Radio Recap: Jeff Regan, Investigator

"My name's Regan. I get 10 a day and expenses from a detective bureau run by a guy named Anthony J. Lyon. They call me 'the Lyon's Eye.'"

I've previously blogged about Jack Webb's early career on ABC radio in San Francisco. When he moved to Los Angeles at the start of 1947 he quickly found work on shows like Suspense, the Whistler, Escape and the Amazing Mr. Malone but he didn't want to be a character actor - he was looking for leading roles, which led to Johnny Madero, Pier 23 - and some unfortuntate litigation from ABC, who found that show was too similar to Pat Novak, for Hire.

Webb's first big network role became the titular Jeff Regan, Investigator starting in July, 1948. The series was not as sharp as Pat Novak, for Hire had been but Webb injected some familiar wise guy dialogue, some of which was probably not in the original script.

Jeff Regan worked as a private eye in the agency run by Anthony J. Lyon, whom he affectionately (?) dubbed "Fatso." Lyon was always eager to make a dollar and would typically force Regan to start work on a case without making much of an effort to investigate his client's background. Inevitably, the client would turn out to be flat broke or get themselves murdered by the halfway point of the drama, at which point Lyon would want Regan to drop the case but Regan would be unable to step aside.

Webb exited the series at the end of 1948 (to resume Pat Novak, for Hire) and it seems as though CBS were unprepared for his departure. The series went off the air for the rest of the season, then returned in October, 1949 with Frank Graham as Jeff Regan.

The role of Anthony J. Lyon shifted around a little, first portrayed by Wilms Herbert but afterwards usually portrayed by Frank Nelson. Nelson's blustery performance provided a light touch to scenes between Regan and Lyon. Initially there was also a second private eye in Lyon's agency, Joe Canto, portrayed by Barton Yarborough who appeared very seldomly (he's only in one episode from the Jack Webb era, for those who want a preview of their later dynamic on Dragnet).

The series was originally written by E. Jack Neuman, a prolific CBS writer who worked on Suspense, Meet Miss Sherlock, the Whistler, Escape, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and the Line-Up, among many others. Later it fell into the clutches of writer William Froug (he wrote primarily for Hallmark Hall of Fame); Froug increased the amount of humour on the program, which is evident from the episode titles; early episodes have titles that are fairly generic among detective shows but in the Froug era they all have titles like "The Gorilla That Always Said Yeh-ah" and "If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Wrecked a Train."

I didn't know anything about Jeff Regan, Investigator for the longest time; when my local radio station began airing episodes regularly (all from the Jack Webb era) I was astonished to realize there was a Jack Webb detective program I hadn't previously taken notice of. It certainly wasn't up to the quality of Pat Novak, for Hire; I think I was particularly disappointed that after the intro where Webb (as Regan) referred to himself as "the Lyon's Eye" which seemed to be a pretty cool nickname, that Lyon himself was just a buffoon and not usually very helpful at helping Regan solve the cases. Their relationship was a bit like that of Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe, expect that unlike Wolfe, Lyon really was fat, lazy and disinterested in solving the cases. Still, the series it not without its charms; it's not hard-boiled by any means but Webb tackled the role with gusto and in time, Graham's performance grew on me.

The series came to a very tragic end on September 3, 1950 when Frank Graham committed suicide; that was the end of Jeff Regan, Investigator. Graham had been recording episodes in advance via transcription and evidently CBS aired their regularly-scheduled broadcast the same day Graham died - but they didn't recast the role with Graham's tragic end, instead the series went off the air for good. The final episode appears to have been entirely transcribed with no acknowledgement of Graham's death - indeed, it closes with the announcer promising they would be back the following week.

You can hear the Old Time Radio Researchers' collection of Jeff Regan, Investigator at the Internet Archive Most of the surviving episodes are from the series' final year on the air with Frank Graham as Jeff Regan.