Created by David Friedkin
I don’t know much about this short-lived series–or was it even a series? It looks like it only made it as far as an audition tape that never aired.
Still, it starred Howard Duff as Los Angeles gumshoe MIKE McCOY, who talked tough in his typical, breezy manner, swapped banter with his secretary Judy, and wasn’t above using his fists to crack a case.
From the timing, I assume this was Duff’s first gig after The Adventures of Sam Spade was canned, due to the Red Scare, in which both Dashiell Hammett and Duff were named. The title of the show may have even been a dig at the fact that another actor, Steve Dunne, had taken over the role that made Howard famous in The New Adventures of Sam Spade.
The one episode of The McCoy that shows up everywhere is that audition tape, “Three Wayward Girls,” in which McCoy investigates the murder of an old girlfriend at the request of her agent.
RADIO
- THE McCOY
(1950-51, NBC)
30 minute episodes
Created by David Friedkin
Directed and produced by David Friedkin
Starring Howard Duff as MIKE McCOY
with Sheldon Leonard as The Police Lieutenant- “Three Wayward Girls” (April 24, 1951)
