“Mr. Lucky”
Originally Published March 21st, 2004
Although it ranked in the top twenty-five for the 1959-1960 season this series was nevertheless cancelled after only one season. John Vivyian and Ross Martin starred a pair of wheelers and dealers who ran a gambling establishment aboard a ship anchored in international water — at least until the sponsors got worried and forced the network to stop referencing gambling.
John Vivyan starred in this series as the titular hero, the suave Mr. Lucky, whose full name was never revealed. Lucky was an adventurous, fun-loving gambler who ran a casino (later a nightclub) out of his yacht — the Fortuna II — which was kept floating in international waters (three miles off shore) to escape government oversight.
Despite his disreputable interests, Lucky was for the most part an honest, upstanding citizen. He just had a lot of friends who weren’t. Ross Martin co-starred as Andamo, Lucky’s friend and business associate, who was less willing to risk his neck the way Lucky was. Martin referred to the role as “the most enchanting bit of subsidized tomfoolery ever to come his way” [1]. Nevertheless, the two always managed to get themselves into — and out off — all manner of trouble.
View the Opening Credits to Mr. Lucky
Pippa Scott appeared occasionally as Lucky’s girlfriend, Maggie Shank-Rutherford, and Joe Scott played the nameless Maitre d’ aboard the Fortuna II. Tom Brown played Lt. Rovacs, Lucky’s friend in the police department, who helped him out whenever things to dicey, which was often. Lucky was robbed, attacked and strong-armed, yet his luck always held out. He won the lottery, beat the odds and always came out on top.
The series was loosely based on the 1943 film Mr. Lucky, starring Cary Grant, but the closing credits to Mr. Lucky acknowledge an original short story entitled “Bundles For Freedom”, written by Milton Holmes.
On Saturday, June 6th, 1959, CBS premiered a new crime drama called Brenner, starring Ed Binns and James Broderick as a father-and-son crime-fighting duo. The sponsor for the series, the Lever Brothers Company, decided less than two months after Brenner premiered that they would prefer to sponsor a different series during the 1959-1960 season, and thus Brenner was taken off the air [2].
CBS, however, felt the series had potential and decided to continue producing episodes (Brenner was repeated during the summer for several years; additional episodes were shown in 1961 and 1964) [3]. In place of Brenner, the Lever Brothers Company would sponsor Mr. Lucky. Life Cigarettes was a co-sponsor [4]. The final first-run episode of Brenner was broadcast on September 19th, 1959; repeats were shown through October 10th. A musical special was aired on October 17th and the following week, on October 24th, Mr. Lucky debuted.
Presumably, production on the series forced the late premiere. Richard Anderson of The New York Times, in a very brief review of the series, said only that “It will be lucky to last the season” (he had higher hopes for other new CBS entries, The Betty Dutton Show and The Twilight Zone) [5]. Of the premiere, The Chicago Daily Tribune wrote “There’s a beautiful girl, a minimum of talk, and nice background music. The youngsters should like it” [6].
The series was situated between Wanted: Dead or Alive and Have Gun, Will Travel. It aired against The Lawrence Welk Show on ABC and The Deputy on NBC. In the series opener, Lucky and Andamo are running a casino situated on the nameless Latin American island Andamo called home. When the island’s El Presidente found out they were involved in gun running, he had Lucky’s yacht, the Fortuna, sunk and Lucky and Adamo arrested.
At the same time, a female assassin was in the area and her target was El Presidente. She managed to kill him and soon Lucky and Andamo were implicated in the assassination. As the assassin kept the island’s soldiers and guards busy, Lucky and Andamo were able to commandeer a small boat and escape. At the start of the next episode, the two find themselves off the coast of California. Lucky uses his impressive gambling skills to earn an awful lot of money and soon purchases a new, larger yacht.
Christened the Fortuna II, the yacht is brought to international waters, where Lucky and Andamo drop anchor and resume their operation. The lawless international waters allow Lucky to operate his establishment without worrying about legal implications (or taxes).
All manner of unsavory characters were attracted to the Fortunate II and Mr. Lucky did business with a good number of them. Early episodes of the series involved counterfeiters, gangsters and thieves, not to mention a mysterious death, an angry painter and a runaway heiress.
Reportedly feeling pressure from the show’s sponsors, CBS did away with the gambling in the February 6th, 1960 episode, having Lucky transform the Fortuna II into an exclusive floating nightclub. Despite the change, the same type of characters from the gambling episodes showed up in the nightclub episodes: rapscallions, gangsters, mobsters and the like.
Episodes in the second half of the season involved Lucky’s salad chef being thrown in prison, Lucky being framed for tax evasion, Lucky being framed by thieves, a father trying to leave the country with his daughter on the Fortuna II, Lucky winning a date with a lovely actress, and Lucky being robbed by a waiter he had earlier given a second chance.
Throughout the series, one thing was made clear: Lucky wasn’t particularly bothered by anyone or anything as long as he could bet on it. Lucky and Andamo were both big into placing odds on whatever situation they happened to be in. For example, at the end of the first episode when Lucky and Andamo are getting away in a rickety old boat, Andamo puts odds on when they’ll run out of gas. In another episode, Lucky puts odds on whether or not a woman getting ready to jump overboard can swim (she was pretending she wanted to kill herself and Lucky knew it).
