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Burke's Law 1963 series intro card

Amos Burke

Burke's Law was a detective series which ran on ABC from 1963 to 1966. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire Los Angeles Chief of Detectives, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce. In the last season of the original, 1965–1966, the series was re-titled Amos Burke, Secret Agent, and only 17 episodes were broadcast instead of the 32 of the first two seasons. In this last season Burke went to work for a secret government agency, but still drove around in his Rolls, which had been discreetly bulletproofed by the agency. The supporting cast of the earlier seasons was dropped. In the original series, other characters were Detective Tim Tilson (Gary Conway), Detective Les Hart (Regis Toomey), and Sergeant Ames (Eileen O'Neill). In several episodes Anne Francis appeared as female detective Honey West, which led to a short-lived spin-off series.

The show was very similar to Barry's previous show, Bat Masterson, in which he had played the debonair dandy Bat Masterson. During the opening credits, as the title flashed onscreen, a woman's voice was heard seductively pronouncing the words "Burke's Law".

Peter and Amos Burke

The part of Amos Burke had originally been played by Dick Powell on an episode of Dick Powell Theatre in 1961. The television series Burke's Law was produced by Powell's company, Four Star Television. A revival of the show ran on CBS from 1994 to 1995. In the second incarnation, Burke was assisted by his son, Peter (Peter Barton). The revival, even more than the original program, was widely regarded as being largely camp. The nostalgic revival featured guest appearances by many of Barry's peers from the 1960s Spy-fi genre, including Patrick Macnee (The Avengers), Peter Lupus (Mission: Impossible) and Anne Francis reprising Honey West (albeit renamed "Honey Best").