77 Sunset Strip / Hawaiian Eye, etc. (3 Viewers)

[Rustifer]

And...Andra Martin was married at one time to Ty "Bronco" Hardin.

Whose real name was...wait for it...Orison Whipple Hungerford, Jr. Just screams "cowboy", doesn't it?

 

[Rustifer]

Off now to watch "Return to San Dede", only because Gary reminded me that Andra Martin is in it.

 

[Lutz Koch]

As a footnote, re-airing towards the end of Season 2 is "The Silent Caper" this Friday, which is easily recognized as one of the cleverest and entertaining of all the 77 SS episodes, written by Roger Smith. I urge you to tune in if you've never seen it before.

"The Silent Caper" and "Sierra" (the previous episode) were the only S2 eps that WB Archive had on their streaming service a few years ago. Of course I immediately made recordings of both and spent most of my spare time for the next couple of weeks recording the rest. I wasn't yet retired at the time, as I am now...

Prior to that, the only two episodes I was proud to own in any form were on this beauty:

This VHS tape was released in the UK in 1991. To the best of my knowledge, it still represents the only time in recorded history that any episodes of 77SS were commercially available for purchase. If anybody knows of further occurrences, I'd be pleased to know about them.
Anyway, my wife and I happened to be in London that same year and I picked this up at an HMV store, happy for this chance to refresh one of my fondest childhood memories.
Looking at the cover illustration, it is quite apparent what the UK company who had licensed these episodes considered to be the biggest draw: Kookie!! (Even though neither 'Kookie' nor 'Edd Byrnes' were even mentioned by name...) Of course, they also made sure there was some additional star power available by picking episodes with Sammy Davis jr. and Roger Moore guest-starring.

For my wife, this was her first encounter with the 77SS gang. Today she's a big fan! She's 2 years younger than myself and totally missed the show back in the sixties. I'm still amazed that my parents allowed me to watch it at 9pm as I was only between 7 and 11 years old then...

 

[Richard Gallagher]

A New Year's present from DirecTV to viewers in the New York metro area was the addition of a MeTV affiliate, WJLP in Middletown, New Jersey. We hadn't had a MeTV affiliate on DirecTV since WZME in Connecticut became a religious station.

The 77 Sunset Strip prints on WJLP's HD channel look very good.

It looks like MeTV is going to air Season Three again because the scheduled episode on 1/19/18 is "Attic," the first Season Three episode.

 

[Rustifer]

A New Year's present from DirecTV to viewers in the New York metro area was the addition of a MeTV affiliate, WJLP in Middletown, New Jersey. We hadn't had a MeTV affiliate on DirecTV since WZME in Connecticut became a religious station.

The 77 Sunset Strip prints on WJLP's HD channel look very good.

It looks like MeTV is going to air Season Three again because the scheduled episode on 1/19/18 is "Attic," the first Season Three episode.

Almost all the prints on MeTV are of high quality. There are a few, however, that suffer issues.
I would be happy if MeTV re-airs season 3. There were a lot of good episodes, and the"Attic" is one of my favorites. I wrote about it in an earlier post in this thread.

Roger Smith and John Dehner in the "Attic"

 

[Rustifer]

I finally made it through both episodes of "Return to San Dede", which I really wasn't interested in watching. As Gary pointed out, it did guest star Andra Martin, who is always worth ogling...er...watching.
Stu takes on an assignment to escort Andra (Roxanna) to the city of San Dede where she is in some kind of political exile due to her father's politics.
Stu decides to take her by train, and I swear it's the same train as seen in the opening sequence of "The Music Man":

You can talk, you can bicker
You can talk, you can bicker
You can talk, talk, talk, talk
Bicker, bicker, bicker
You can talk all you want
But it's different than it was
(No it ain't, no it ain't
BUT YOU GOTTA KNOW THE TERRITORY!)

It turns out that their train car gets separated from the rest of the train and are left in the middle of the desert.
Luckily, Stu seems to have anticipated this event since he came attired in a perfect desert outfit even though traveling to the city.
Anyway, the plot is pretty thin, and the scenes in the desert are obvious studio backdrops (you can see the actors' shadows cast on the landscape) and I stand by my reluctance for any of the Latin American capers.

Don't get me wrong by my relentless pointing out of discrepancies that it means I don't absolutely love the 77 SS series. Rather, I find it fascinating that as a kid watching the show I didn't have the facilities to discern the filming techniques and happily bought into the whole package as presented. Now it's just fun to be able to pick out the redundancies in sets, plots, actors, etc. That's why I keep a small notebook next to me when watching the show so as to scribble notes to later report on this thread.

 

[Rustifer]

A couple of random observations:

• Season 2 opening credits include a shot of the 77 SS sidewalk awning (see my avatar), the 77 SS theme song and an announcer saying "77 Sunset Strip". It's as if WB wanted to make sure you knew what you were starting to watch...
• I love the scenes at LA International in some of the episodes. It seems like in 1960, the airport had, like, 6 gates... Stu or Jeff would be in their office and saying, "I've got a plane to catch in half an hour..." as if they could be beamed there. No traffic in LA in 1960?

• Plus, it seems you could always park right in front of the airport (MartinP's "Doris Day" parking syndrome), and walk right up to your gate--no pesky TSA agents or metal detectors in those days.
• Nighttime actual location shots of LA generally included the Richfield Tower somewhere in the distance. Those of you who hang out in the Noirish LA thread will know what I'm talking about.

 

[Rustifer]

"The Silent Caper" and "Sierra" (the previous episode) were the only S2 eps that WB Archive had on their streaming service a few years ago. Of course I immediately made recordings of both and spent most of my spare time for the next couple of weeks recording the rest. I wasn't yet retired at the time, as I am now...

Prior to that, the only two episodes I was proud to own in any form were on this beauty:

View attachment 43025 View attachment 43026

This VHS tape was released in the UK in 1991. To the best of my knowledge, it still represents the only time in recorded history that any episodes of 77SS were commercially available for purchase. If anybody knows of further occurrences, I'd be pleased to know about them.
Anyway, my wife and I happened to be in London that same year and I picked this up at an HMV store, happy for this chance to refresh one of my fondest childhood memories.
Looking at the cover illustration, it is quite apparent what the UK company who had licensed these episodes considered to be the biggest draw: Kookie!! (Even though neither 'Kookie' nor 'Edd Byrnes' were even mentioned by name...) Of course, they also made sure there was some additional star power available by picking episodes with Sammy Davis jr. and Roger Moore guest-starring.

For my wife, this was her first encounter with the 77SS gang. Today she's a big fan! She's 2 years younger than myself and totally missed the show back in the sixties. I'm still amazed that my parents allowed me to watch it at 9pm as I was only between 7 and 11 years old then...

What an awesome collector's item!

 

[Richard Gallagher]

• I love the scenes at LA International in some of the episodes. It seems like in 1960, the airport had, like, 6 gates... Stu or Jeff would be in their office and saying, "I've got a plane to catch in half an hour..." as if they could be beamed there. No traffic in LA in 1960?

View attachment 43057

Their office was closer to what is now Bob Hope Airport in Burbank than LAX. In fact, the still photo you posted looks more like Burbank than LAX to me.

 

[criblecoblis]

Their office was closer to what is now Bob Hope Airport in Burbank than LAX. In fact, the still photo you posted looks more like Burbank than LAX to me.

I agree, but it seems likely that the interior terminal scenes were sets.

 

[Rustifer]

I agree, but it seems likely that the interior terminal scenes were sets.

I'm pretty sure, too, that the airport interiors were sets. If WB could replicate the entire interior of Dino's on a sound stage, they surely could dummy up a couple of airport gates with ease.
The pic I posted could well be the Burbank airport instead of LAX. I was going more for the semblance of size vs. location accuracy.

 

[Rustifer]

"Publicity Brat" is the sort of 77 SS episode I adore. I has all the usual characters, plus the added feature of actual LA and Palm Spring locations. I laugh when I see scenes of driving along what I assume is Highway 10 with the surrounding hills almost void of any housing back then. Times have changed.

Stu gets tangled up with Angel Conway, a Shirley Templesque 9 yr. old child star who's been out of the public eye for a while and is pedaling any PR interest she can muster. The girl is played by Evelyn Rudie, who seems to have had more of a career earlier as a child than later on in life--although she did run a prestigious playhouse for a while.

Evelyn Rudie then, and later

There's a whole cast of character actors in this story that makes it so entertaining, not the least of whom are Billie Burke (Glinda from "Wizard of Oz") and Virginia Christine (Maxwell House Coffee spokeswoman--"It's the richest kind!"). The bumbling waiter is played by Paul "Mousie" Garner, who we see later as the guy running errands for the Surfside 6 crew.

