The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette explores the effort behind finishing Dan Lynch’s book on The Untouchables:
While Kelly Lynch didn’t go into the same profession as his father, he has spent the past few years delving into his father’s passions.
One of those, the railroad, has seen Lynch become the executive director of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and his involvement in the restoration of the historic steam locomotive No. 765.
The other is a TV show that Lynch describes as creating a cultural awakening, having impacted everything from “The Simpsons” to “The Sopranos.”
Lynch was barely a teenager when he began to watch with his father the VHS tapes his dad had recorded of the TV show “The Untouchables.”
Dan Lynch would have been a teenager when the show debuted in October 1959, but it made a huge impact on him and started a fascination that continued until he passed away in 2014.
This year, as the show marks its 60th anniversary, the Spencerville resident has uncovered an unfinished, 400-page manuscript written by his father and has revisited the TV production in the digital age.
The 34-year-old filmmaker has combined years of his father’s research, materials, interviews and exclusive content into an online retrospective and podcast called “The Untouchables Retrospective.”
Lynch grew up with the knowledge of the TV show’s history. His father had kept notebooks from the ’60s that included his notes about his book on the TV show. Lynch also has an interview with Robert Stack, who played Eliot Ness in the TV show.
“My love for film is tied directly to the ‘Untouchables,’” he says.
Lynch says he couldn’t watch the show for a year after his father passed away.
Dan Lynch, who was a nationally syndicated cartoonist and a former editorial cartoonist for The Journal Gazette, was in his 50s when he had a stroke. “(He) still had his life planned,” Lynch says of his father. The fact that Dan Lynch couldn’t complete his book before he died “haunted” his son throughout college.
“I know what it’s like to be infected by something like this,” Lynch says.
“The Untouchables” was produced by Desi Arnaz, who was looking for another smash after the success of “I Love Lucy.”
The TV show brought the true story of the legendary lawman Eliot Ness and his agents fighting for justice in the streets of Prohibition-era Chicago. The series that lasted four seasons became a legend in film noir.
