Bourbon Street Beat

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Bourbon Street Beat was a private eye series that ran on ABC from 1959 to 1960. It featured Richard Long as Rex Randolph, Andrew Duggan as Cal Calhoun, Van Williams as Kenny Madison, and Arlene Howell as Melody Lee Mercer, the secretary at their New Orleans detective agency.

See the Bourbon Street TV Show Intro

The series was one of several Warner Brothers detective shows running on ABC at the time, but Bourbon Street Beat had less success than the others (even though everyone remembers the title). When the show ended, the Rex Randolph character moved to 77 Sunset Strip, and the Kenny Madison character moved to Surfside 6, which was put in Bourbon Street's old time slot. Andrew Duggan's character, Cal Calhoun, promptly disappeared from the screen upon the show's cancellation, although viewers may not have noticed much, since the then-ubiquitous Duggan was by then making guest appearances on a slew of other television shows.

In the interest of authenticity, ABC bought a half-interest in the New Orleans French Quarter restaurant The Old Absinthe House, placing the Randolph and Calhoun office directly above the eatery, although the series was nonetheless shot on the Warner Brothers studio lot in Los Angeles.