Starring Jack Webb and Ben Morris (12 half-hour episodes / 6 hours via digital download)
In 1946 “Pat Novak, For Hire" came to West Coast regional radio (produced at KGO in San Francisco) starring Jack Webb in the title role with scripts by his roommate Richard L. Breen. When Webb and Breen moved to Los Angeles in 1947, Ben Morris replaced Webb as Novak. In a later network version, Jack Webb resumed the role along with Breen as scriptwriter. “Pat Novak, For Hire" was set on the San Francisco waterfront and depicted the city as a dark, tough as nails jungle where the main goal was survival. Novak was not a detective by trade. He owned a boat shop on “Pier 19" where he rented out boats and did odd jobs to make money while dishing out sarcasm and colorful metaphors at a mile-a-minute. The set up from show-to-show was similar: An unknown person would ask Novak to perform an unusual or risky job. In need of money, Novak would reluctantly accept and find himself in hot water, usually involving a dead body and a femme fatale. Police Inspector Hellman (played by Raymond Burr) would be called to the case. Hellman hated Novak and badly wanted to lock him up and throw away the key. While solving the crime, Novak usually employed the help of his friend Jocko Madigan (played by Tudor Owen), a drunken ex-doctor. “Pat Novak, For Hire" lasted until 1949, which was about the time Jack Webb turned his attention to the series that would make him a star, “Dragnet.”
