MovieChat Forums > Banacek (1972) Discussion > 'Polish heritage'

'Polish heritage'

posted 10 years ago by deforest-1
2 replies | jump to latest

In the intro blurb for this entry it says Banacek was "very proud of his Polish heritage." I can't remember any Polish detective burbling on about his forebears, and there were plenty of them. Was it that or was it just that the time had come, after decades of staid Anglo names on tv, for gritty-sounding Polish names in the mid-Seventies? Because tv detective series were overflowing with Poles at that time, enough to be more than trendy: As well as Banacek, there were Kolchak (Darren MCGavin), Wojeck (John Vernon), Bronkov (Jack Palance) and Wojohowicz on Barney Miller, just off the top of my head.

[–] Evariste-Galois 10 years ago

I took it to mean dealing with Polish jokes and assuming they're all a bunch of idiots...

[–] landrew120880 10 years ago

It's possible that the writers or producers wanted to flaunt Banacek's Polish ancestry in hopes of creating some talk, nicknames or tag lines among viewers. Either way, the show is certainly peculiar - in a non judgemental way. The long pauses in dialogue, George Peppard himself was a special actor and the occasional voice-over conclusions of the episodes is different. This is all good. It's new, in its old way and the cast members in each show are always enjoyable to watch.