MovieChat Forums > The Untouchables (1959) Discussion > Is Allison the first regular to be kille...

Is Allison the first regular to be killed in a TV series?

posted 11 years ago by drystyx
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm not counting the regular mobsters, like Nitti, although I guess they could count as regulars.

I started watching the Untouchables when the reruns came on after the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, back around 1972 or so.

The episodes I saw began with most of the screen time for Untouchables between Allison and Rossi. It seemed that Ness was always having Allison and Rossi doing something, or with him most of the time, and the others only part of the time.

So when I saw Allison gunned down in an episode, it was a shock. I had never seen a TV series regular killed off before.

While Nitti was killed in an episode, they brought him right back, so I wasn't sure what to make of that.

Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time.

[–] stewie-3 11 years ago

I did a little checking, and the earliest example I could find of a regular cast member's character being killed off was on The Danny Thomas Show in 1956. The actress who played his wife (Jean Hagen) apparently clashed with Thomas and felt limited by her character. She left the show in season 3, and was killed off "off screen" between S3 and S4.

BTW, there was another Untouchable killed off in the first season (I think it was Season 1), though I can't remember which one. I don't remember if it came before or after Cam Allison's death.

[–] rbecker28 11 years ago

Just before The Untouchables premiered, "Naked City" had killed off its lead character, Lt. Dan Muldoon, played by John McIntire. He was replaced by Lt. Mike Parker, played by Horace McMahon, who (along with Harry Bellaver) returned when the show came back in 1960 after a year's hiatus, and expanded to an hour. Anyway, thus Cam Allison's death on "The Untouchables" was not the first such instance. Not sure that Naked City's was the first either.

[–] joehrobertsjr 11 years ago

That would be Chuck Hicks as Agent Lamar Kane who was gunned down by Alan Hale in "The Tri-State Gang." Interestingly enough, Hicks would appear a couple of episodes later in "You Can't Pick the Number" which had been filmed before "Tri-State Gang."

Other Untouchables who got killed in the line of duty besides Kane and Cam Allison were George Dayton (never seen but mentioned as being killed by Cliff Robertson's character in "Underground Railroad") and an unnamed agent (also never seen) who was mentioned in the dialogue as being killed by Martin Rawlings in "The Pea."

[–] irishtom99 9 years ago

as for nitti being"brought back",the episodes did not chronicle ness by year,but jumped around..in more than one episode,winchell narrates that nitti died under a train years later

[–] actionsub 8 years ago

And Allison would have probably been around for more episodes had Anthony George not signed to be the lead on "Checkmate".