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Producer William Dozier struck gold for ABC with Batman in January of 1966 and hoped to repeat his success with The Green Hornet during the 1966-1967 season. During the summer of 1966, Dozier began work on another potential series, this one based on Chester Gould's Dick Tracy comic strip. A pilot film was produced and NBC considered picking up the series as a midseason replacement during the 1966-1967 season and then later as a fall entry for the 1967-1968 season. But the failure of The Green Hornet and declining ratings for Batman kept Dick Tracy from selling.

Chester Gould's long-running comic strip about a smart, tough police detective, first appeared in newspapers on October 4th, 1931. Within a few years, a radio version was on the air and in 1937 the first film serial, issued by Republic Pictures, was released, starring Ralph Byrd as Dick Tracy. Three more serials were released between 1938 and 1941, followed by four feature films from RKO between 1945 and 1947. Although Byrd reprised his role in the last two, Morgan Conway played Tracy in the first two.

In September of 1950, ABC premiered a filmed, half-hour Dick Tracy television series, again starring Ralph Byrd as Tracy. There seems to be some confusion as to when the program premiered and on what day it aired [1]. According to television listings in The New York Times (WJZ-TV) and The Chicago Daily Tribune (WENR-TV), Dick Tracy premiered on Wednesday, September 13th, 1950, airing from 8:30-9PM Eastern (7:30-8PM Central). In Los Angeles, however, the series was broadcast by KECA on Sundays from 4-4:40PM Pacific, beginning September 24th [2].

The ABC series ended in February of 1951, although repeats may have continued to be shown on Saturdays through the end of March. In July, Telescriptions, Inc. took over production of Dick Tracy, this time for first-run syndication [3]. The new syndicated series would retain the cast from the ABC version, including Ralph Byrd as Tracy and Angela Green as Tess Trueheart. It aired over WABD in New York City (beginning Friday, December 7th, 1951), WGN-TV in Chicago (beginning Wednesday, January 16th, 1952) and KNBH in Los Angeles (beginning Wednesday, February 6th, 1952), to name but a few markets [4, 5, 6].

The death of star Ralph Byrd in August of 1952 ended any plans to continue Dick Tracy past its first season. It did, however, remain in syndication for years to come.

On January 12th, 1966, ABC broadcast the first episode of a new midseason replacement called Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin, respectively. Shown twice a week, the series was an instant smash, appealing to children and adults alike. The camp craze had begun. The man responsible for the series, William Dozier, despised the term camp, saying "it sounds so faggy and funsies" [7]. For the network, however, camp seemed to be the word of the season, and even as Batman was taking off, buzz was building for The Green Hornet [8].

While promoting The Green Hornet in April of 1966, Dozier made it clear that the new series would differ from Batman: "It would be foolhardy to try to copy Batman. Batman is in a class by itself and any imposter would fall on its Batface" [9]. He also stressed the fact that The Green Hornet "will not be a camp show--whatever that is" [10]. He did concede that "there will be a very heavy overlay of gimmicks, gadgets, flair, pace and excitement" [11].

Even while juggling Batman, The Green Hornet and a third series, The Tammy Grimes Show, William Dozier was hard at work on additional projects. On June 29th, The Chicago Tribune reported that Dozier was flying out to meet with Chester Gould to discuss a potential Dick Tracy series [12]. On July 1st, the meeting had grown to involve scriptwriter Hal Fimberg [13]. And on July 4th, Broadcasting magazine reported that 20th Century-Fox TV and William Dozier's company, Greenway Productions, had jointly acquired the television rights to Dick Tracy. A weekly series, designed to fill the 7:30-8PM timeslot, would likely air on NBC as either a midseason replacement during the current 1966-1967 season or as a new series to premiere at the start of the 1967-1968 season [14].

Interestingly, Broadcasting explained that prior to the launch of Batman, ABC had commissioned a survey to see which comic book/comic strip character viewers would be most interested in. The winner? Dick Tracy. The network, however, was unable to get the rights to the character from Chester Gould and Henry Saperstein (Gould's business partner) and turned to Batman. NBC had better luck and tapped Dozier and 20th Century-Fox TV to develop the series [15].

