Shannon (1961)

George Nader is Joe Shannon, an insurance investigator for the Transport Bonding and Insurance Company who is assigned cases by his boss Bill Cochran, played by Regis Toomey. The main character of Shannon is his 1961 Buick, which is specially equipped with every high-tech gadget from that period. Shannon has no attractive secretary like other private eyes at the time because in his car sits a dictating machine where he recites his reports for Cochran. Shannon is the original multi-tasker. Press a button and a movie camera pops up or a hidden gun appears. The show is based in Los Angeles and offers up some vintage street scenes of early-'60's L.A. "Shannon" was produced by Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures and the show was syndicated, which was unusual at the time. Smaller production companies syndicated shows for local stations, not major studios.