THURSDAY THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - THE KEN FRANKLINS

‘COLUMBO’
“MURDER BY THE BOOK”

From the IMDb:
When one member of a mystery writing team wants to break from his less talented partner, he becomes the victim in a real-life murder mystery.  

One half of a murder-mystery writing team kills his more talented partner after the latter announces his intentions to go solo which would ultimately leave the former in financial ruin. Later a grocery store owner, who has important information pertaining to the case and has romantic desires for the killer, sees this incident as an opportunity to blackmail him into having a relationship with her. Feeling cornered, he kills her and tries to make it look like she'd fallen off a boat and drowned in a drunken stupor.  

From the 'Columbo' wiki:
Ken Franklin was one half of a mystery-writing duo with Jim Ferris until 1971, when Ferris, who had done all of the actual writing, wanting to break it off to go solo. Franklin, who by this time had become accustomed to an expensive lifestyle, realized that this would leave him high-and-dry so he decided to murder Ferris. He was later forced to murder general store owner Lily La Sanka when she tried to blackmail him with her own witness testimony. In the end, however, Franklin was caught out and arrested by Lieutenant Columbo.

In the 1971 season 1 episode Murder by the Book, Ken Franklin was portrayed by American actor Jack Cassidy, who later play the villain in two other Columbo episodes; Publish or Perish and Now You See Him.

Ken Franklin was born in 1924 and died in prison during the Bicentennial Year while serving consecutive life terms.  He left no immediate family, but he did have a cousin only several years older than he was….

‘INTERNATIONAL DETECTIVE’
[The Entire Series]

From Wikipedia:
The global adventures of Ken Franklin, ace operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency.

From the IMDb:
Stories from the files of the William J. Burns Detective Agency, New York.  

From Crazy About TV::
The International Detective TV show was a 30 minute detective, drama series that aired on ITV in the United Kingdom and also aired in the U.S. on ABC. It followed Agent Ken Franklin on his cases as a private detective in New York City.  

At the beginning of each International Detective episode, William J. Burns, head of the Burns Detective Agency would hand Agent Ken Franklin his assignment. Only the top of Burns' head and his hand were shown. His face was never shown throughout the series.

A few of the International Detective episodes were featured in movie theaters by combining two episodes into what was known as a "short". That was simply a term for a film that was shorter than the typical movie.

From CTVA:
Each story began with Ken Franklin being given his latest assignment by William J. Burns. Apart from the top of his head and his hand 'Burns' himself was never actually seen. Produced in documentary style, the series was one of the best of its genre.   

This Ken Franklin was born in 1924 and passed away in 1995.  He retired from the Burns agency in 1985 and spent a decade in blissful seclusion. 

The fact that he and his cousin the mystery novelist shared the same full name is not an isolated occurrence in Toobworld.  In fact, in another episode of ‘Columbo’ (“Suitable For Framing”), a painter by the name of Sam Franklin (whose artwork was on display in Community General Hospital in the episode “An Exercise In Fatality”) shared his name with a Los Angeles purveyor of meats (Okay, a butcher). 

And as was the case with the two Sam Franklins, these cousins sharing the name Ken Franklin were descended from another Kenneth Franklin.  That Kenneth Franklin had to be someone in the Television Universe who was of great renown in the past.  Perhaps a politician or a Civil War soldier who showed heroic prowess during the War Between The States.  So much so that both Franklin families insisted that one of their sons were fitted with the same given name.

Just a few other O’Bservations:

Ken Franklin of the Burns Detective Agency was descended on his mother’s side from a San Francisco attorney in the 1850s named Jeremy Pitt. 

As for Ken Franklin of the Ferris and Franklin writing team, he had an “Identical Cousin” – an actor named Oscar North who starred in the TV series ‘Jetman’.  And by that term “identical cousin”, I’m not referring to the type of situation Patty and Cathy Lane found themselves in, where their fathers were identical twins which heightened the chances that their daughters would be identical… at least in Toobworld.

As a matter of fact, Ken Franklin’s father had an illicit affair with a woman whose married name was North.  She became pregnant from the relationship but was able to pass off her Oscar Child as her husband’s own.

Oscar Child – when it comes to bad puns, I have no shame.

SHOWS CITED:

• 'Columbo'
• 'International Detective'
• 'The Patty Duke Show'
• 'He & She'
• 'The Californians'
• 'The Brady Bunch'

BCnU!