PRESSURE
Airdate: June 14th, 1962
Teleplay by
Story by
Directed by
Produced by
Director of Photography
Co-starring
Special Guest Star
Featuring
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x
QUOTES
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OBSERVATIONS
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Airdate: June 14th, 1962
Teleplay by
Story by
Directed by
Produced by
Director of Photography
Co-starring
Special Guest Star
Featuring
x
x
x
x
Airdate: February 1st, 1962
Written by Harry Kronman
Directed by Abner Biberman
Produced by Lloyd Richards
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-starring Allyn Joslyn, Dyan Cannon, Bert Convey
Special Guest Star Charles McGraw
Featuring Stewart Bradley, Stanley Kahn, John Milford, Tim Graham, Sydney Smith, and “The Partner”
Airdate: January 18th and May 24th, 1962 Written by John Mantley Directed by Paul Wendkos Produced by Lloyd Richards Director of Photography Charles Straumer Co-starring Victor Buono, Bruce Gonion, John Kellogg Featuring Ed Nelson, Joe di Reda, Peter Forster, Anne Whitfield, David Faulkner, Paul Birch, Claudia Bryar, Dal McKennon, Wayne Heffley, Paul Dubov, Lou Krugman
Airdate: January 4th, 1962
Teleplay by Barry Trivers and Harry Kronman
Story by Barry Trivers
Directed by Bernard McEveety, Jr.
Produced by Lloyd Richards
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Simon Oakland
Co-starring Arthur Hill, Bruce Gordon.
Featuring Dabbs Greer, John Alderson, Than Wyenn, Michael Hinn, Paul Bryar, Gene Roth.
Airdate: December 14, 1961
Written by John Mantley
Directed by Paul Wendkos
Produced by Lloyd Richards
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-starring Paul Richards, Mike Kellin, Bruce Gordon
Featuring Theodore Marcuse, George Keymas, Vic Perrin, Joseph Breen, Harvey Stephens, William Boylett
Airdate: December 7th, 1961
Written by Sy Salkowitz
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Executive Producer Alan Armer
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Ruth Roman
Co-starring Bruce Gordon, Anne Helm
Featuring Grant Richards, Mario Gallo, Mario Alcalde, Jay Adler, Joe Scott
Airdates: November 23rd, 1961 and June 7th, 1962
Written by George Eckstein
Directed by Paul Wendkos
Produced by Del Reisman
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star James Gregory
Co-starring Bruce Gordon, Cloris Leachman
Featuring Bernard Fein, Joe Perry, Alan Baxter
Airdates: November 16th, 1961
Written by Harry Kronman
Directed by Paul Wendkos
Produced by Lloyd Richards
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Jack Klugman
Co-starring Martin Landau, Gavin MacLeod, George Tobias
Featuring Vaughn Taylor, John Weingraf, Lorna Thayer, Wendell Holmes, Joe Turkel, Peter Brocco, Alexander Lockwood, Karen Verne, Alan Gilbert, Larkin Ford
Airdates: November 9th, 1961, and April 23rd, 1963
Written by David Z. Goodman
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Produced by Lloyd Richards
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Telly Savalas
Co-starring Bruce Gordon, Milton Seltzer, Michael Constantine
Featuring Carl Milletaire (uncredited), Joseph Bernard, Toni Tucci, John Harmon, Grant Richards, Herman Rudin
Airdates: November 2nd, 1961 and April 19th, 1962
Written by Harry Kronman
Directed by Paul Wendkos
Produced by x
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-starring Marc Lawrence, Anthony Carbone, Frank Buglia, Alrene Sax Featuring Grant Richards, Steve Gravers, Eugene Iglesias, Peter Coe, A.G. Vitanza, Willian Tannen
“In the years following World War I, a flood-time of European immigration rowed through Ellis Island in New York harbor. Early in the 1920s, the ferry that made the run to Manhattan carried six men across the bay. Six brothers. Duly processed and certified for entry into the United States. Family name, Genna. Place of origin: Scilly. Destination: Chicago. Where streets were said to be paved with gold. The brothers picked up their share fast. In a few short years, they were the ruling lords of Chicago’s Little Italy. Their name, a byword of violence and death.”
The six Genna brothers, assuming control of Chicago’s Little Italy, are up to no good, bringing in illegal aliens to make their whisky for the Capone mob. After an alien is killed, an emissary of Capone orders the Gennas to discontinue the practice of greenhorn smuggling. Eliot Ness finds a reluctant ally in an Italian shopkeeper whose daughter is accidentally gunned down when one of the Gennas, a rival for her affection, attempts to kill off her new husband.
“With four of the Gennas dead, the brothers were no longer a factor in the underworld. But the name Genna had left a scar in Chicago’s Little Italy. And it would be a long time healing.”
Yes, Virginia, there really was a mob made up entirely of Gennas. Those nasty Italians (Sicilians, actually) are back with serpentine Marc Lawrence to head them up in this variation of the Augie Ciamino story. Enjoy them – this is the last of the thoroughbreds except for a couple of miscellaneous leftovers.
After all the flak from the previous year, it was assumed that the Italians were gone for good, but the agreement was for the elimination of fictional Italian gangsters. This episode generated another round of unpleasant and not-so-thinly-veiled threats aimed at the network and the Culver City crowd. Ultimately, it lead to the outright ban imposed on the use of any ethnic types for the 1962-1963 season, although a handful of evil Irishmen and several Italians will manage to sneak in anyway.
In the very same agreement, Desi Arnaz had made a point to say that Enrico Rossi would have a more prominent role in the show and this episode seems designed to show good and bad Italians, rich and poor, fed and hoodlum alike. Nevertheless, the promise to raise Rossi’s profile in the squad went about as far as the others. While actor Nick Georgiade gets a few extra lines and otherwise chews some scenery as Rossi, he’s left completely out of the climax of the episode as Ness and Hobson take on the remaining Gennas on their own, negating any attempt at what we’d describe today as a “narrative arc.” There is no satisfying resolution to Rossi’s indignancy toward the Gennas and it is otherwise Eliot Ness who gets to offer the beset immigrants a helping hand. A missed opportunity.
NESS: Do me a favor, Genna. Run.
The real Gennas were indeed rather unpleasant people, but their power and influence in Chicago was largely vanquished by opposing forces by 1930. They were the catalyst behind Chicago’s early gang war after murdering Dean O’Banion, leader of the North Side Gang, and nearly succeeding an assassination on Capone mentor Johnny Torrio. Like his fictional counterpart, the real Mike Genna later shot and killed by law enforcement in 1925.