Noir Television: Naked City
- This is a past program
Co-presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Film Noir Foundation.
Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series Archive Television Treasures. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.
In person: author Alan K. Rode of the Film Noir Foundation, actor and writer Michael McGreevey.
Broadcast on ABC from 1958 to 1963, the innovative police drama Naked City offered television viewers an uncommonly realistic glimpse of the mean streets and desperate citizenry of New York City. Based on Jules Dassin’s acclaimed 1948 motion picture of the same name, TV’s Naked City boasted gritty location photography and a host of New York actors in thoughtful, original teleplays that emphasized character over action.
Naked City: “The King of Venus Will Take Care of You” (5/30/1962)
Veteran character actor Jack Warden (Twelve Angry Men) guest stars as a fugitive who takes refuge in a tenement rooftop hideaway belonging to a troubled child (Mike McGreevy). As police close in, the misfit pair confront each other and their individual life circumstances, which are untenable. The episode features a Nelson Riddle score, NYC location photography, and a tense, humanistic teleplay penned by blacklisted writer Arnold Manoff, credited here under his pseudonym “Joel Carpenter.”
Television Academy Foundation: Diahann Carroll — excerpt (1998)
Beloved icon Diahann Carroll (Dynasty) discusses her Emmy-nominated performance on Naked City.
Naked City: “A Horse Has a Big Head — Let Him Worry!” (11/21/1962)
In groundbreaking casting, future superstar Diahann Carroll (Julia) guests as an earnest special education teacher searching for a sight-impaired student (John Megna) who, in defiant independence, wanders away on a field trip. The humanist episode, featuring extensive location photography of New York City streets, was directed by Academy Award winner Denis Sanders (Time Out of War) and penned by blacklisted writer Abram S. Ginnes.
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