Biff Baker, U.S.A.

Long before he was "The Skipper" on Gilligan's Island, Alane Hale, Jr., starred in the 1950s crime drama, Biff Baker, U. S. A.

Biff Baker, U.S.A. is a forgotten American half-hour crime drama that aired twenty-one episodes on CBS television from November 6, 1952, to March 26, 1953, and again in syndication for five weeks in the fall of 1954.^[1] The program stars Alan Hale, Jr. (1921-1990) as a Cold War spy posing as an import-export dealer. Randy Stuart (1924-1996) plays Louise Baker, his wife and partner in spying, usually behind the Iron Curtain.

Hale was cast as Biff Baker twelve years before he began the role of "The Skipper" opposite Bob Denver (1935-2005) in CBS's fantasy situation comedy, Gilligan's Island, which aired from 1964 to 1967, and five years before he portrayed railroad engineer Jonathan Luther "Casey" Jones (1863-1900) in a syndicated adventure series of the same name. The first twenty-one episodes of Biff Baker, U.S.A. aired on CBS; the final five segments were broadcast in first-run syndication.^[1] The series aired on CBS at 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursdays, opposite Jack Webb's Dragnet crime drama on NBC. On CBS Biff Baker followed the alternation of the later controversial sitcom Amos 'n' Andy and the anthology series, Four Star Playhouse.

Biff Baker was filmed by Revue Productions (now Universal Television).^[1] A number of Biff Baker episodes have been released on DVD.

(In alphabetical order)

• Michael Ansara
• Charles Bronson
• Lawrence Dobkin
• Carl Esmond
• Frank Ferguson
• Peter Graves
• Lee Marvin
• Mort Mills
• Jay Novello
• Ann Robinson
• Kenneth Tobey
• Victor Sen Yung^[2]