Prime Time TV From the Early Days: Mr. and Mrs, North and Dangerous

Here we have two largely forgotten shows that began broadcasts in 1952. Of the two, I enjoyed "Mr. & Mrs. North" moreso than "Dangerous Assignment." "Mr. & Mrs. North" features two appealing leads in Richard Denning and Barbara Britton as a husband and wife crime solving team, with Francis DeSales as the police detective who always seems to be a step behind. For a crime show, it's kept fairly light and succeeds mainly on the strengths of Denning and Britton who have good comedic on-screen chemistry.

"Dangerous Assignment" features tough guy Brian Donlevy as Steve Mitchell, possibly television's first secret agent (and certainly pre-dating "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."). Donlevy's pretty good but the show suffers from its seemingly miniscule budget . . . it's very "stage bound" and is generally predictable in its outcomes, largely due to the small number of actors appearing in each episode.

While not perfect, the prints utilized for this two-DVD set are certainly acceptable, given the age of the broadcasts. Nostalgia Ventures is one of the few companies (some others include Navarre and the Falcon Pictures Group) that are releasing episodes from some lesser known television shows from the 1950s on DVD. Here's hoping that these releases sell well so that we may see even more shows from the "Golden Age of Television."