The Man Called X

The Man Called X is secret agent Ken Thurston, voiced by Herbert Marshall, who finds himself dispatched to trouble spots around the world. To his dismay, wherever he goes, he stumbles upon his annoying friend, Pegon Zellschmidt, voiced by Leon Belasco, who invariably happens to be visiting a relative in that same city. Pegon manages to both get in the way and, in the end, help solve the riddle of the week.

Even though the show aired during the early years of the Cold War and Cold War themes inform the background of a number of episodes, it avoids being all Russia all the time, which I find refreshing. I also sometimes cannot help but wonder whether Pegon, instead of being Thurston's ne'er-do-well, somewhat larcenous friend is, rather, one of the most successful deep cover counter-intelligence operatives in the history of spy fiction . . .

The show aired on CBS and NBC from 1944 to 1952 and was revived for television in 1956, but lasted only one season. For more, see Wikipedia.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.