Question of the Day - 23 March 2025

"Mr. Lucky" was a TV show that aired for one season (1959-1960), 34 half-hour (with ads) episodes.

It starred John Vivyan, who's remembered today chiefly for his role in this show as Mr. Lucky, a suave professional gambler who operated a floating casino on a luxury yacht. But instead of being a crook, he was more of a gentleman gambler with a moral code, often getting entangled with various characters in sundry adventures. Mr. Lucky's sidekick, Andamo, was played by Ross Martin, who's better known for his role as Artemus Gordon on the CBS Western series "The Wild Wild West," which aired from 1965 to 1969.

Interestingly, it was created and overseen by Blake Edwards, famous for such blockbuster movies as Breakfast at Tiffany's, Days of Wine and Roses, A Shot in the Dark, The Great Race, 10, Victor/Victoria, the hugely successful Pink Panther film series with British actor Peter Sellers, and our favorite, S.O.B. He was also married to Julie Andrews for 41 years until his death at age 88 in 2010. 

One of the most notable aspects of the show was its music, composed by Henry Mancini, who also did the famous "Peter Gunn" theme. The soundtrack for Mr. Lucky was jazzy and stylish, fitting the sophisticated high-stakes world of the show.

The titles of some the episodes are indicative of the content: "The Magnificent Bribe" (Episode 1), "Bugsy" (3), "The Money Game" (4), "Aces Back to Back" (11), "The Two Million Dollar Window" (13), "The Parolee" (18), "The Tax Man" (19), "Cold Deck" (22), and "I Bet Your Life" (24). 

Toward the middle of the one season, Mr. Lucky got out of the casino business and into the restaurant business, becoming the owner of a high-end eatery. As you can imagine, this weakened the original premise by a long shot, but it probably satisfied sponsors (and censors), who apparently got squeamish about a show that centered on the sin. Those years were already marked by what's known as the Diatribe, the national and international media’s collective characterization of Las Vegas as the most corrupt, immoral, and crime-infested city of iniquity in the U.S. The first of the exposes, a book called The Great Las Vegas Fraud, was published around that time, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that casino gambling wasn't playing well on Main Street. 

But! Thanks to the miracle of digitization, you can see every episode (with ads) of "Mr. Lucky" on Tubi, Roku, and Amazon Prime for free. Simply google Mr Lucky Episodes and they'll all come up.