
"Ten Thousand Dollars a Page" was filmed at the Pasadena Art Museum, later known as the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art and now the Norton Simon Museum of Art.Ī customized 1969 American Motors AMX was built by George Barris for the second regular-season episode. The episode titled "If Max Is So Smart, Why Doesn't He Tell Us Where He Is?" was shot on location at the California Institute of the Arts around the time the school first opened.
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In general, the series was shot on the Universal Studios backlot, though location scenes were filmed around Los Angeles in areas that could pass for Boston, or rural areas near there. For recreation he jogs, plays squash, engages in weekend touch football and sculling on the Charles River. He grew up in Scollay Square and a childhood acquaintance described him as the neighborhood jock who excelled in all sports. An unapologetic ladies' man who enjoys the company of beautiful women, he is also street-smart and can engage in hand-to-hand combat when the need arises in one episode he mentions having learned combat judo in the Marine Corps. Banacek is intelligent, well-educated, cultured, and suave. Both vehicles are equipped with mobile radio telephones at a time when such devices are uncommon and expensive. While he has a limousine and driver, he also owns and sometimes drives an antique 1941 Packard convertible. Recurring characters include insurance company executive Cavanaugh ( George Murdock),īanacek's rival and some-time love interest Carlie Kirkland ( Christine Belford), and another insurance investigator/rival Fennyman/Henry DeWitt ( Linden Chiles).īanacek lives on historic Beacon Hill in Boston. He is also the series' only character to ever call Banacek by his first name. Murray Matheson plays seller of rare books and information source Felix Mulholland, a character always ready with a droll remark and who exhibits a passion for chess and jigsaw puzzles. The name "Banaczek" (as pronounced in the show) is actually quite rare in Poland. Another recurring gag is for other characters-particularly his rivals- to mispronounce his name deliberately. Drury is never at a loss for a potential solution that Banacek always manages to shoot down with his very next line. Part of the joke is that Ralph Manza, as Banacek's chauffeur Jay Drury, will often ask "What does it mean, Boss?" Banacek also has a running agreement with his chauffeur for a 10% share of Banacek's 10% if he solved the crime.

"When an owl comes to a mouse picnic, it's not there for the sack races.".


One of Banacek's verbal signatures is the quotation of strangely worded yet curiously cogent " Polish" proverbs such as: He collects from the insurance companies 10% of the insured value of the recovered property. Peppard played Thomas Banacek, a Polish-American freelance, Boston-based private investigator who solves seemingly impossible thefts.
