Adventures By Morse

Adventures by Morse was a 52-episode syndicated adventure series produced, written and directed by Carlton E. Morse shortly after NBC canceled his I Love a Mystery series.

Captain Bart Friday was a globe-trotting San Francisco-based private investigator, portrayed during the series by Elliott Lewis, David Ellis and Russell Thorson. Friday's sidekick from Texas, Skip Turner, was played mostly by Jack Edwards and occasionally by Barton Yarborough. The tales covered such areas as espionage, kidnapping and murder, along with secret Nazi bases, snake worshipers and voodoo.

The 52 30-minute episodes (and two sales pitches) were produced in the mid-1940s. Dates of production and the earliest broadcasts are uncertain: several Internet sites mention that the entire series was broadcast in 1944, but in the final two chapters of It's Dismal to Die, it is clearly stated that the Second World War has ended. Advertisements have been found for broadcasts in 1946 and 1949.

The series was presented in 13-episode blocks (each containing two stories), with each ten-chapter story ending with a teaser for the following three-chapter story. The City of the Dead and A Coffin for the Lady are mentioned in the promotional recordings as the first and second story respectively.