Citizen-Spy

Documentary Melodrama 11
Shows like Treasury Men were rife with anti-Communist rhetoric and nationalistic
appeals to civic responsibility, but networks were nonetheless circumspect
about fictionalizing official state institutions. Fearful of the opprobrium
of the U.S. government at whose whim they were able to broadcast, network
continuity acceptance departments forbade producers to refer to such agencies
as the CIA, FBI, and the State Department without explicit agency approval. 22
Even Treasury Men, which was produced with the endorsement of the Treasury
Department, was not allowed to refer to other federal agencies. Network censors
deleted such references or changed the names of agencies to make them
intentionally vague. 23
The effect of such network censorship was to make officially sanctioned
fictional representations of the federal government on TV much more prominent
when they did appear. When producers had the approval of a federal
agency, they incorporated it into the show’s promotional materials. Treasury
Men, I Led 3 Lives, and The Man Called X were promoted as tell-all glimpses into
the secret operations of the federal government. Government agencies themselves
exploited their close relationships to such programs, using such moments
as the Service Honor Award presentation during a live Treasury Men broadcast
as free publicity. 24 As a Variety reviewer commented, Greaza’s closing line
at the end of each episode of T-Men, “One more job well done by your Treasury
Department,” was “one of the biggest booster lines for a Government
agency.” 25 Such shows likely put a human face on the bureaucracies of the federal
government, linking them to the daily lives of American citizens, and
establishing a continuity between official state institutions and “private” family
entertainment.
Noting the successes of such documentary crime shows as Dragnet and
Treasury Men in Action, and seeking to capitalize on popular interest in anti-
Communism and espionage, NBC attempted in the early 1950s to combine the
two. From 1952 to 1954 NBC executives sought to produce a show with the
direct involvement of the FBI. NBC saw official FBI participation as a lucrative
promotional opportunity, and they were also wary about attempting to present
a reality-based espionage show without Bureau approval. NBC vice president
Charles Barry oversaw the effort, and he pitched the idea to the FBI, writing, “I
think the time is ripe for the Bureau to get into television....NBC, of course, is