Craig and Lola: TV's Hottest Couple

Who would you say are TV's hottest couple? Hmmmm....

How about Craig Stevens and Lola Albright?

I bet most of you have never heard of them. Of course, I remember them very well. When I was a teenager, I made a point of seeing all of Lola Albright's movies or TV shows. She was hot!

In early September 1958, I read a preview article in the Chicago Sun-Times about a new TV detective series in which Lola would play a singer at a nightclub called Mother's. The series was called "Peter Gunn" starring Craig Stevens. The article closed with a paragraph saying someone named Henry Mancini was musical director and a guy named Blake Edwards was the producer.

A few days later, I was in Santa Barbara, ready to begin my first year at UCSB. On the night Peter Gunn premiered, some of my new buddies and I watched it in our dorm lounge. What caught us by surprise was the music by this guy named Henry Mancini. He created a jazz soundtrack for "Peter Gunn" that played from beginning to end. And how he voiced the instruments was amazing, fantastic!

When the soundtrack album came out,I recognized the names of many of the sidemen on this album, the best West Coast jazz musicians around. I watched every episode of "Peter Gunn" during the three years it was on the air.

A couple of years ago, I watched a couple of reruns of "Peter Gunn" on cable TV. The picture quality wasn't that good, but the music was again fantastic. I pulled out my Peter Gunn LPs and listened to them for the first time in decades.

Now, almost a half century later, these albums still sound great! To see and hear what I mean, just click on the title of this entry!