Craig Kennedy, Criminologist

Craig Kennedy, Criminologist is a syndicated American detective television series. Produced in 1951, it was the first filmed TV program to be shown in U. S. Army hospitals in other countries. Reruns were being broadcast in the United States as late as 1958.

The series adapted the character of "pulp-novel sleuth" Craig Kennedy, a crime expert at Columbia University, to television. Donald Woods portrayed Kennedy, a character created by Arthur B. Reeve, who solved crimes by means of scientific deductions. Kennedy regularly interacted with police inspector J. J. Burke, sometimes helping Burke and sometimes being helped by him. Burke was portrayed by Syd Mason, and Lewis G. Wilson played crime reporter Walter Jameson. The supporting cast included Mara Corday, Sherry Moreland, Valerie Vernon, and Patricia Wright.

Partial list of episodes:

• "The False Claimant"
• "I Hate Money".
• "Murder on Stage 9"
• "The Mystery Bullet"
• "The Secret Will"
• "The Trap"

Adrian Weiss was the producer and director. Twenty-six episodes of the 30-minute black-and-white program were filmed in Hollywood at Key-West Studios. Louis Weiss & Company distributed the series. The Weiss Brothers gained sales of the show by promising that if it did not have higher ratings than its competition in its first 13 weeks, they would not charge for the second 13 weeks' episodes. At least one station, WCAU in Philadelphia, bought rights to third and fourth runs of the series. It began the third run on July 9, 1953, with plans to continue the series weekly for 12 months.

Ellis Walker, writing in the Daily Palo Alto Times, called the program "a class D mystery series". Walker expressed surprise at Woods's involvement in the show and suggested that the actor could not resist the money that he received.

In 1953 Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors Ltd. of London bought four episodes of Craig Kennedy, Criminologist with plans to combine them to create two hour-long features. The conversion also included having "a British personality" provide opening and closing narrations for the films, which were to be distributed to theaters in Great Britain.