77 Sunset Strip
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:12 am
ME-TV runs 77 Sunset Strip 4 AM weekdays. It originally ran from Oct. 1958 to Feb. 1964, six seasons. For a 60 year old show it holds up quite well.
It was about a LA private detective firm headed by Efrem Zimbalist and Roger Smith(Ann Margret's hubby), with French actress Jacqueline Beer as their telephone
operator secretary, Louis Quinn as race track tout Roscoe and Edward Byrnes as Kookie, the parking valet at Dinos(later a PI) and the breakout star who for awhile
got more mail, magazine covers and media coverage than anyone in Hollywood or the world!
It's a solid series, at times quite witty with tongue in cheek. Without doubt it featured the greatest assemblage of beautiful guest star starlets in the history of TV,
you name her she appeared. Sherry Jackson, Lisa Gaye, Dawn Welles, Dorothy Provine, Jo Morrow, Karen Sharpe. The producers were no slouches, they dressed the
guest babes for maximum effect on the male audience.
After season 5 the producers oddly fired all the cast except for Zimbalist.
They did give the regulars a nice send off in The Checkmate Caper, the next to last episode of season 5.
The last episode featured only Zimbalist and Byrnes as they were the only cast regulars in the original pilot TV film. It ends with a now grown up Kookie telling
Zimbalist "why don't we get out of here, huh? I need a shave." As they leave Byrnes breaks character and starts laughing.
Season six, produced and run by William "Cannon" Conrad(who had appeared in a slew of 1950's film Noir crime movies) with input from Jack Webb, turned Zimbalist
into a weary Noir type PI whose office was now in the legendary Bradbury Building.
The Bradbury is one of the all time great 'sets' in TV/movie history, used to such effect it was almost another character in the legendary Outer Limits episode
"Demon With a Glass Hand" that is rated in the top 100 finest TV episodes ever made(you are cheating yourself if you have never seen it).
Strangely, though the address of Zimbalist's office had changed and Season Six has absolutely nothing to do with the previous 5 seasons, the series was
still called 77 Sunset Strip.
After the first 5 or so episodes of the new season that featured a new theme, the opening included an extended beaut shot of the Bradbury's interior.
About midway thru season 6 the opening/ending changed again for some reason, usually with Zimbalist walking past stores late at night.
This coming week ME-TV is running the last episodes of season 5 including "Bat Girl" Yvonne Craig in "Lady in the Sun" with her at her most charming,
which ain't exactly chopped liver. The following week they start with season six.
I thought one or two of the amateur TV historians here might want to take a peek at the unseen for 50 years, till ME-TV decided to run them, Season Six episodes.
The collection of stars who appeared just in the 5 episode opening arc titled "Five" is amazing, the very popular Hollywood fixture Conrad must have called in a lot of
IOU's or maybe it became a 'thing' to appear in.
Like the original 77 Sunset Strip there are many in jokes for the 'hip' viewer, such as William Conrad as an onlooker at a hit and run, or the great film Noir vet
Charles McGraw appearing as this wouldn't be a salute to 1950's Noir without him.
This season six could be termed a noble failure, Conrad had a lot of ideas but the viewers tuned out in droves as not just the Noir style but black and white filming
fell out of favor with the on rush of color TV. Many TV series at the time were promoted with "NOW IN COLOR" or if new like Rat Patrol it was introduced
by the announcer or with a written blurb,"in color". Rat Patrol reruns still retain that intro.
The first five episodes of season six are a stand alone story arc crammed with guest stars.
They must have spent a fortune on these opening "Five" episodes alone, starting in LA then going on the road to NYC to film on location.
At one point Zimbalist strides by the side entrance to NYC's Plaza Hotel. I don't know how many times in the 1980's my friends and I came out
of that same door after a libation or two or three at the Plaza's storied Oak Bar and Trader Vics( Richard Nixon's hangout).
It's the same door Cary Grant enters to go in to the Oak Bar in the beginning of North By Northwest.
The "Five" arc is interesting as a stand alone but in this case less is more and it probably should have lasted 3 episodes, but I guess they wanted to
shoe horn in all those guest stars.
What the hey, if you got Bill Shatner, Victor Buono, Clint Walker, Peter Lorre, Luther Adler, Tony Bennett, etc etc. you are going to use them.
77 Sunset Strip spawned a hit album. In 5 episodes the legendary Beatnik host of LA's Chez Paulette coffee house, Max Lewin, appears.
Sprinkled through out the first 5 seasons, courtesy of Kookie and his friends are delightful snatches of Beatnik talk, the best was Victor Buono
as hep cat Bongo Benny. You can learn to order breakfast like the Beats:
"I'll have a order of Cackleberries with two oinks and a haystack, java and squeeze Bossy."
That's scrambled eggs, 2 link sausages and hash browns, plus coffee with milk. Try ordering like that at McDonalds.
