A television series with few neutral observers during its network run, The Untouchables was either loved or hated. Why celebrate one television’s most sensational and enduring programs today?

By 1959, television had nearly completed a tour of duty through its Golden Age, so‑called for the many innocent comedies, campy westerns, variety shows, and serious attempts at theater. What three controversies would usher an end to television’s Golden Age?

Against mounting financial pressure, Desi Arnaz gambles on a Prohibition-era cops-and-robbers drama for his struggling Desilu Playhouse program and after facing down Al Capone’s son, gathers a talented assortment of Hollywood creatives to produce The Untouchables. But with principal photography only hours away, Arnaz still has yet to secure an actor for the role of Eliot Ness.

Under Executive Producer Quinn Martin’s leadership, The Untouchables will go-to series, but only if Robert Stack can be persuaded to stay on as Eliot Ness.

The Untouchables becomes an well-oiled, Emmy-winning machine as it enters its most successful and difficult year. Under the leadership of new executive producer and Desilu confidant Jerry Thorpe, the program’s production qualtity increases – as does trouble with Italian-Americans.

As the series enters its third season, threats of actual violence against The Untouchables mount, with a mob hit ordered on Desi Arnaz and a phone call to the Desilu lot threatens the show with a bombing. Eliot Ness is about to face two of his greatest adversaries – a television variety hour and network ordered changes to its powerhouse formula.

Desi Arnaz’s departure from Desilu has ramifications not only for his number one television series, but Desilu Productions in general. New executive produce Leonard Freeman assembles a new slate of writers and directors to remake The Untouchables into something “new, improved” and less offensive, to disastrous results.