****SPOILERS**** With TV producer Gordon Lanning, Robert Webber, getting himself good and drunk after the news of the latest ratings for his shows going off the cliff he soon goes into a drunken rage. Gordon beats the living hell out of his fashion model old lady or wife Laura, Elizabeth Allen, using her for a punching bag. Things got so bad that the house maid, Jessica Walters, had to call the cops before he put Laura in the hospital on life support with a serious brain concussion. With the police lead by the sweet sensitive and caring for all humanity Det. Adam Flint, Paul Burke, showing up at the scene to stop the bloodshed Laura refuses to press charges against her husband in fear the negative publicity of him being a wife beater would hurt his meteoric career in show business. We also see what happens on the other and poorer side of town away from the rich & famous which the Lannings are part of with laborer Louis Wystemski, Mike Kellin, and his long suffering wife Pearl, Norma Connally. Drunk after losing his latest job Louis took batting practice with Norma's skull and needed a half dozen of policemen to restrain him from finally killing her.
The "Naked City" episode shows us that wife beating and drunkenness are common in all types of societies. From the rich & famous high society types like the Lannings to the uneducated and low or no skilled types like Louis Wystewski and his wife Pearl. And even more the two need the same type of help or treatment to get their act or lives together. Therer's also the need for both Gordon & Louis to realize that they have a serious problem with booze and only they can with the help of a slew of social workers and psychiatrists in the end cure themselves. In the case of the Lannings it's their eight year old daughter Sally, Patty Keefer, who becomes a victim of their constant fighting in suffering from severe mental and emotional depression that lead her to almost burn down the Upper East Side apartment building that she and her parents live in.
***SPOILERS*** With Louis again getting drunk and fired from his job he goes completely bananas where, after working over his wife Pearl, he ends up in the can-prison-at the local police precinct in order to cool himself off. It's then after seeing what happened with Louis that his both fellow drunk and wife beater Gordon Lanning comes to his senses and not only accepts to get psychiatric emergency treatment for his actions but help Louis get it as well. Louis for his part knew what his problem was but needed help from someone like himself, a drunken wife beater, to straighten him out. Gordon who besides suffering from alcoholism and having an uncontrollable anger management problem was in total denial. It was in fact with both the tough love kind of help of Det. Flint as well as the violent actions of Louis Wystemski that finally got Gordon to see the light. Where he not only ended up getting help for himself but for Louis as well.
The "Naked City" episode shows us that wife beating and drunkenness are common in all types of societies. From the rich & famous high society types like the Lannings to the uneducated and low or no skilled types like Louis Wystewski and his wife Pearl. And even more the two need the same type of help or treatment to get their act or lives together. Therer's also the need for both Gordon & Louis to realize that they have a serious problem with booze and only they can with the help of a slew of social workers and psychiatrists in the end cure themselves. In the case of the Lannings it's their eight year old daughter Sally, Patty Keefer, who becomes a victim of their constant fighting in suffering from severe mental and emotional depression that lead her to almost burn down the Upper East Side apartment building that she and her parents live in.
***SPOILERS*** With Louis again getting drunk and fired from his job he goes completely bananas where, after working over his wife Pearl, he ends up in the can-prison-at the local police precinct in order to cool himself off. It's then after seeing what happened with Louis that his both fellow drunk and wife beater Gordon Lanning comes to his senses and not only accepts to get psychiatric emergency treatment for his actions but help Louis get it as well. Louis for his part knew what his problem was but needed help from someone like himself, a drunken wife beater, to straighten him out. Gordon who besides suffering from alcoholism and having an uncontrollable anger management problem was in total denial. It was in fact with both the tough love kind of help of Det. Flint as well as the violent actions of Louis Wystemski that finally got Gordon to see the light. Where he not only ended up getting help for himself but for Louis as well.