Bongo Benny to Stuart Bailey(Efrem Zimbalist): "Greetings O' Great White Father from the Land of Cube."
It was about a LA private detective firm headed by Efrem Zimbalist and Roger Smith(Ann Margret's hubby), with French actress Jacqueline Beer as their telephone
operator secretary, Louis Quinn as race track tout Roscoe and Edward Byrnes as Kookie, the parking valet at Dinos(later a PI) and the breakout star who for awhile
got more mail, magazine covers and media coverage than anyone in Hollywood or the world!
It's a solid series, at times quite witty with tongue in cheek. Without doubt it featured the greatest assemblage of beautiful guest star starlets in the history of TV,
you name her she appeared. Sherry Jackson, Lisa Gaye, Dawn Welles, Dorothy Provine, Jo Morrow, Karen Sharpe. The producers were no slouches, they dressed the
guest babes for maximum effect on the male audience.
After season 5 the producers oddly fired all the cast except for Zimbalist.
They did give the regulars a nice send off in The Checkmate Caper, the next to last episode of season 5.
The last episode featured only Zimbalist and Byrnes as they were the only cast regulars in the original pilot TV film. It ends with a now grown up Kookie telling
Zimbalist "why don't we get out of here, huh? I need a shave." As they leave Byrnes breaks character and starts laughing.
Season six, produced and run by William "Cannon" Conrad(who had appeared in a slew of 1950's film Noir crime movies) with input from Jack Webb, turned Zimbalist
into a weary Noir type PI whose office was now in the legendary Bradbury Building.
The Bradbury is one of the all time great 'sets' in TV/movie history, used to such effect it was almost another character in the legendary Outer Limits episode
"Demon With a Glass Hand" that is rated in the top 100 finest TV episodes ever made(you are cheating yourself if you have never seen it).
Strangely, though the address of Zimbalist's office had changed and Season Six has absolutely nothing to do with the previous 5 seasons, the series was
still called 77 Sunset Strip.
After the first 5 or so episodes of the new season that featured a new theme, the opening included an extended beaut shot of the Bradbury's interior.
About midway thru season 6 the opening/ending changed again for some reason, usually with Zimbalist walking past stores late at night.
This coming week ME-TV is running the last episodes of season 5 including "Bat Girl" Yvonne Craig in "Lady in the Sun" with her at her most charming,
which ain't exactly chopped liver. The following week they start with season six.
I thought one or two of the amateur TV historians here might want to take a peek at the unseen for 50 years, till ME-TV decided to run them, Season Six episodes.
The collection of stars who appeared just in the 5 episode opening arc titled "Five" is amazing, the very popular Hollywood fixture Conrad must have called in a lot of
IOU's or maybe it became a 'thing' to appear in.
Like the original 77 Sunset Strip there are many in jokes for the 'hip' viewer, such as William Conrad as an onlooker at a hit and run, or the great film Noir vet
Charles McGraw appearing as this wouldn't be a salute to 1950's Noir without him.
This season six could be termed a noble failure, Conrad had a lot of ideas but the viewers tuned out in droves as not just the Noir style but black and white filming
fell out of favor with the on rush of color TV. Many TV series at the time were promoted with "NOW IN COLOR" or if new like Rat Patrol it was introduced
by the announcer or with a written blurb,"in color". Rat Patrol reruns still retain that intro.
The first five episodes of season six are a stand alone story arc crammed with guest stars.
They must have spent a fortune on these opening "Five" episodes alone, starting in LA then going on the road to NYC to film on location.
At one point Zimbalist strides by the side entrance to NYC's Plaza Hotel. I don't know how many times in the 1980's my friends and I came out
of that same door after a libation or two or three at the Plaza's storied Oak Bar and Trader Vics( Richard Nixon's hangout).
It's the same door Cary Grant enters to go in to the Oak Bar in the beginning of North By Northwest.
The "Five" arc is interesting as a stand alone but in this case less is more and it probably should have lasted 3 episodes, but I guess they wanted to
shoe horn in all those guest stars.
What the hey, if you got Bill Shatner, Victor Buono, Clint Walker, Peter Lorre, Luther Adler, Tony Bennett, etc etc. you are going to use them.
77 Sunset Strip spawned a hit album. In 5 episodes the legendary Beatnik host of LA's Chez Paulette coffee house, Max Lewin, appears.
Sprinkled through out the first 5 seasons, courtesy of Kookie and his friends are delightful snatches of Beatnik talk, the best was Victor Buono
as hep cat Bongo Benny. You can learn to order breakfast like the Beats:
"I'll have a order of Cackleberries with two oinks and a haystack, java and squeeze Bossy."
That's scrambled eggs, 2 link sausages and hash browns, plus coffee with milk. Try ordering like that at McDonalds.
Bongo Benny to Stuart Bailey(Efrem Zimbalist): "Greetings O' Great White Father from the Land of Cube."