Old Time Radio: Jeff Regan, Investigator, aka The Lyon's Eye (1948)

 "You've got morals like a cash register!"---Jeff Regan (Jack Webb) to Anthony Lyon (Wilms Herbert).

Jack Webb had the tart-tongued, hard-boiled private eye down to a T by the time he was cast as Jeff Regan, Investigator in 1948 for CBS. As with Pat Novak For Hire and an earlier series we'll eventually look into, Johnny Madero, Webb demonstrated more emotion in his role than as the monotoned Joe Friday of Dragnet.

However, CBS decided they were moving Webb back to Novak, so radio vet Frank Graham took over the lead in Jeff Regan, with Frank Nelson (The Jack Benny Program) replacing Herbert. Graham's suicide in 1950 led to the series' abrupt cancellation. Regan & Lyon were not friends, as it's clearly implied in the above quote, which comes from the episode, "The Guy From Gower Gulch".

Early solicitations for the CD release of Jeff Regan at Radio Spirits used the nickname given to Regan, "The Lyon's Eye", as apparently, for most of the run, he was Lyon's only operative. Future Dragnet co-star Barton Yarborough was to be the lead as Joe Canto, but the network made a change of plans.

Here's "The Guy From Gower Gulch":

We'll look at the Frank Graham era of Jeff Regan, Investigator another time.

Rating: A.