History YMMV / ElleryQueen

* BaseBreakingCharacter: GirlOfTheWeek's Jenny O'Brien and Lorelei Farnsworth. Some fans like them for having somewhat active roles in the mystery and being among the more developed of Ellery's love interests. Others find them annoying with their presence throughout the investigation a bit forced. Lorelei Farnsworth, for instance, throughout the entire episode hounds Ellery to help her with the romance novel she is writing despite Ellery repeatedly telling her that he does not write romance novels.

** {{Canon Foreigner}}s Simon Brimmer, the snobbish radio sleuth, and (to a lesser extent than Simon) IntrepidReporter Frank Flanagan make a strong impact on the franchise with their appearances in this series.

** It would have been something to have both JerkWithAHeartOfGold rival detectives, snobbish AttentionWhore Simon Brimmer and crass yellow journalist Frank Flanagan (who would have made perfect {{Foil}}s to each other) appear in the same episode and either compete with each other as well as Ellery or try to team up to get to the solution first.

** It would have been something to have snobbish AttentionWhore Simon Brimmer and crass IntrepidReporter Frank Flanagan (who would have made perfect {{Foil}}s to each other) appear in the same episode and either compete with each other as well as Ellery or try to team up to get to the solution first.

** {{Canon Foreigner}}s Simon Brimmer, the snobbish radio sleuth, and (to a lesser extent than Simon) IntrepidReporter Frank Flannigan make a strong impact on the franchise with their appearances in this series.

** It would have been something to have snobbish AttentionWhore Simon Brimmer and crass IntrepidReporter Frank Flanigan (who would have made perfect {{Foil}}s to each other) appear in the same episode and either compete with each other as well as Ellery or try to team up to get to the solution first.

** It would have been something to have Simon Brimmer and Frank Flanigan appear in the same episode and either compete with each other as well as Ellery or try to team up to get to the solution first.

* TooGoodToLast: An Acclaimed PeriodPiece with good chemistry between the cast and some clever mysteries which nonetheless lasted just a single season due to the large number of detective shows competing with it and some say the stars poor health. The only consolation comes from the fact that its short run helped inspire the creative team to launch Series/MurderSheWrote eight years later.

* ValuesDissonance: Unsure whether it's TruthInTelevision for 1947 (when the series is set), but in 2020 it's quite uncomfortable to notice that most of the few characters of color (whether black, Asian or Latino) are menial servants of some kind, including in the background at formal events. The few exceptions are the black couple in "Sunday Punch"--one of whom is studying to become a pharmacist--, the Egyptian Professor in "Pharaoh's Curse", and the Chinese WWII veteran in "Judas Tree", who travels around in a limousine. There's also Doyle in "Tea Party", where the [[spoiler: black butler turns out to be a Pinkerton detective undercover]]. "Tyrant of Tin Pan Alley" also features a black man working in a diner (YMMV again whether that's menial or not).

* TheWoobie: [[TheWoobie/ElleryQueen Has it’s own page.]]

* TheWoobie:
** Mrs. [=McKell=] in the pilot movie. Her husband was cheating on her. She, her husband and their son all become suspects in the murder of his mistress at various times, [[spoiler:And then it turns out their son is guilty and gets arrested]].
** Cathy Kendrick in "The Adventure of the Lovers Leap" due to caring deeply for a father who keeps getting himself in trouble, apparently being subjected to some whims of her stepmother and [[spoiler:being guilty of an AccidentalMurder]].
** All three of the primary subjects of the titular CompromisingMemoirs of Colonel Nivin in the seventh episode, [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation assuming they were being honest about him twisting their stories out of context]] (and the narrative implies that they were). Sonja Dubrenskov was forced to be a SexSlave to a Nazi Officer threatening her family, Marcel Fourchet was brutally tortured by the Gestapo to give up his fellow Freedom fighters and says he would have preferred death to what they did to him, and Colin Esterbrook was a British Spy [[YouCantGoHomeAgain forced to live in America]] due to being seen as a collaborator after the only man who knew he was a spy died in the war. The fact that all of them are being threatened with exposure for those acts in ways which make them sound like genuine traitors (and in Sonja's case this would destroy her husbands diplomatic career at best and perhaps even see them executed by the communist government) just so an unsympathetic Nivin can sell a few books makes them pitiable characters, as well as very good suspects.
** Sam Packer's widow in "The Adventure of Veronica's Veils" between being accused of his murder and having to struggle with his enormous debts in the meantime. It's bad enough that she tries to kill herself.
** [[spoiler:The security guard]] in "The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse", who [[spoiler:lost his son in the war, and can't bring himself to kill the war profiteer responsible only to drive that man to a fatal heart attack anyway, leaving him scrambling to cover it up]].
** Flora Schumann from "The Adventure of the Black Falcon" lost her husband in the First World War, and gave up all of her money and possessions to an American to watch over their children during the war and keep them safe, only for that man to callously abandon the babies, causing an now impoverished Flora to spend decades trying to find them. And even when she's finally reunited with her son, it turns out her daughter had been DeadAllAlong.
** In "The Adventure of the Sunday Punch" Melinda Sanford was deeply in love with a DomesticAbuser, sees him murdered, and then [[spoiler:finds out her father was the killer, trying to protect her from him]]. Joe Simpson from the same episode had his boxing carer destroyed by being made to look bad in a match with someone who outmatched him and gets repeatedly accused of murder.
** Mrs. Franklin in "The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer" who is clearly devastated by her husband's death, as well as by the revelation that he was ObfuscatingInsanity and didn't trust her with this information.
** Lillian [=McGraw=] in "The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman" can feel this way with the gradual reveals about her past([[spoiler:being forced away from the lower-class boy she loved by her parents, ending up married to a sleazy and possibly abusive artist and then spending years thinking she'd killed him when it was really someone else]]) and for ultimately being one of the least offensive murder victims of the show. Her grieving husband can also count, [[spoiler:especially after finding out the murderer was his own cousin]]

