Guest star Broderick Crawford.Р”Р„ million dollars vanishes from a Las Vegas casino display. Guest stars William Windom, Bert Convy.Р”В«anacek searches for a valuable church artifact that disappeared from a sealed box. Guest stars Stefanie Powers, Anitra Ford and John Brodie.Р”В«anacek investigates the disappearance of a valuable prototype automobile from a moving train (an idea borrowed from a Thorpe Hazell short story). Episodes Pilot (1972) РІвЂћвЂ“Р”В«anacek finds himself in a race against his old adversary, Chief McKinney of the National Meridian Insurance Company, to solve the case of a missing armored truck carrying $1,600,000 of gold bullion that disappeared without a trace while under a police escort.Р”В«anacek is called in after a football player vanishes on national TV.

But he was street-smart and could engage in violent hand to hand fighting if the moment called for it. He was an unapologetic ladies man who enjoyed the company of beautiful women. Banacek was intelligent, well-educated, and cultured.

He had radio-telephones in all his cars at a time when these devices were uncommon and expensive. He owned and drove an antique 1941 Packard convertible. He had a mansion on Beacon Hill in Boston. In fact, BanР“РЋР”РЊek is a Czech surname.Р”Р„lso 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.Р”В«anacek's success as an investigator allowed him to live well. The closest Polish names in common use are Banaszak (bah-NAH-shack) and Banasik (bah-NAH-sheek). The name 'Banaczek' (as pronounced in the show) is actually very rare in Poland. Another recurring gag was for other characters to mispronounce his name, often (particularly in the case of rivals) deliberately. Part of the joke was that Ralph Manza as Banacek's chauffeur Jay Drury, would often ask, but what does it mean. You can read all the books in the library, but the cheese will still stink.Just because the cat has her kittens in the oven doesn't make them biscuits.If a wolf is after your sleigh throw him a raisin cookie-but don't stop to bake him 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).

Banacek season 1 episode 4