On July 22nd, The Chicago Tribune reported that Dozier and Gould were hard at work trying to find a suitable actor to play Dick Tracy. Herb Lyon asked readers of his "Tower Ticker" column for suggestions [16]. Days later, Lyon reported that he was "swamped with suggestions," including Chester Morris and Victor Mature [17, 18]. In late July, with the lead role still to be cast, it looked like Dozier's Dick Tracy series would be a midseason replacement for NBC rather than a fall entry, and production on a half-hour pilot would begin soon [19].

In late August, William Dozier shot down rumors that Victor Mature was the "leading contender" to play Dick Tracy, saying "he couldn't be more wrong for the part" [20]. He further explained:

More than a month later, in mid-October, Ray MacDonnell was signed to play Dick Tracy, and production on the pilot was set to begin Monday, October 17th [22].

Mr. Memory

In the pilot episode, titled "The Plot to Kill NATO," the intrepid Dick Tracy is pitted against the nefarious Mr. Memory (played by Victor Buono). Mr. Memory, who uses mental telepathy to connect with a vast array of computers, has three ambassadors -- all set to attend a secret NATO conference about the Western European Defense System -- kidnapped in order to derail NATO and benefit an unnamed group and/or nation led by a man named Major Power. Chief Patton turns to his best man: Dick Tracy.

An ambandoned ambulance used in the kidnappings leads the police to three companies that sell ambulances. Sam Catchem and Lizz each take one company, while Tracy meets with the third. He talks with Doctor Alexander, who professes to know nothing. He was lying, of course, and Mr. Memory has the good doctor killed because he inadvertently provided Tracy with his fingerprints. Mr. Memory then sends Tracy an invitation to meet at a hotel; Tracy accepts and Mr. Memory promptly attempts to use knock out gas on him. Tracy manages to improvise an explosive, so Mr. Memory sends his hooked henchman to kill the detective.

The police move in just as Tracy wins the battle: the hooked man impales himself on his own hook. Tracy uses optomexothen, "an amazing new discovery by a Swiss scientist," that magnifies an object five times more than a microscope when used as eye drops. Found in the hooked man's pockets are scraps of computer tape and Philippine pine. The scraps lead to Mr. Memory's mansion, where Tracy and the police spot a woman leaving the mansion in a car; the police follow and catch them. The woman is named Mrs. Flowers and was charged with getting more computer tapes for Mr. Memory.

Tracy calls for a wig and computer tapes. He is going to impersonate Mrs. Flowers' chauffer while Lizz impersonates Mrs. Flowers. At the mansion, Tracy and Lizz descend into the depths of Mr. Memory's lair and take out the men guarding the ambassadors. Lizz takes the captured men and the ambassadors back to the Chief while Tracy goes after Mr. Memory. When the ambassadors are discovered missing, the jig is up and Tracy is captured!

Mr. Memory uses his computers to determine which death is most suitable for Tracy: losing his hands to piranha (which is how the late hooked henchman lost his hand). The police bust in but are forced to throw down their weapons or risk Tracy's life. Moments later, Tracy is able to wrestle free and sets off his ultrasonic tapes that quickly take down Mr. Memory, who is actually a mental patient who believes he can interface with computers and suffers from with paranoid delusions.

Tracy, who was shot and lightly wounded during his scuffle with Mr. Memory, is offered vacation time by Chief Patton, but decides to save it for a rainy day. He leaves to pick up Tess and Bonnie from the airport and the episode ends. In a short preview for an upcoming episode (which was never produced) entitled "The Plot to Destroy Metropolis," an announcer explains that Dick Tracy will face off against Global Enemy #1.

2-Way Wrist TV

Unlike Batman, the Dick Tracy pilot is played straight, much like The Green Hornet. Although Tracy has a secret lab in the basement of his home, accessible by an elevator hidden behind a wall, for the most part he is a typical detective. The optomexothen drops used to magnify the scraps found in the hooked man's pockets are outrageous, but otherwise Tracy uses intelligence and cunning to outwit Mr. Memory, not fancy gadgets. His famous 2-Way Wrist TV is used once early in the episode when Chief Patton contacts Tracy.

