Mr. Lucky and a Very Early Jack Nicholson Role

Lately we've been watching some episodes of a TV series called Mr Lucky. This show aired for only one season, 1959-1960. We were given 10 episodes on VHS tape a few years ago as a gift, and have finally gotten around to checking it out.

Mr. Lucky was produced by Blake Edwards, and starred John Vivyan as "Mr. Lucky", a casino owner. There is only a stub entry for Mr. Lucky at Wikipedia, and here is the entry on it at IMDB. This paragraph from the IMDB page nicely summarizes the show:

Mr. Lucky was an honest professional gambler who had won a plush floating casino, the ship Fortuna, and it his base of operations. Staying beyond the 12-mile limit, where he could operate a gambing ship legally, Mr. Lucky played host to a wide variety of people, all of whom came to make use of his sumptuous facility. Helping him run the casino was his good friend Andamo. When he got into scrapes that required police assistance, Lt. Rovacs usually provided it.

I'll add that at first we found the show to be somewhat silly/campy. But it grew on us, and at this point I have to admit I kinda like the show. The two main characters are quite respectable in many ways: honest, entrepreneurial businessmen who do right by their customers and friends. At least, that is my take based on the ten-episodes we've seen.

Beyond that, what is prompting this posting is that the episode we saw last night starred a very young Jack Nicholson. In fact, it is listed as his third earliest credit at his IMDB page here. He plays a major role in the episode Operation Fortuna. This episode also had Richard Chamberlain in it. Other episodes we've seen have had other well-known actors, including Lee Van Cleve and Jack Elam.