Trivialidades for
"The Untouchables" (1959)

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• Van Heflin and Van Johnson both turned down the role of Eliot Ness. Fred MacMurray, Jack Lord, and Cliff Robertson were also considered for the part.
  
  
• According to testimony from Jimmy 'The Weasel' Fratianno, a Mafia boss turned FBI informant, the Chicago family of the Mafia ordered the assassination of the show's producer Desi Arnaz because they didn't like, (a) the fact that the success of the show was focusing attention on the Mafia, and (b) the show's portrayal of Italians. Fratianno said that two hitmen hid themselves near Arnaz's house one night waiting for him to show up, but he never did. Shortly afterwards the assassination order was rescinded when it was realized that Arnaz's murder would cause the Mafia more trouble than it was worth.
  
  
• This show was under constant attack by various groups which claimed that it defamed the image of Italians and Italian-Americans.
  
  

• Among the concessions made to Italian-American groups, the network and producers were allowed to use Italians and Italian names for criminals based upon real persons but agreed that fictional criminal characters would be non-Italians.
  
  
• To counter some of the claims that the show was anti-Italian, later episodes gave a more prominant role to Agent Enrico Rossi (the Italian-American member of Ness's team) in order to show an Italian-American as a hero working for law and order.
  
  
• One of the groups that tried to end this show was the estate of 'Al Capone (I)' . It was their claim that this show was unfairly profiting from the Capone name.
  
  
• The only actors to reprise their roles as members of The Untouchables from the series pilot, the Desilu Playhouse movie "The Scarface Mob" are: Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and 'Abel Fernández' as William Youngfellow. All of the other team members were recast for the series.
  
  
• 'Nicolas Georgiade' , who plays Untouchable team member Enrico Rossi, actually had a small, uncredited role as a thug in the Desilu Playhouse movie "The Scarface Mob", the series pilot. In the movie, after the Untouchables raid a plant and round up the criminals, Georgiande plays the thug identified as "Frank Cotter, a gunman from New York" who quips to Ness that he'll read about Ness's obituary in jail, thus getting punched by Ness.
  
  
• Walter Winchell received a reported $25,000 per episode for his narration on this series. With his signature machine gun dialog delivery, he could apparently rack up almost 200 words per minute.
  
  

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