77 Sunset Strip / Hawaiian Eye, etc. (1 Viewer)

[mark-edk]

77SS apparently plundered past Warner Bros movies for their plot lines. I've already seen two Hitchcock classics (Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder) remade into episodes; coincidentally both featured Richard Long as guest star. And I've been reminded how taken I was by Jacqueline Beer back in the day. They really need to get this show out on DVD before all of us in the target audience aren't around anymore!

 

[Gary16]

77SS apparently plundered past Warner Bros movies for their plot lines. I've already seen two Hitchcock classics (Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder) remade into episodes; coincidentally both featured Richard Long as guest star. And I've been reminded how taken I was by Jacqueline Beer back in the day. They really need to get this show out on DVD before all of us in the target audience aren't around anymore!

I could be off in the timing but I recall there was a writers strike at one point which forced the studios to dig out old scripts and rework them in order to keep shows in production.

 

[Gary16]

Watched several episodes of 77 Sunset Strip yesterday and was disappointed by the visual quality of the prints and the deleted opening credits. Apparently Decades opted for the cheapest prints available.
I viewed this on a C band dish direct from the satellite they use so there was no degradation of quality from a cable or small dish system.

These should have been the same transfers that have been running for ten years or more on various cable nets and in the Warner archive streaming service which always looked decent. The edits were apparently done by Warner Brothers since they're the same wherever I've watched them. Some have full openings. Some don't. None has the bumpers.

 

[Sky King]

Gary,

I thought they would have used the same transfers used formally by GoodLife TV. Those prints...including the classic opening credits... looked sharp and clean, making me think a DVD set wasn't far behind. Those shown on Decades looked less than stellar.

 

[Dan McW]

I could be off in the timing but I recall there was a writers strike at one point which forced the studios to dig out old scripts and rework them in order to keep shows in production.

The series Lawman reworked the movies Ride Lonesome and (I think) Fort Dobbs into a couple of its later episodes. Burt Kennedy was involved in both movies and both episodes as the writer and/or the director.

 

[Brent S]

Sadly, as of November 28, Van Williams is unable to provide any future commentary on SURFSIDE 6.

R.I.P.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

I could be off in the timing but I recall there was a writers strike at one point which forced the studios to dig out old scripts and rework them in order to keep shows in production.

The strike began in January, 1960 and lasted for about five months. With no new material available. Warner Brothers took old scripts from shows and reworked them for others. They're easy to spot - any script credited to "W. Hermanos" was lifted from another show. The "W. Hermanos" credit appears on episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Bourbon Street Beat, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, Colt .45, Lawman, The Alaskans, and possibly others.

 

[Doug Wallen]

I remember a Cheyenne that was point for point taken from "Treasure of the Sierra Madre".

 

[RBailey]

And an episode of BOURBON STREET BEAT used the script of WHITE HEAT.

 

[mark-edk]

Decades is running 77's "Bullets for Santa" episode on Christmas Eve.

 

[Gary16]

MeTV just announced "77 Sunset Strip" will air Monday thru Friday at 4 am starting January 2. Setting DVR now.

 

[Bob Gu]

 

[Neil Brock]

MeTV just announced "77 Sunset Strip" will air Monday thru Friday at 4 am starting January 2. Setting DVR now.

Since their shows come in a shade under 46 minutes, I wonder if they will be timesped or cut.

 

[Gary16]

Since their shows come in a shade under 46 minutes, I wonder if they will be timesped or cut.

If these are the masters that ran on Goodlife, Warner made up time by eliminating the bumpers in and out of the breaks. That saved at least a minute and a half. Plus a lot of the episodes had previews of next week that often ran a couple of minutes so those were eliminated. Finally they took off the main title opening (the one where each star is introduced) on some episodes. Almost forgot -- the sponsor Billboards save another 40 seconds.

 

[Neil Brock]

If these are the masters that ran on Goodlife, Warner made up time by eliminating the bumpers in and out of the breaks. That saved at least a minute and a half. Plus a lot of the episodes had previews of next week that often ran a couple of minutes so those were eliminated. Finally they took off the main title opening (the one where each star is introduced) on some episodes. Almost forgot -- the sponsor Billboards save another 40 seconds.

All of those were pre-cut by Warner when they were remastered and the episodes still came in at 48 minutes, which is 2+ minutes longer than what ME-TV allows for a show.

 

[Gary16]

All of those were pre-cut by Warner when they were remastered and the episodes still came in at 48 minutes, which is 2+ minutes longer than what ME-TV allows for a show.

It would be nice if Me-TV would use two less minutes of commercial time at 4 in the morning. That said, st least any cuts will be less than with many of their other shows.

 

[Neil Brock]

It would be nice if Me-TV would use two less minutes of commercial time at 4 in the morning. That said, st least any cuts will be less than with many of their other shows.

Good luck with that happening.

 

[mark-edk]

The first MEtv Sunset Strip episode looked and timed out the same as the Decades showing did. There was one key difference: the Decades was shown in 4:3 with black bars on the sides. MEtv zoomed in a bit, trimming of a strip of video on both the top and bottom of the image. Not so much as to make it 16:9, but the side bars were thinner than on Decades. I suppose I could live with it; it's not horrible. But I like the pure 4:3 Decades approach better. And I want this series on DVD (see, I'm on topic).

 

[Gary16]

The first MEtv Sunset Strip episode looked and timed out the same as the Decades showing did. There was one key difference: the Decades was shown in 4:3 with black bars on the sides. MEtv zoomed in a bit, trimming of a strip of video on both the top and bottom of the image. Not so much as to make it 16:9, but the side bars were thinner than on Decades. I suppose I could live with it; it's not horrible. But I like the pure 4:3 Decades approach better. And I want this series on DVD (see, I'm on topic).

I thought it looked quite good and the zoom didn't bother me although I agree that original ratio is better. I detected a slight speed up early on but it seemed to slow down later.

 

[Bob Gu]

I guess it will be about eight more weeks before METV gets to episodes that were not part of the DECADES binge. Not interested in the letterbox METV version but I do like the bigger picture 16:9 slight pillar boxed version of the METV broadcast. Don't think any picture info is cut off in the 16:9. With the P/S turner choice info is lost on all four sides.

YouTube has taken down the full-episodes of 77 SUNSET STRIP, HAWAIIAN EYE, and SURFSIDE 6. I did not check for the WB westerns. Could be routine purging of copyrighted material. Might be a sign that EYE and 6 might be coming to the retro stations too? Maybe the DVDs are finally on the horizon?