** {{Canon Foreigner}}s Simon Brimmer and (to a lesser extent than Simon) Frank Flannigan make a strong impact on the franchise with their appearances in this series.

** Arguably Ramon from that same episode, given that [[spoiler:his lover is murdered, is publically accused of the crime on Simon's show in a somewhat classist fashion, and he was WrongfullyAccused but ends up falling to his death in a police chase]].

* ValuesDissonance: Unsure whether it's TruthInTelevision for 1947 (when the series is set), but in 2020 it's quite uncomfortable to notice that most of the few characters of color (whether black, aisan or latino) are menial servants of some kind, including in the background at formal events. The few exceptions are the black couple in "Sunday Punch"--one of whom is studying to become a pharmacist--, the Egyptian Professor in "Pharoh's Curse", and the Chinese WWII veteran in "Judas Tree", who travels around in a limousine. There's also Doyle in "Tea Party", where the [[spoiler: black butler turns out to be a Pinkerton detective undercover]]. "Tin Pan Tyrant" also features a black man working in a diner (YMMV again whether that's menial or not).

* ValuesDissonance: Unsure whether it's TruthInTelevision for 1947 (when the series is set), but in 2020 it's quite uncomfortable to notice that most of the few characters of color (whether black, aisan or latino) are menial servants of some kind, including in the background at formal events. The few exceptions are the black couple in "Sunday Punch"--one of whom is studying to become a pharmacist--, the Egyptian Professor in "Pharoh's Curse", and the Chinese WWII veteran in "Judas Tree", who travels around in a limousine. There's also Doyle in "Tea Party", where the [[spoiler: black butler turns out to be a Pinkerton detective undercover]]. "Tin Pan Tyrant" also features a black man working in a diner (YMMV again whether that's menial or not).

** [[spoiler:The security guard]] in "The Adventure of the Pharaohs Curse", who [[spoiler:lost his son in the war, and can't bring himself to kill the war profiteer responsible only to drive that man to a fatal heart attack anyway, leaving him scrambling to cover it up]].
** Flora Schumann from "The Adventure of the Black Falcon" lost her husband in the first World War, gave up all of her money and possessions to an American to watch over their children during the war and keep them safe, only for that man to callously abandon the babies, causing an now impoverished Flora to spend decades trying to find them. And even when she's finally reunited with her son, it turns out her daughter had been DeadAllAlong.

** Lillian [=McGraw=] in "The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman" can feel this way with the gradual reveals about her past([[spoiler:Forced away from the lower-class boy she loved by her parents, ending up married to a sleazy and possibly abusive artist and then spending years thinking she'd killed him when it was really someone else]]) and for ultimately being one of the least offensive murder victims of the show. Her grieving husband can also count, [[spoiler:Especially after finding out the murderer was his own cousin]]
* ValuesDissonance: unsure whether it's TruthInTelevision for 1947 (when the series is set), but in 2020 it's quite uncomfortable to notice that most of the few characters of color (whether black, aisan or latino) are menial servants of some kind, including in the background at formal events. The few exceptions are the black couple in "Sunday Punch"--one of whom is studying to become a pharmacist--, the Egyptian Professor in "Pharoh's Curse", and the Chinese WWII veteran in "Judas Tree", who travels around in a limousine. There's also Doyle in "Tea Party", where the [[spoiler: black butler turns out to be a Pinkerton detective undercover]]. "Tin Pan Tyrant" also features a black man working in a diner (YMMV again whether that's menial or not).