(DuMont Primetime, 1950 - 1954) [original title: "Inside Detective" aka: "Rocky King -- Inside Detective"; This was one of the most memorable shows on the DuMont Network, which had only a few affiliates in large cities; It was a network created by the manufacturers of DuMont Television Sets. The character "Rocky King" was a New York police inspector; the series was one of the earliest examples of what has become known as a "police procedural", with realistic touches years before Jack Webb's "Dragnet" become known for these same qualities; Roscoe Karns was a veteran actor who had played a sidekick on around 140 B-pictures from the 1920s -- 1940s, including "I Was A Fugitive From A Chain Gang", "Cain and Mabel", "Thanks For The Memory" and Frank Capra's film "It Happened One Night"; Even after "Rocky King", Karns went on to play a second banana on the Jackie Cooper TV series "Hennesey" from 1959 - 1962; "Rocky King" was a real family project, the tailor-made role for Roscoe Karns -- initials "R. K." -- featured a character with the same initials; Roscoe Karns' wife Mabel played an offscreen voice character role "Mabel", and his son Todd Karns played his assistant in the police department during the final season]
[THEME composer credit from the DuMont Web Site of Clarke Ingram, who says that the THEME was "composed and played" by Jack Ward, a DuMont network organist; above is the most likely THEME title] Composer: Jack Ward (ASCAP) 1978 Publisher: [not found in the 1978 ASCAP Index of Performed Compositions] 2001 Publisher: [not found in ASCAP or BMI databases] Copyright Date: Renewal Date: Recordings: