Warner Bros. Classic TV Detectives Were the "Ginchiest" - Part 2

Inspired by the success of 77 Sunset Strip, Warner Bros. launched three other TV detective series over the next two years. They all featured the same formula: attractive performers, exotic locales, straightforward mysteries, and a healthy dose of humor. Characters often crossed over from one series to another, a nifty way to promote the less successful shows on the more popular ones.

The biggest hit of the new series was Hawaiian Eye (1959-63), which starred Anthony Eisely and Robert Conrad (whose character was supposed to be half-Hawaiian) as private investigators in Honolulu. They worked out of the posh Hawaiian Village Hotel. They were often aided--even when they didn't want it--by Cricket (Connie Stevens), a nightclub singer/photographer, and ukulele-playing cabbie Kim (Poncie Ponce). One of the running gags of the show was that Kim had relatives all over the island. That often proved handy when looking for a missing person or gathering evidence to solve a murder.

Later in the first season, the agency hired another investgator played by Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man). When Eiseley left after three years, Troy Donahue joined the cast as the social director of the hotel for the fourth and final season.

Although it never captured the public fancy to the extent of 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye was a solid hit and laid the groundwork for future private eye shows set in the islands (e.g., Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I.).

Duggan, Howell, Williams, and Long.

Bourbon Street Beat (1959-60) starred Andrew Duggan and Richard Long as private detectives in New Orleans. They operated the agency Randolph and Calhoun Special Services on the second floor of The Old Absinthe House restaurant in the French Quarter. Kenny Madison (Van Williams), a young law student, assisted them on some cases and Melody Lee Mercer (Arlene Howell) keep the office running. When the series was cancelled after one season, Richard Long's character, Rex Randolph, joined 77 Sunset Strip. Van Williams returned as Kenny Madison the following year in a new series called Surfside 6. Ironically, his new show even stayed in the same slot of Monday, 0830-9:30.


Sierra, Donahue, Patterson, McBain,
and Williams.

Set in Miami, Surfside 6 (the title is a telephone exchange) cast Van Williams with Lee Patterson and Troy Donahue as a trio of young private detectives who worked out of a houseboat that doubled as their digs. They also received their share of unwanted help from ditzy socialite Daphne Dutton (Diane McBain), whose yacht was anchored next door, and Cha Cha O'Brien (Margarite Sierra), who sang in the Boom Boom Room in the ritzy Fountainebleau Hotel. Surfside 6  lasted for two seasons.
While these TV series were still on the air, Warner Bros. capitalized on the popularity of its young stable of stars by casting them in theatrical films--even at the risk of overexpose. Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, and Diane McBain all appeared in Parrish (1961). Stevens and Donahue paired up again for Susan Slade (1961), with Grant Williams making a brief appearance as well. Donahue and Conrad played adversaries in Palm Springs Weekend. And Diane McBaine got a starring role (and was very good) as Claudelle Inglish (1961), an  Erskine Caldwell Southern tale about a girl with a bad reputation.

Diane McBain.

While none of the Warner Bros. detective series could be described as great television, they were all diverting and provided great experience for a number of likable young actors who continued to appear on the big screen and small screen. Richard Long surfaced opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the TV series The Big Valley. Robert Conrad landed his most famous role in Wild, Wild West. Connie Stevens had a #3 hit song with "Sixteen Reasons" and parlayed that into a long-lasting career as an entertainer. Troy Donahue's film career gradually declined, though he later appeared in a supporting role in The Godfather Part II. Finally, Van Williams starred in The Green Hornet TV with Bruce Lee. The show only lasted a season and Williams retired from acting shortly afterwards. However, he used his business savvy to amass a tidy fortune.

Warner Bros. Classic TV Detectives Were the "Ginchiest" - Part 1

Roger Smith, Edd Byrnes, and
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

Warner Bros. was the kingpin of prime-time crime shows on television in the early 1960s. All its series featured the same formula: good-looking private eyes that worked in exotic locales surrounded by beautiful women and assisted by a kooky assistant or two. Warner's first series, 77 Sunset Strip, established the formula, became a cultural phenomenon, and ran for six seasons. Its creation and evolution form a fascinating backstory.

Franchot Tone as the
original Stu Bailey.

Writer (and future TV executive) Roy Huggins wrote several literary novels and short stories in the 1940s and 1950s featuring a private eye named Stu Bailey. Franchot Tone played Bailey in a 1948 film called I Love Trouble. In 1956, Huggins penned a pilot episode for a television series with Bailey called "Anything for Money" on the anthology TV series Conflict. The pilot, which starred Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., didn't sell, but it intrigued Warner Bros. enough to order a second pilot. However, the studio wanted the running time expanded to 90 minutes so it could be marketed as a feature film. Huggins and screenwriter Marion Hargrove came up with Girl on the Run (1958), with Zimbalist reprising his role of Bailey. It served as a second pilot episode for the 77 Sunset Strip TV series and was also released overseas as a theatrical film.

Warner Bros. picked up the series, but the show's convoluted creation led to a dispute with Huggins over royalties and who held the rights to any future film involving the characters. Huggins eventually left 77 Sunset Strip to devote more time to Maverick, another show he created. Huggins enjoyed a long and extremely successful career as a studio executive and TV producer, creating classic series such as The Fugitive and The Rockford Files.

Kookie combing his hair
(what else?).

