Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: ↑Tue May 03, 2022 2:36 am
Hi Guys,
Some of the following was addressed above but I started writing this before and forgot to post it -
MeTV Plus has been running Hawaiian Eye nightly.
I have to say the producers did a good job of weaving in actual Hawaiian footage with the stuff filmed at Warner Brothers.
You can reasonably believe it's filmed in the 50th state and enjoy the story without constantly being reminded it's Hollywood.
The Hawaiian Eye detective agency was located in the stunning, real life Hawaiian Village Hotel, which opened in 1957 to much acclaim.
It was a sensation around the world, NBC even devoted it's entire night time schedule to the grand opening.
It has expanded since and has been featured in countless movies and TV shows, including Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum PI.
Many of the episodes are set in Hawaiian Village's grounds, tourist shops, beach, pools or bars.
The Hollywood built sets of the PI's HQ in the Hawaiian Village are very well done, complete with pool so Conrad's chiseled physique can be put on display for the ladies in the audience.
For the guys there is Connie Stevens, who by the third season had gone from a girlish almost innocent singer to a woman who can belt out a bar room ballad in the Shell Bar(next to the Hawaiian Eye HQ)
with the best of them.
Also like it's sister series 77 Sunset Strip, this show features an amazing amount of the most alluring starlets in Hollywood.
Karen Steele, Myrna Fahey, Joanna Moore, Playboy centerfold June Blair, BarBara Luna, Lisa Gaye, Anne Helm, Diane Cannon, Mary Tyler Moore and more.
Hawaiian Eye at the time was riding a tidal wave of Hawaii mania that was sweeping the US and exciting interest in other nations.
Kids in school were taught and assigned homework about the islands, as opposed to, say, ever devoting hours of study to a Oklahoma. No offense OK citizens.
Becoming the 50th state generated huge interest but what sealed it as a big tourist destination is the mostly overlooked fact that now communist Cuba was no longer an option.
Those teeming millions east of the Mississippi looking for their island travel fix, from Labrador in The Great White North to Florida, now descended on Hawaii.
Hawaiian Eye features quite a number of Hawaiians/Asians in the casts and treats them with respect, no "no tickee no laundry" nonsense.
It works in local references such as The Pali(the main highway) and "Kine" without explaining them and why should they, the Hawaiians aren't the exotic outsiders here, we viewers are the outsiders.
Unusual for 1959.
There is also a lot of in jokes for the savvy viewer, especially if you are familiar with Warner Brothers/ABC's other series on air at the time.
I have caught a few already but am saving them for a future post on the "It Got Past The Censor/In Jokes" thread.
After having watched some 30 episodes from parts of the first 3 seasons, I am pleased to say that the idea that Hawaiian Eye is a warmed over 77 Sunset Strip clone using 77 Sunset Strip
scripts is bull shite. Whatever number of scripts they did recycle have been so artfully altered that I haven't spotted one, and I have been looking.
This series is solid entertainment.
Plus as a life long fan of the Warner Brothers style since growing up on their 1940's movie reruns with Cagney and Bogie, I appreciate the leavening of the violent moments with humor
and slices of life and the offbeat/amusing character types like the singing cab driver Kim(Poncie Ponce) who has an extended family numbering into the thousands.