View Frank Gorshin Impersonate James Cagney
Seemingly, Lucky knew just about everyone. Half of his acquaintances were friends, the other half weren’t. Some took advantage of him, hoping to get a few thousand from the notoriously wealthy man, others simply wanted to use him as a scapegoat so they could break the law and get away with it.
Mr. Lucky was John Vivyan’s first starring role and he had beat out roughly 30 other actors to get it [7]. In March of 1960, he had to give up a role opposite Ingrid Bergman because it would conflict with production on the second season of Mr. Lucky [8]. Vivyan must have been surprised, then, when Mr. Lucky was cancelled in mid-April [9].
As late as June, Vivyan felt certain either ABC or NBC would pick up Mr. Lucky for another year [10]. They didn’t. What made the cancellation more surprising was the fact that Mr. Lucky was a successful series, ending the 1959-1960 season tied for 21st with Zane Grey Theater and General Electric Theater, also on CBS.
A total of 34 episodes were broadcast, with the final first-run broadcast on June 18th, 1960. Repeats of the series were aired by CBS through September 3rd, 1960. Several notable actors and actresses appeared in episodes of Mr. Lucky, including Jack Nicholson, Barbara Bain, Yvonne Craig, Frank Gorshin, Ted Knight, Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimieux.
The theme from Mr. Lucky, composed by Henry Mancini, made it to #21 on Billboard’s top pop singles chart [11]. Mancini would release a pair of records through RCA with music from the series: Mr. Lucky 1960 and Mr. Lucky Goes Latin in 1961. Lucky’s beloved pocket watch, when opened, played five notes from the Mancini theme.
Listen to the Closing Theme Song to Mr. Lucky
In the fall of 1961 the series was put into syndication by Official Films, along with Peter Gunn, Yancy Derringer, Wire Service and Du Pont Theatre [12].
Works Cited:
1 “Ross Martin Happy as Lucky’s Pal.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 10 Apr. 1960: N_A4.
2 Adams, Val. “TV To tell Story Of Photographer.” New York Times. 30 Jul. 1959: 55.
3 Ibid.
4 Adams, Val. “News of TV and Radio.” New York Times. 25 Oct. 1959: X17.
5 Anderson, Robert. “Japanese Painter a TV Draw.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 1 Sep. 1959: C11.
6 “Today’s TV Previews.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 24 Oct. 1959: 16.
7 Lowry, Cynthia. “John Vivyan’s Lucky — At Last.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 13 Mar. 1960: N13.
8 Ibid.
9 Wolters, Larry. “TV Ticker.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 16 Apr. 1960: A9.
10 Wolters, Larry. “TV Ticker.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 4 Jun. 1960: C7.
11 Brooks, Tim and Earle Marshe.” The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present. 8th ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003: 1495.
12 Shepard, Richard F. “Green Novel Set for TV on Nov. 26.” New York Times. 4 Jul. 1961: 37.
Last Updated July 26th, 2008
June 10th, 2009 at 12:59AM
The series’ primary sponsor was Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. [Life cigarettes]- THEY were the ones who objected to “Mr. Lucky” being a gambler, insisting he and his boat become “something else” or they’d cancel their sponsorship. Even after the “Fortuna” became a “floating nightclub/restaurant”, B&W STILL objected to the series’ “unsavory” background, and pulled out of it. Because CBS was unable to find another “primary sponsor”, they cancelled the series at the end of the season, despite its high ratings.
August 21st, 2009 at 5:57PM
My late mother (Jo Waffle) and John Vivyan were dear friends and both 1946 graduates of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC (same class as Colleen Dewhurst). She called him her “mentor.” The following summer, they and their friend, Teddy Montague (who later became the long-time personal secretary for George Burns & Gracie Allen) went to the Barter Theatre in Virginia for a season. It was there they met another budding actor, Ernie Borgnine. I digress!
My mother adored John, but it was strictly platonic (or so she says). He was quite a bit older than her. John had once been a ballroom dancer, but an accident changed all that, so he took up acting. I believe he later told her via Ted M. (whom she remained friends with until his death a few years ago) that his obvious resemblence to Cary Grant didn’t hurt in getting him the role of “Mr. Lucky.” Grant of course played him in the movie.
My mother’s acting career was pretty much over by the early 50s, so she fell out of contact with John, who died in the early 80s. We last saw him on a Coffeemate commercial, which made her cry. It’s great to know that a Mancini hit was written for a friend of my late mother’s! Somewhere I have a picture of Henry Mancini and John Vivyan together that belonged to my mother.
October 12th, 2009 at 5:40PM
Great story..Would love to see that picture. The last time I saw John Vivyan on tv was “WKRP” Sad is’nt the word for it. Any idea what happened to the boat (Fortuna)? I understand it really existed, but I can find no information or pictures of it. I did find an interview with J.V. in tv guide where he refered to it. I made contact with the beautiful Suzanne LLoyd who guest starred on an episode. She had several scenes on the boat, but she says they were all on the soundstage….Anyway, great show and thanks for the posts