The Untouchables
The Empty Chair
TV Flash files “The Empty Chair” as a desk essential hour — The Untouchables (1959–1963) on ABC, season 1, episode 1, aired 1959-10-15, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 118 in the The Untouchables guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1959-10-15 (60 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Ma Barker and Her Boys” (S01E02).
Essential hour: “The Empty Chair”. The Empty Chair opens Desilu's raid: Stack's stare, Winchell's newsreel bark, violent prestige pushing 1950s network boundaries.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
This is the story created to explain the formation of the Untouchable 'team' led by Eliot Ness. In Chicago, Eliot is asking for a small,elite team of courageous and honorable,very trustworthy and patriotic men to act independently to get at the heart of the mob through secret and clandestine operations. Paves the way for the series.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Empty Chair sit in the The Untouchables guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 118 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did The Untouchables S01E01 air?
The Empty Chair aired 1959-10-15 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Stack's Ness and Winchell's newsreel bark in early Chicago-raid form. The granite stare and the tommy-gun morality are the brief.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The Untouchables is Eliot Ness versus Capone's Chicago: Robert Stack's granite stare, Walter Winchell's newsreel bark, Desilu muscle, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Watch it in 2026 as violent prestige crime that pushed 1950s network boundaries — raids as spectacle, and a national argument about blood and stereotype.
The work is a raid with newsreel grammar. ABC's *The Untouchables* (1959–1963) makes Robert Stack's granite stare into crime-drama law: 118 episodes, four seasons, Eliot Ness and an incorruptible squad, Walter Winchell's rat-a-tat narration, Desilu production gloss, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Loosely inspired by Ness's Prohibition-era memoir. Quinn Martin's later crime empire would refine the procedural; this was the loud opening statement. Justice came in fedoras and final shootouts.
Filed against
- Robert Stack as Eliot Ness
Robert Stack’s Eliot Ness granite-stared through The Untouchables — Capone’s Chicago, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, machine-gun morality in sharp suits — then put on Unsolved Mysteries’ trench coat until the theme song became a…
- Nicholas Georgiade as Agent Rossi
Nicholas Georgiade’s Agent Rossi rode The Untouchables’ machine-gun morality in a sharp suit — 1950s Eliot Ness versus Capone’s Chicago, Robert Stack’s granite stare, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, Desilu muscle. TV Flash files him as…
- Paul Picerni as Agent Youngfellow
Paul Picerni played Agent Youngfellow on The Untouchables, 1950s Eliot Ness versus Capone’s Chicago — Robert Stack’s granite stare, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, Desilu muscle, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Violent prestige…
- Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti
Bruce Gordon played Frank Nitti on The Untouchables — Capone muscle opposite Robert Stack's granite Eliot Ness, Walter Winchell's newsreel bark, Desilu machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Violent prestige crime that pushed 1950s network…