In general the series was shot on the Universal Studios backlot, though location scenes were filmed around Los Angeles in areas that could pass for Boston, or rural areas near there. Banacek borrowed elements of both characters and plot points. The Thomas Crown Affair premise had been that a bored, wealthy Boston businessman (McQueen) masterminds a crime, leading to a match of wits with an insurance investigator ( Faye Dunaway) who collects a 10 percent fee from the insurance company if she solves the case. He was an unapologetic ladies man who enjoyed the company of beautiful women, but he was street-smart and could engage in violent hand-to-hand fighting if the moment called for it. Banacek was intelligent, well-educated, cultured and suave. He had a mobile radio telephone in each of his cars at a time when these devices were uncommon and expensive. He owned and drove an antique 1941 Packard convertible. Vernon Street, (the same house used in The Thomas Crown Affair starring Steve McQueen) on Beacon Hill in Boston. Felix was the series' only character to ever call Banacek by his first name.īanacek's success as an investigator allowed him to live well. The name "Banaczek" (as pronounced in the show) is actually quite rare in Poland.Īlso featured were Murray Matheson as rare-bookstore owner and information source Felix Mulholland and Christine Belford as Carlie Kirkland, Banacek's sometime-lover and always-rival. Another recurring gag was for other characters to mispronounce his name, often, particularly in the case of rivals, deliberately. Drury was never at a loss for a potential solution which Banacek would always manage to shoot down with his very next line. Part of the joke was that Ralph Manza as Banacek's chauffeur Jay Drury, would often ask "What does it mean, Boss?" Banacek also had a running agreement with his chauffeur for a 10% share of Banacek's 10% if he solved the crime. "No matter how warm the smile on the face of the Sun, the cat still has her kittens under the porch."."You can read all the books in the library my son, but the cheese will still stink after four days."."Just because the cat has her kittens in the oven doesn't make them biscuits."."When a wolf is chasing your sleigh, throw him a raisin cookie, but don't stop to bake a cake."."A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn."."Though the hippopotamus has no sting, the wise man would prefer to be sat upon by the bee."."If you're not sure that it's potato borscht, there could be orphans working in the mines.".One of Banacek's verbal signatures was the quotation of strangely worded yet curiously cogent " Polish" proverbs such as: He then collected from the insurance companies 10% of the insured value of the recovered property. Peppard played Thomas Banacek, a suave, Polish-American freelance investigator based in Boston, who solved seemingly impossible thefts (see locked room mystery).