Ray MacDonnell plays Dick Tracy as a brilliant, tough detective with a touch of humor. Victor Buono's buffoonish Mr. Memory, however, steals the show. The other characters are less fleshed out. Chief Patton (played by Ken Mayer) and Sam Catchem (played by Monroe Arnold) are certainly less cartoony than Batman's Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara, but they hardly stand out. Policewoman Lizz (played by Jan Shutan) is given little to do other than worry about Tracy and don a blonde wig to impersonate one of Mr. Memory's henchwomen.

A minor subplot at the beginning of the episode involves Junior Tracy (played by Jay Blood) bringing Dick Tracy his mail and being shown a device that can remove the beard from a criminal's photograph using an infrared ray. The rest of the Tracy family are notably absent from the episode. Tess Trueheart Tracy (to have been played by Davey Davison) and Bonnie Braids Tracy (to have been played by Eve Plumb) are shown in the opening credits but otherwise never appear.

The absence of Dick Tracy's wife and daughter is explained by having them returning from home after visiting Tess's sister.

The Green Hornet bowed to an impressive 21.5/54.8 26-city overnight Trendex rating on Friday, September 9th, airing from 7:30-8PM opposite a repeat of The Wild, Wild West on CBS and an AFL Football special on NBC [23]. The following week, up against new episodes of The Wild Wild, West and Tarzan, The Green Hornet dropped to a 14.8/36.0 Trendex rating but still won its timeslot [24]. Its third episode drew a 15.6/37.2 Trendex rating, once again winning its timeslot [25].

Nationally, however, for the first two weeks of the 1966-1967 season (Monday, September 12th, 1966 through Sunday, September 25th, 1966, covering the second and third episodes of the series) The Green Hornet ranked 53rd in the Nielsens with a 15.0/31 rating [26], 27]. Batman, which ended the 1965-1966 season with both its weekly installments in the Top Ten, failed to crack the Top Thirty during the first two weeks of the 1966-1967 season; the Thursday installment ranked 36th while the Wednesday installment tied for 57th [28].

All of the networks, of course, were dealing with the failure of both new and returning programs, and all had replacements lined up to swap in for poorly performing shows at midseason. Among NBC's midseason possibilities as of September 1966 were a color version of The Saint (an import from Britain), plus sitcoms like Captain Nicely, Sheriff Who and Dick Tracy [29]. In early October, Broadcasting reported that in addition to Dick Tracy and the other aforementioned programs, NBC also had thirteen episodes of a new version of Dragnet ready for midseason [30].

January 1966 came and went, and the networks juggled their schedules, adding or subtracting numerous shows in the hopes of shoring up their Nielsen ratings. NBC added The Saint, Dragnet and Captain Nice. Nowhere to be seen were Sheriff Who and Dick Tracy. Behind-the-scenes production issues plagued Sheriff Who, but Dick Tracy had a completed pilot and appeared ready to go. So what went wrong?

The most likely explanation is that NBC had become uncomfortable with the idea of placing a weekly series based on a comic strip character on its schedule. The fact that Dick Tracy was the work of William Dozier certainly didn't help things. The 1966-1967 season was a terrible one for Dozier, who saw The Tammy Grimes Show canned after only four episodes, The Green Hornet floundering near the bottom of the Nielsens, and even former powerhouse Batman losing steam.

In a March 1967 article in The Los Angeles Times, Dozier discussed the failure of The Green Hornet to catch on with viewers, suggesting that "it may be because we turned Batman into a camp character that people refuse to buy Green Hornet, or anyone else in a mask, who isn't treated the same way" [31]. Even though Dick Tracy didn't wear a mask (he did, however, wear a distinctive fedora) perhaps viewers would still have expectations as to how the character would be portrayed.

When ABC announced its 1967-1968 schedule in early April, The Green Hornet was gone and Batman was cut down to a single Thursday broadcast [32]. As for Dick Tracy, despite being passed over by NBC as a midseason replacement, the network did consider the series for its 1967-1968 schedule, but ultimately decided not to pick up the pilot [33].

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