77 Sunset Strip/ Hawaiian Eye/ Surfside Six/ Bourbon Street Beat

After waiting for Warner Brothers to release these on DVD I finally gave up and found a source for good quality bootlegs. I would not normally go that route, but it looks like these will never be released.

I have always loved 77 Sunset Strip and it's spin-offs and have been really enjoying watching the episodes again. It's been years since these were on any kind of retro TV channel. && Sunset Strip had a great Noir look and I especially loved the scenes in Dean Martin's restaurant, Dino's Lodge, that was next door to the detective agency. I also love the theme song.

I loved Robert Conrad in this and Connie Stevens was great as Cricket.

Any other fans?

 

"77 Sunset Strip" was a classic, but it went through a series of cast changes over time. But you're right, it does have a Noir-type feel to it.

 

Well, I have several cds with music from both programs, but as far as I know, I've never seen a episode of either.

 

You would think Antenna, MEtv etc. would work something out. Must be some hefty rights issue.

 

77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye have periodically been available on Warner Archive Instant, Warner Archive's on-demand streaming service. The picture quality is excellent, but they've never made full seasons available, just "best of" compilations for each season. I'm likewise mystified as to why they've never released DVDs - the whole purpose of Warner Archive is to release catalog titles that have niche appeal, and they've certainly released stuff that's nowhere near as well-known as either of these series.

 

Strip " was my fave.

 

I dug 77 Sunset Strip when I watched the reruns on late night TV as a teen. Worth remembering even if only for being the inspiration for "Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb".

 

Confession: I'm familiar with the first there, but not Bourbon Street Beat.

 

That was only on for one season, but it had some really good episodes.

 

Recently I've been able to watch about 15 77SS episodes from the first season. Intended by creator Roy Huggins to do for private eyes what Maverick had done for westerns, it's a very entertaining show, although for me a little Kookie hep talk goes a long way.

The only other episode I've seen is the classic "The Silent Caper", which is completely without dialogue. The script is credited to co-star Roger Smith.

The one I especially want to see is "Reserved For Mr Bailey", in which Efrem Zimbalist Jr is the only person seen onscreen. The only other character is a disembodied voice tormenting him. The story was co-written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger.

I have a very, very vague recollection of seeing a BSB some years ago. Never seen Surfside Six or Hawaiian Eye.

 

I have also been tempted to buy a bootleg set of dvds for Hawaiian Eye. I want that show so bad -- probably more than anything else that hasn't been released on dvd/blu-ray. It's incredible that it hasn't been made available for purchase on demand.

 

I can only say that Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye are the very top of my want list for shows. They were two of my dad's favorites and I got to know them as a young kid. There are certainly a lot more obscure shows that have made it on DVD or streaming services.

 

I read that there were ownership issues between the writer of the books that the series is based on, who also was credited as creator of the series and Warner Brothers. I would suspect that this is the reason for them not being released, but who knows.

 

Roy Huggins who also created Maverick. He had written some novels and stories in the '40s featuring the character of private eye Stuart Bailey, whom he revived for the TV series. Then re Wikipedia:

At Warner Brothers television, Huggins was repeatedly denied credit and compensation as the creator of several television programs. A Warner-owned property was used as the basis of the script for the first broadcast episode of Maverick, substituted for the actual pilot, which was run second in order to cheat Huggins out of his creator residuals. Perhaps most famously, Jack L. Warner deliberately had the pilot to 77 Sunset Strip screened briefly at movie theatres in the Caribbean in order to legally establish that the television series derived from a film, rather than, as was actually the case, several books and novellas Huggins had written in the 1940s. Since these were not the only occasions on which Warner had found a way to circumvent Huggins' creative rights, he left the studio soon thereafter.​

If I may plug the blog of a friend of mine:
WAGSTAFF: Roy Huggins »

He just wrote about Huggins last week.

​

 

We watched all the WB shows at that time.

 

I grabbed "Checkmate" last week when I saw it. Those old TV shows were fun.

"Cookie, Cookie, Lend Me Your comb" - I forgot who sang it.

 

You've never told anyone she was the ginchiest either?

 

Thanks for that- interesting stuff.

 

Just noticed that Warner Archive Instant currently has "Best of Surfside 6: Part 1" available for streaming; 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye have apparently cycled out of the rotation for now (I seem to recall they have limited storage on their servers, so they have to rotate titles in and out periodically rather than keeping them all available all of the time).

Available episode list for Surfside 6 is here:

Request Rejected »

 

cute....

 

Hey, I was wondering if anyone has an idea when Hawaiian Eye might be back on the Warner Archive? I can't seem to find it, and it hasn't been on there for several months. I'm dying to see an episode that an old family member was in back in the day (Sword of the Samurai), and would prefer to avoid utilizing other less official means for home video.

 

With the advent of the new year, MeTV has made some seasonal changes to its programming. A very welcome change is that they are now airing episodes of 77 Sunset Strip every weeknight, albeit at the very late hour of 3:00 AM Central time (which shouldn't be a problem for those with DVRs, or those who are incurably nocturnal). I'm assuming they're using the same transfers that were available via Warner Archive, as the episode I saw last night looked very nice.

Preceding 77 Sunset Strip in the rotation are Mannix and Ironside, equally welcome news for fans of 60s/70s detective series.

A PDF of MeTV's new schedule is available here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/metvnetwork/iRQF3-1481218567-MeTV Nat Sch 1Q17 Eff 1-2-17 C-M EXTERNAL.pdf

 

Good Life TV ran all of those series to death in the early 2000s. Between that and the tons of 16mm film prints of those series that flooded the collectors market in the early 90s, most TV show collectors have the majority of the episodes of all of those series. The only Warner shows which are scarce are The Alaskans, with only a few prints floating around and Roaring 20s, which hasn't aired anywhere and maybe half the run came out on film. As to why none have been released on DVD, its very simple. Every one of those series is chock full of copyrighted music that needs to be cleared. That's why they can't put up any complete seasons on their website. Every Hawaiian Eye has Connie Stevens belting out a number or two. Likewise Dorothy Provine in Roaring 20s and The Alaskans. The other shows had many night club scenes as well.

 

Was super jazzed to see that MeTv added this to their lineup. I only get MeTv over the air. I'll be watching on my nights off from work.