Virginia Christine and 'Mousie' Garner

This is a great "Who dunnit?" episode that's played to the hilt by all in the cast. The non-PC ending has mama spanking the hell out of the bratty child star as Stu and Roscoe smile approvingly.
I rate it 3 martinis.

 

[Rustifer]

In the "The Fix", guest star Mary Tyler Moore smokes cigarettes! Laura Petri and Mary Richards would be horrified. Jeff is hired by her brother to investigate her boyfriend, a prize fighter, to see if he's worthy. God knows, one would have to be worthy to wed Mary Tyler Moore.
Anyway, a rival boxer ends up murdered. As a side note, Lt. Gilmore seems to depend solely on Bailey & Spenser to investigate any homicide as if he has no detective force of his own. There's quite a bit of Warner backlot cityscapes in this episode. I study the retail signs to see which are legit. Jeff enters a building next to what is identified as 'Busby' Drugs. After viewing the many photos I see posted on Noirish LA, seems the prominent pharmacy back then was Owl Drugstore. Busby Drugs, I suspect, was a product of the WB art studio.

There is a stripper in the show, which affords me the opportunity to brazenly (but happily) post some cheesecake. "Miss Saturn" is played by the Marilyn Monroe-like Juli Reding:

Juli was known to have hung around with the likes of George Jessel, David Jansen, Gary Crosby and Frank Sinatra. The girl got around. Of course, so did Frank:
"You only go around once in life, and the way I live--
once is enough."
-Frank Sinatra

There's quite a lot of head clobbering going on in this episode. As a kid, I wondered if bad guys had to be trained on how to hit someone on the back of the skull so that it only knocks out rather than kills the victim. Looked to be an art to me.
Rhodes Reason guest stars as the questionable prize fighter, and sports quite a weave on his head. I'm sure he must be one of the top ten reoccurring actors on 77 SS.

P.S. I felt it necessary to stick in his picture lest any of you think all I wanted to do with this post is show off Juli Reding photos. Certainly not.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

In the "The Fix", guest star Mary Tyler Moore smokes cigarettes! Laura Petri and Mary Richards would be horrified. Jeff is hired by her brother to investigate her boyfriend, a prize fighter, to see if he's worthy. God knows, one would have to be worthy to wed Mary Tyler Moore.

Reportedly MTM was a three-pack-a-day smoker in those days.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

"Publicity Brat" is the sort of 77 SS episode I adore. I has all the usual characters, plus the added feature of actual LA and Palm Spring locations. I laugh when I see scenes of driving along what I assume is Highway 10 with the surrounding hills almost void of any housing back then. Times have changed.

Stu gets tangled up with Angel Conway, a Shirley Templesque 9 yr. old child star who's been out of the public eye for a while and is pedaling any PR interest she can muster. The girl is played by Evelyn Rudie, who seems to have had more of a career earlier as a child than later on in life--although she did run a prestigious playhouse for a while.

Evelyn Rudie is still involved with the Santa Monica Playhouse.

http://www.santamonicaplayhouse.com/the-people.html

 

[Rustifer]

Evelyn Rudie is still involved with the Santa Monica Playhouse.

http://www.santamonicaplayhouse.com/the-people.html

Good for her! Evelyn and I are almost exactly the same age--not saying that means anything.

 

[Rustifer]

I talk alot about the WB studio / lot. Here's a schematic. If anyone should happen to know which studio 77 SS was filmed in...?

Here's what it looks like from way up high:

 

[Flashgear]

Judging by this photo, it would appear that Stage 12 was being used for production of both Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip...I posted this photo previously of Don and Phil Everly visiting the WB lot and meeting with Edd Byrnes, Roger Smith and Richard Long (in the fall of 1960?).

 

[Rustifer]

Judging by this photo, it would appear that Stage 12 was being used for production of both Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip...I posted this photo previously of Don and Phil Everly visiting the WB lot and meeting with Edd Byrnes, Roger Smith and Richard Long (in the fall of 1960?).

Excellent detective work, Flashgear!

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Like everyone here, I'd love to own 77 Sunset Strip on disc but am honestly curious how in hell a late 50's television series music clearance could be so damned cost prohibitive. Maybe a special limited release of a few thousand DVD sets could lower the music costs and make the surviving fans dreams come true. They did it with Burke's Law, Peter Gunn and Johnny Staccato, for God's sake, and those were full of period tunes as well!