Banacek

There's an old Polish proverb that says, "When an owl comes to a mouse picnic, it's not there for the sack races".

Banacek was a short-lived, light-hearted detective TV series starring George Peppard which aired on NBC from 1972 to 1974 as one of the rotating elements of The NBC Mystery Movie. Peppard played Thomas Banacek, a suave, Polish-American freelance investigator based in Boston, who solved seemingly impossible thefts. He then collected from the insurance companies 10% of the insured value of the recovered property.

Also featured were Ralph Manza as Banacek's chauffeur Jay Drury, 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 was was the only spoke of of The NBC Mystery Movie to run in both seasons.

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Tropes used in Banacek include:

• As the Good Book Says...: Variation: Banacek doesn't quote the Bible, but frequently delivers what he claims are old Polish proverbs and aphorisms that seem to wander into Ice Cream Koan territory.
• Cool Car: The AMX-400 from the second episode.
• Girl of the Week
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Harry Mudd and Proconsul Claudius are brothers. And crooks too... who'd a thought?
  • Others just from that series: Spock's fiancee T'Pring is marrying a Middle Eastern ruler, Commodore Decker built an advanced automobile, Nilz Baris has retired to gardening, Gary Mitchell is a sculptor, and the list goes on....
  • B.J. Hunnicutt, Jennifer Hart, The Joker, the Mad Hatter, Jaws, Hauptmann Dietrich, Altaira....
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Girl of the Week Margot Kidder, six years before she played Lois Lane for the first of four times. When Banacek introduced himself, giving only his last name, she responded quizzically, "One name? Like Superman?"
• Insurance Fraud: The only type of crime investigated.
• Locked Room Mystery
• Mile-High Club: "A Million the Hard Way"
• No Pronunciation Guide: Banacek has to correct someone's pronunciation of his name in almost every episode. Not Banna-seck but Banna-check. (And sometimes he corrects the spelling: "B-A-N-A-C-E-K, just like it sounds.") Sometimes people deliberately mispronounce it because he's made them look incompetent in the past: Barnard-chek, Banana-chek....
• Once an Episode: Jay suggests a solution to the mystery, and Banacek immediately finds an obvious flaw in it.
• Running Gag: Banacek's Polish proverbs, Jay suggests his solution to the mystery.
• Wheel Program