Bryar had occasional recurring roles as police lieutenants. Each episode had a unique opening that began with a long shot of the brothers walking side by side away from the viewer while the theme song plays. A male voice shouts "Hey Brannagan!", at which the brothers pause to face the viewer and say "Which one?".

Producer Wilbur Stark told columnist Steven H. Scheuer the show was "romantic adventure" and emulated the escapism of then current hits Adventures in Paradise and Hawaiian Eye.^[3] Stark also mentioned the show's writers followed an outline made up by actors Roberts and Dunne, giving the characters' backstory including their San Francisco origin.^[3]

Production

Wilbur Stark and Jerry Layton had previously co-produced the Colonel Humphrey Flack television series before creating The Brothers Brannagan.^[3] They formed the Brad-Jacey production company for this venture, with funding from CBS Films which would hold the copyright. The Arizona Republic reported in July 1959 that filming for a pilot episode of The Brothers Brannagan would start August 11, 1959.^[4] The detective show would be the first national television program made and set in the Phoenix area.^[4] Columnist Jack Curtis confirmed shooting began as scheduled.^[5] He also reported filming that week centered on the Mountain Shadows Resort and the Squaw Peak Inn,^[5] while the The Arizona Republic ran a photo of stars Roberts and Dunne at location shooting outside the First National Bank on Central Avenue in Phoenix.^[6]

After filming the pilot episode, the production company left Arizona and didn't return until late November 1959, when the producers put out an open casting call for extras.

By April 1960 columnist Eve Starr reported that CBS Films had 16 completed episodes on hand, but The Brothers Brannagan might appear as a syndicated show in the fall since it didn't yet have a network sponsor.[10] The producers, instead of creating 13 shows and waiting for a buyer as was typical, had made a full season of 39 episodes.^[3]

Reception

Harry Harris, writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer, said the first episode was full of action and "also contained some almost incredibly inept writing".^[11] Harris opined that "Steve Dunne and Mark Roberts, between them, add up to Mike Hammer".^[11]

Viewing history

Broadcast

The first episode broadcast was on Wednesday, September 14, 1960, at 10:30 pm, by

WRCV-TV completed its first run showing of all thirty-nine episodes on June 21, 1961.[13] KMOX-TV in St. Louis broadcast the syndicated series through October 2, 1965.^[2]

At least one episode of the series was shown in September 1975 on KGUN-TV in Tucson, Arizona.^[14]

Cable

The Brothers Brannagan had a long run starting in May 1976 on a cable channel in Surfside Beach, South Carolina,^[15] that went through August 1977.^[16]

Episodes

For consistency, the sequence of episodes and Original Air Date are based on the first station to broadcast the series, WRCV-TV in Philadelphia. There was no continuity between episodes and so no imperative to air them in any particular sequence.

Notes

References