Review of Dan Raven

Am I the only person living who actually recalls watching this show? NBC premiered it in the fall of 1960 amid much hoopla that big name celebrities were going to play themselves. At that moment in time, Bobby Darin was about as big as you could get - still riding high on the success of Mack the Knife from one year earlier and considered to be 'the next Sinatra' - and he was either in the first or one of the first episodes, playing himself. The episode opened with a young woman in her bedroom, being murdered, screaming out "Bobby! Bobby!" and grasping at a photograph of Darin, beside her bed, before dying. Then Lt. Dan Raven (Homier,who spelled his last name several different ways during his career) investigated the pop star for homicide. This allowed for several songs performed by Darin in rehearsal and the recording booth, until at the end he was of course cleared of everything. sure seemed like a great idea for a series, only NBC decided within two weeks of the show's premiere that they didn't believe in it - and announced that it would go off the air as soon as the thirteen contracted episodes had aired. Why? Got me. I remember liking it, but I was young then, and that was a long time ago. (I liked Jerry Lewis back then, too.) Darin proved his acting chops here and went on to some major movie roles (see my comments on Pressure Point.) Homier, who had been a child star in the forties and played a Nazi kid in Tomorrow the World, never really recouped from this setback. Too bad, because he had a Lee Marvin kind of quality about him and really ought to have had a long run series. If anyone who puts out bygone shows on DVD reads this, make a note that there's at least one person who would buy a boxed set - me!