Banacek - Premise

Premise

Peppard played Thomas Banacek, a suave, Polish-American freelance investigator based in Boston, who solved seemingly impossible thefts (see locked room mystery). He then collected from the insurance companies 10% of the insured value of the recovered property. One of Banacek's verbal signatures was the quotation of strangely worded yet curiously cogent "Polish" proverbs such as:

• "If you're not sure that it's potato borscht, there could be orphans working in the mines."
• "Though the hippopotamus has no sting, the wise man would prefer to be sat upon by the bee."
• "A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn."
• "If a wolf is after your sleigh throw him a raisin cookie—but don't stop to bake him a cake."
• "Just because the cat has her kittens in the oven doesn't make them biscuits."
• "You can read all the books in the library, but the cheese will still stink."

Part of the joke was that Ralph Manza as Banacek's chauffeur Jay Drury, would often ask "What does it mean, Boss?". Another recurring gag was for other characters to mispronounce his name, often, particularly in the case of rivals, deliberately. The name "Banaczek" (as pronounced in the show) is actually quite rare in Poland.

Also featured were Murray Matheson as rare-bookstore owner and information source Felix Mulholland and Christine Belford as Carlie Kirkland, Banacek's sometime-lover and always-rival.

Banacek's success as an investigator allowed him to live well. He had a mansion at 85 Mt Vernon St., (the same house used in The Thomas Crown affair of 1968 starring Steve McQueen)on Beacon Hill in Boston. He had a limousine and driver. He owned and drove an antique 1941 Packard convertible. He had radio-telephones in all his cars at a time when these devices were uncommon and expensive. Banacek was intelligent, well-educated, cultured and suave. He was an unapologetic ladies man who enjoyed the company of beautiful women, but he was street-smart and could engage in violent hand to hand fighting if the moment called for it.