SWC75
Bored Historian
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77 SUNSET STRIP
In 1958, Warner Brothers decided to get in the private eye business – on TV that is. Their head writer, Roy Huggins, first gained fame with a series of detective novels in the late 40’s starring his creation, Stuart Bailey, m who had an Ivy league/OSS background and who dealt with everything from petty crime and security details to high level organized crime and spies. His adventures were first dramatized in the 1948 movie “I love Trouble” starring Franchot Tone as Bailey. A decade Later, Efrem Zimnbalest Jr. played the role, first in an episode of the anthology series “Conflict”, then in “Girl On the Run”, which was supposed to be a theatrical movie but instead was used as the pilot and premiere of 77 Sunset Strip, a regular series featuring Bailey and a partner, Jeff Spencer, played by Roger Smith .
They also had a sexy secretary, (Jaqueline Beer) and two semi-comic characters that helped them out in their adventures: Kookie, a parking lot attendant played by Edd Byrnes , (who had played a bad guy in Girl on the Run), and Damon Runyan type character played by Louis Quinn who had his ear to what was going on in the underworld when he wasn’t playing the horses. Across Kookie’s parking lot was Dino’s a real restaurant owned by Dean Martin, where the gang would meet for meal, drinks and conversation about what was happening in that episodes’ case. Occasionally the restaurant band would provide a musical interlude.
Two house composers, Jerry Livingston and Mack David, wrote a finger-snapping jazz theme for the show that people still remember. “TV’s Biggest Hits” said the finger snapping was “an aural hint that these dapper young men were ‘with it’” and that “the boogie-woogie piano and jazzy brass sounds were heard not just in the main and end titles, but often several times during the show.” The show became a big hit and the music was a big reason:
This produced the inevitable album of themes from the show, although You-Tube just has this alternate , more rock and roll, version of the theme: 77 Sunset Strip
The show’s success also convinced Warner’s to mass-produce it, creating three other shows featuring multiple handsome young detectives in exotic places with pretty secretaries or girlfriends, semi-comic associates and musical interludes, (plus some of the same plots with the names changed) . Livingston and David provided themes for all of them, none as good as the original:
Bourbon Street Beat, set in New Orleans with Richard Long, Andrew Duggan, Van Williams and Arlene Howell:
"Bourbon Street Beat" TV Intro
That one lasted only a year. Richard Long’s character moved on to 77 Sunset Strip while Van Williams’ moved to Surfside 6. Still, they came out with an album:
Don Ralke "'The Baron' Plays Bourbon Street Beat" 1959 STEREO TV Crime Jazz FULL ALBUM
Hawaiian Eye, set in Honolulu with Anthony Eisley, (his real name was Fred but don’t tell anybody!), a young Robert Conrad, sexy Connie Stevens and Poncie Ponce as a cab driver who knew everyone or had relatives who did:
Hawaiian Eye Intro
Are they really surfing on those boards?
An album was released for this one, too, with a slowed down, more mysterious version of the theme:
Werner Muller - Hawaiian Eye Theme
Surfside 6, set in Miami beach with Troy Donahue, Van Williams, Lee Patterson, Diane McBain, Margarita Sierra, (who died of a heart condition shortly after this show went off the air and Mousie Garner:
SURFSIDE 6: Opening Credits / Intro (Seasons 1 and 2) 1960-1962
For some reason, they didn’t do an album for that one.
In 1958, Warner Brothers decided to get in the private eye business – on TV that is. Their head writer, Roy Huggins, first gained fame with a series of detective novels in the late 40’s starring his creation, Stuart Bailey, m who had an Ivy league/OSS background and who dealt with everything from petty crime and security details to high level organized crime and spies. His adventures were first dramatized in the 1948 movie “I love Trouble” starring Franchot Tone as Bailey. A decade Later, Efrem Zimnbalest Jr. played the role, first in an episode of the anthology series “Conflict”, then in “Girl On the Run”, which was supposed to be a theatrical movie but instead was used as the pilot and premiere of 77 Sunset Strip, a regular series featuring Bailey and a partner, Jeff Spencer, played by Roger Smith .
They also had a sexy secretary, (Jaqueline Beer) and two semi-comic characters that helped them out in their adventures: Kookie, a parking lot attendant played by Edd Byrnes , (who had played a bad guy in Girl on the Run), and Damon Runyan type character played by Louis Quinn who had his ear to what was going on in the underworld when he wasn’t playing the horses. Across Kookie’s parking lot was Dino’s a real restaurant owned by Dean Martin, where the gang would meet for meal, drinks and conversation about what was happening in that episodes’ case. Occasionally the restaurant band would provide a musical interlude.
Two house composers, Jerry Livingston and Mack David, wrote a finger-snapping jazz theme for the show that people still remember. “TV’s Biggest Hits” said the finger snapping was “an aural hint that these dapper young men were ‘with it’” and that “the boogie-woogie piano and jazzy brass sounds were heard not just in the main and end titles, but often several times during the show.” The show became a big hit and the music was a big reason:
This produced the inevitable album of themes from the show, although You-Tube just has this alternate , more rock and roll, version of the theme: 77 Sunset Strip
The show’s success also convinced Warner’s to mass-produce it, creating three other shows featuring multiple handsome young detectives in exotic places with pretty secretaries or girlfriends, semi-comic associates and musical interludes, (plus some of the same plots with the names changed) . Livingston and David provided themes for all of them, none as good as the original:
Bourbon Street Beat, set in New Orleans with Richard Long, Andrew Duggan, Van Williams and Arlene Howell:
"Bourbon Street Beat" TV Intro
That one lasted only a year. Richard Long’s character moved on to 77 Sunset Strip while Van Williams’ moved to Surfside 6. Still, they came out with an album:
Don Ralke "'The Baron' Plays Bourbon Street Beat" 1959 STEREO TV Crime Jazz FULL ALBUM
Hawaiian Eye, set in Honolulu with Anthony Eisley, (his real name was Fred but don’t tell anybody!), a young Robert Conrad, sexy Connie Stevens and Poncie Ponce as a cab driver who knew everyone or had relatives who did:
Hawaiian Eye Intro
Are they really surfing on those boards?
An album was released for this one, too, with a slowed down, more mysterious version of the theme:
Werner Muller - Hawaiian Eye Theme
Surfside 6, set in Miami beach with Troy Donahue, Van Williams, Lee Patterson, Diane McBain, Margarita Sierra, (who died of a heart condition shortly after this show went off the air and Mousie Garner:
SURFSIDE 6: Opening Credits / Intro (Seasons 1 and 2) 1960-1962
For some reason, they didn’t do an album for that one.
