Jimmy Halloran's New Hat -- The Naked City debut episode "Meridian"

"Meridian" is the very first episode of the Naked City TV series. For me, the imagery has more impact than the story. I'm also surprised by what you could depict in 1958. Plus there's "Jimmy Halloran":

The debut episode first introduces New York City, and then the kid who is going to be in big trouble, the other kid who's going to make it worse, and finally Detective Halloran, in the shower no less. 

The City:

The "victim" kid (above) sleeps in one room with his entire large Puerto Rican family, and they use only Spanish, no subtitles, as he refuses any milk and makes his way out to meet his No-Goodnik punk friend. Realism.

The actors:

That was the episode where Tod has come to see a woman who sent him an urgent letter, and he's apprehensive, "what if it's true?" -- I can't be the only one who expected the door to be opened by a young woman holding a red-haired child. [Totally not what happened.]

Joseph "Joey" Walsh had other credits, but I like to tie things back to Mannix wherever possible.

"Joseph" is Malloy's middle name on Adam-12, by the way.

Back to James Franciscus in the shower:

It's his first day as a detective. We learn he lives on Long Island and has a wife and 5-year-old daughter. Not sure how old Jimmy Halloran is supposed to be, but James Franciscus was all of 24 here. Given his life of cigarettes, he could pass for a bit older already. It leaves me with questions: Did his character marry at nineteen? How long does it take to move up to detective? Later we learn he was in Korea (that ended in 1953 -- did he marry his high school sweetheart, get started on the baby, ship off to Korea, come back and join the force? And did he take up smoking in the service or by 5th grade?)

Yes, they're married, but that's just more graphic than I expected for 1958 television. Reminds me of pre-Code films. To keep it all TV-friendly, they talk about that being fresh-squeezed orange juice and the price of oranges. 

It's going to be his first day in plain clothes. His wife surprises him with a new hat. He cleaned all the spots off his old felt one with lighter fluid. Not being from the hat-wearing era, I learned something. His wife's name is Janet. Jim and Janet. Although he has people call him Jimmy. Janet was played by Suzanne Storrs, who sadly passed at only 60. She was just two and a half months younger than Franciscus. Nice to see well-matched ages for once. Storrs outlived Franciscus by just three and a half years.

Daughter Debbie was Alison Marshall, whose credits jump from this series to the late 1990s, making you wonder if it's the same person.  She has a great claim to fame here.

The 65th Precinct station. You get so used to seeing backlots, the shot showing it's a real street is great.

Sad tale of the building in 2012. A 2018 Google Street View shot:

The band Brownsville Station were from Michigan, so I don't know if they took their name from the Brooklyn police station building, but they did have that monster hit "Smokin' in the Boys Room," and Jimmy smokes in, well, ALL rooms actually. Also, that area of Brooklyn had predominately black residents at the time of the Naked City series, yet you'd never know it from the show. In fact, much like Reed and Malloy out in Los Angeles, the Naked City detectives seem to cover everywhere but their actual district. I had been under the impression the Muldoon-Arcaro-Halloran beat was around FDR Drive and the Queensboro Bridge in Manhattan! 

And the smoking begins. Franciscus lights up constantly. If he goes to a person's home in official capacity, he doesn't even ask. He just lights up. All throughout the show, on duty, Detective Jimmy Halloran is smokin' -- and he's hot too (har!) 

Henceforth he's Jimmy, or possibly Smokin' Jimmy.  He gets assigned to Lt. Dan Muldoon, who is quite the legend both on this fictional police force and in reality: John Mcintire had been on the screen since the 1940s. He had a Twilight Zone ("The Chaser"), was the sheriff in Hitchcock's "Psycho," and face it, was never under the age of 40, not even when he was born.

We learn he's a pigeons on the roof kind of policeman. Jimmy Halloran, meet Dan Muldoon. Dan Muldoon, meet Jimmy Halloran. All NYC policemen have Irish names. It's the law. 

That's real rooftop wind. None of that blow-a-fan-on-your-actors stuff. How do I know? It's not flattering. It's funny. No time for do-overs or hairspray. Just keep filming.

About now new viewers might be wondering what happened to the action. After a lot of talk-talk-talk, the two young hoodlums are back on screen by a hotdog cart. I'm guessing that address sign is fake. Bigger Bad Kid hits an elderly man over the head and starts robbing the jewelry, a police officer sees them and Bigger Bad Kid shoots him. The intensity is on.

The limited extent of Cop Killer's remorse. [Spoiler: Muldoon claims he's not dead. Truth or ruse?]

Big wide street scenes -- so much better than a soundstage. This is Columbus Circle. Yes, it says so in imdb, but the announcer also says so in the episode when they show the car. The Coliseum was just two years old when this was shot. It ceased to be in 2000. Some of us only know it from stamp collecting:

Sequence: The two punk kids have grabbed hostages. Our heroes enter the Coliseum.

 "Give it up, lads."

Always the "nice" one who tries to help a hostage. Young actor Pat DeSimone is only sixteen here. Not sure if he counts as "child actor" or not then?

Full circle: Jimmy's in a shower again, this time with his new hat.

The George Washington Bridge goes to New Jersey. At first I thought Jimmy had decided to forget about going home, but it's just a "the city at day's end" image.

Possibly where pigeons attacked Muldoon's neck.

If your daddy is a detective who lived through his shift, you run to greet him.

If you're the parents of a fool kid who pals around with a bigger fool who shoots cops, this:

The narrator uses the phrase "brought to its meridian" to give you the title.

"There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." The series stayed on the air long enough to tell 138 of them. 

Wait, you're not Arcaro! Harry Bellaver takes over as Arcaro in the second episode.

Originally aired Tuesday September 30th, 1958 on ABC, following the Rifleman, and opposite the Red Skelton Show on CBS and the Bob Cummings Show on NBC.

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