En route from the movie Girl on the Run to the 77 Sunset Strip TV series, other changes occurred. Stu Bailey acquired a partner in Jeff Spencer (Roger Smith), a former federal agent (like Bailey) who was also a non-practicing attorney. In Girl on the Run, Edd Byrnes played a sociopathic killer named Kenneth Smiley, who had a propensity for combing his hair. During a screening of the film, the young members of the audiences reacted so favorably to Byrnes that he was added to the TV series cast--as a good guy. He played a valet named Gerald Lloyd Kookson III--"Kookie" for short--who still liked to comb his hair.

77 Sunset Strip debuted on ABC in October 1958 and was an instant hit. It climbed in popularity, peaking at #6 in th Nielsen ratings for the 1959-60 season (tied with Father Knows Best). It also became a cultural phenomenon with its hip theme song (complete with snapping fingers) and Kookie, who unexpectedly became the most popular member of the cast. His "Kookie-isms"--his personal slang expressions--appealed to the show's young viewers. Examples include: "a dark seven" (a depressing week); "headache grapplers" (aspirin); and the "ginchiest" (the greatest).

Edd Byrnes even parlayed his fame to a brief singing career, scoring a novelty hit with "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb" (a No. 4 hit on the Billboard Top 40). At the height of his popularity, Byrnes demanded a larger part on the series and walked out. He returned after a short hiatus, though, and Kookie was promoted to partner in the detective firm.

Zimbalist moved from one
hit to another.

By its fifth season, ratings had declined significantly. Roger Smith had left after a blod clot was discovered in his brain and Richard Long became a new partner. In 1963, Warners hired Jack Webb and William Conrad to totally revamp the show. They first fired the cast, retaining only Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and transformed Stu Bailey into a globe-hopping federal agent. The new 77 Sunset Strip never caught fire and show was cancelled in February 1964.

Zimbalist wasn't out of work for long. The next fall, he was headlining a new TV series, Quinn Martin's long-running The F.B.I. Roger Smith retired from acting in 1965 and became a full-time agent for his wife, Ann-Margret. Edd Byrnes never matched his "Kookie" success, but appeared in numerous TV series and films, include the musical Grease.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this profile of Warner TV detective series, to include Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, and Bourbon Street. And if you feel an urge to hear the theme to 77 Sunset Strip, click on the link below. And, yes, the Dino's Lodge that appears in the opening was owned by Dean Martin.

Who is the tall dark stranger there? Maverick is the name.

Maverick remains one of the classic TV westerns that emerged from the genre's heyday, from the mid 50s to the mid 60s. It followed the success of Cheyenne, Warner Bros. first Western to appear on television courtesy of ABC. At that time ABC was a fledgling network that needed to bolster its roster against Sunday night favorites The Steve Allen Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. It asked Warner Bros. to provide them with a series that would help increase their ratings. Cheyenne debuted in 1955 as one of three rotating dramas on Warner Bros. Presents, appearing every three weeks along with television versions of Casablanca and Kings Row. Cheyenne quickly became a favorite and set the stage for several more Warner Bros. created westerns including Bronco Lane, Sugarfoot, The Lawman, and Colt 45. For the most part these were traditionally structured westerns with recognizable good guys and bad guys with the hero always triumphant in the end. Maverick started out in the same vein when it debuted in 1957, but creator turned producer Roy Huggins had other ideas and instituted the novel changes that transformed Maverick into a landmark television show.

Maverick had been designed as a one star show, but due to its six-day filming schedule and with James Garner as the only actor, not enough episodes were being produced to fill ABC's need. The decision was made to create a brother for Brett Maverick, Bart Maverick, played by Jack Kelly. Kelly joined the series in the eighth episode. The prevailing concept was that Bart's character was to be written as if it were Brett's character and writers were told to think of Brett even when they were writing about Bart. The only difference was in the acting style of both men. Indeed, only one script was written specifically for Kelly. Kelly's character had to dress exactly like Brett, with the same colors, clothing and style. The costumes worn by the Maverick brothers were more reminiscent of the dark sinister outfits assosciated with villains.

One of the major twists developed by Huggins was to insert an element of comedy and satire into the series and presenting Brett and Bart as rather self-serving card sharks roaming from riverboat to saloon looking for an easy way to make money and avoiding serious consequences at all costs. They were not the fastest guns in the West and their confrontations usually ended in a victorious fist fight. Each week's episode featured either Brett or Bart and a few times they appeared together. There were several recurrent guest stars including Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Dandy Jim Buckley and Diane Brewster as Samantha Crawford, a shady lady who gave the Maverick brothers a run for their money.

Along with other writers Huggins fashioned scripts that included spoofs of Bonanza and Gunsmoke. The Gunsmoke episode was entitled Gun Shy and featured a hick Marshall named Mort Dooley. An hysterical sendup of Bonanza had the Maverick brothers involved with Joe Wheelwright and his three sons Moose, Henry, and Small Paul. In an episode titled Hadley's Hunters all of the actors from Warner Bros. other westerns appeared as their characters, with Edd "Kookie" Byrnes of 77 Sunset Strip cast as a blacksmith.

In 1960 James Garner left the show over a contract dispute and Warner Bros. brought in Roger Moore to play cousin Beau Maverick. Moore left the series complaining about the lack of quality in the scripts he was receiving. That led Warner Bros. to bring in a third Maverick relative Brent Maverick played by Robert Colbert, who lasted only one season. That left Jack Kelly appearing in 13 original episodes alternating with reruns of episodes featuring Garner until the series was canceled in 1962.

Maverick is still considered an iconic western. It was full of fun and spoofery and represented a successful attempt to imbue the traditional Western with comedic elements.