When ABC announced more than three decades ago that it was picking up a series about lawmen battling gangsters in Depression-era Chicago, most everybody laughed.
And not just at the concept but at the title - "The Untouchables.""Everybody thought it was a stupid title. That it sounded like a bunch of lower-caste Indians," said Robert Stack, who starred as Eliot Ness from 1959-63. "Nobody thought it was going to work."
As a matter of fact, no one expected "The Untouchables" to be made into a series at all. The original installment was a two-parter that aired on CBS as part of the "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse."
"They didn't have the courage to even mention it as a series," Stack said in a telephone interview. "But these things have a life of their own."
CBS wasn't interested, but ABC picked up the show. And, to everyone's surprise, it turned into a ratings success and an Emmy winner.
And memories of the show have lingered, aided by a theatrical version of "The Untouchables" that starred Kevin Costner.
Even Costner couldn't erase memories of Stack as Ness - an image that has remained so strong that NBC is reviving the character in the TV movie "The Return of Eliot Ness," which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 2.
And, although there's no replacement for narrator Walter Winchell, "The Return" is very much in the tradition of the original series.
There are gangsters and their molls, double-crosses and triple-crosses and dialogue like, "If you mess with the mob, you'll end up in a pine box."
As the telemovie opens, Al Capone is dead, and his lieutenants are fighting for control of the Chicago crime scene.
Stack's Ness is still the stone-faced fighter for justice. Long retired, he returns to Chicago for the funeral of one of his former lieutenants.
"I said, `There's got to be a heartline. There's got to be a darn good reason to bring him back,' " Stack said.
When police detective and former G-man Marty Labine is found murdered, along with the girlfriend of young gangster Bobby Malto, it's assumed he was working for the Malto gang. And Ness is determined to clear his former lieutenant's name with the help of Labine's policeman son, Gil (Jack Coleman.)
"He's coming back as an older man. I didn't want to play him as Joe Macho with a girdle and whatever else, like some of them do," said the 72-year-old Stack. "And I like the fact that he is pretty much led into it."
"The Untouchables" was undoubtedly one of the most violent shows in television history, with machine guns blazing and both good and bad guys dropping like flies.
And "The Return of Eliot Ness" is no different. Several characters are gunned down before the opening credits, and there's even a scene with a gangster firing a bazooka.
But Stack is not ready to agree that the show is too violent.
"I believe that as long as the audience empathizes with the good guys, you're OK," he said. "I think `The Godfather' is a very dangerous show, because the bad guys are the heroes.
"You cannot show good unless you show evil. It's a very, very delicate balance. Of course, comparing the violence we did to what they did in motion pictures like `The Godfather' and their version of `The Untouchables' is ridiculous."
Stack said one of the reasons he agreed to return in the part was his continuing respect for the real Ness. One of Stack's prize possessions is a $10 check Ness had to post-date in 1952.
"Here's a guy who'd been offered thousands upon thousands of dollars to back off on his investigation, and he didn't have the money to pay a few bucks he lost on the football games," Stack said.
The actor never had a chance to meet the real Eliot Ness, who died in 1957, but he did meet his widow.
"She wrote me a letter before I met her," he said. "She was very kind. She said it was amazing how much I managed to be like him without ever having known him."
The continuing popularity of the Ness character amazes even Stack. He recalled doing the movie "1941" with John Belushi.
"He kept forgetting his lines. Finally, he said, `You know, you make me nervous, Mr. Stack. I had no real father image around when I was growing up and you were it,' " Stack said. "That just blew me away.
"People come up to me and say, `We sure could use somebody like Ness today.' "
The appeal of the character is international. All 120 episodes of "The Untouchables" ran in Mexico not long ago - one a day for 120 days.
"I got off an airplane down there, and everyone is calling me Senor Ness. Apparently, they just though I'd been drunk for about two weeks and that was why I looked so much older," Stack said with a laugh. "They thought it was a new show."
Stack has achieved new popularity in recent seasons as the host of NBC's highly rated "Unsolved Mysteries" - a show he admits he never expected would last very long.
"When they asked me to do it, I just figured, `Why not?' " he said. "Then I got myself emotionally wrapped up in it - in some of the stories. The audience adopted the show. It has sort of a McEwen-esque two-way communication with the audience, and I don't think that happens on too many shows."
In addition to "The Return of Eliot Ness," NBC has scheduled a special edition of "Unsolved Mysteries" about Ness for Sunday (7 p.m. on Ch. 2).
And when he's talking about his current series, Stack sounds remarkably like his "Untouchables" character. He describes the show's producers as "good Americans" and himself as a strong supporter of law enforcement.
"I don't like crooks, and I have never been one of those actors who's involved myself with them," Stack said. "I feel very strongly about the police.
" `Unsolved Mysteries' happens to fit the way I feel. I'd get terminal flu and stop doing it if it went off in a different direction."