Set in Chicago, Illinois, it starred Marvin as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of "M Squad", a special unit of the Chicago Police, assisting other units in battling organized crime, corruption and violent crimes citywide. Paul Newlan co-starred as his boss, Captain Grey. Although Marvin had been appearing in feature films since 1951, it was this series that made him a star, and he later went on to an even bigger film career afterward. Nelson Case was the announcer. The popularity of M Squad was proven in the ratings wars by the NBC network choosing a Friday night time slot opposite Frank Sinatra's ABCvariety show in the fall of 1957 and Phil Silvers' long running CBS comedy, Sgt. Bilko, in 1958. Both series were eventually cancelled.
In episode "The Jumper", an officer was depicted taking bribes. This prompted Richard J. Daley, the Mayor of Chicago at the time, to discourage motion picture and television location filming in Chicago for the rest of his administration. The Blues Brothers, released in 1980, marked the reversal of the policy under then-mayor Jane Byrne.
The TV seriesPolice Squad! was a spoof on police series in general, and on signature elements of M Squad in particular. The opening sequence of Police Squad! spoofed portions of the opening sequence of M Squad, particularly the theme song arrangement and the sequence with shots being fired from behind a car. As well, the Police Squad! office was designed to look very much like the M Squad office, and the narration in each series was very similar, with each character introducing himself in each episode as a "detective lieutenant".
Similarly, the 1994 music video directed by Spike Jonze for the song "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys directly parodies the opening sequence of M Squad, amongst other police shows.
A novel was published in 1962, M Squad: The Chicago Cop Killer, by David Saunders. It was published by Belmont Books, New York.
Lee Marvin carried two Colt Cobra revolvers, the lightweight variant of Colt's "Detective's Special" revolver, which was popular with detectives at the time.
Home media
released M Squad: The Complete Series on DVD in the Region 1 on November 11, 2008. This release has been discontinued and is out of print. On November 4, 2014, Timeless Media re-released the complete series on DVD in a new 16-disc special edition collection that contains an entire disc of bonus content.
