77 Sunset Strip (1 Viewer)

[bobPON]

Has anyone heard any news of 77 Sunset Strip or any of the other Warner Bros. detective shows coming out on dvd. It would be great if they could put out season sets of the old detective shows and westerns they produced in the late 50's and early 60's.

 

[David Lambert]

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=1139






That's dated 2/17/04, and is the last we've heard of it; no updates since then. However, I would be surprised if it didn't get released in 2005.

 

[Steve Phillips]

Has this show ever been seen in syndication? It went off the air before I was born and I've never once encountered a rerun.

 

[Deb Walsh]

It's currently running on the cable network Goodlife, along with several other Warner Brothers' detective shows. Great show.

 

[Mark To]

It is one of many popular shows from the late 50s to early 60s era that kind of fell by the wayside in syndication. It really kind of disappeared after the late 60s as did many other once popular shows. I'm sure the fact that its in black and white played a factor. Too bad GoodLife doesn't have a higher cable presence (or a DirectTV spot) as they are the only network left to air any shows of this type. TV Land chooses to ignore 99% of TV history in favor of only the most commercial and common shows. That leaves either DVD (or videotape for those of us who were lucky enough to build up a collection) as the last hope. Other shows from that time period which also are in this category: Hawaiian Eye, The Defenders, Surfside Six, Roaring Twenties, Hong Kong, Bus Stop, The Lieutenant, The Eleventh Hour, Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, Breaking Point, Cain's Hundred, Sam Benedict and quite a few more. As for the point, a DVD release for Strip, I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Add "Burke's Law" (a show that HAS to be released- it was the "Murder, She Wrote" of the early 60s- each episode was cast with lots of Hollywood screen legends!), "Honey West" (one of the best 1-season shows to be cancelled- despite good ratings, it was sheleved by ABC when the network discovered that importing "The Avengers" with Diana Rigg from Britain was cheaper than paying for a second year of Anne Francis as the sexy Yank detective!), and "The Nurses" (like "The Defenders", it was filmed on location in NYC)to the list of seldom-seen reruns. The only place to see these shows is at the Museum of TV & Radio here in NYC!

 

[Randi]

Yikes! I would buy season sets of all of the series perviously mentioned in this thread. I've been fortunate to see one or two eps of all of these series and they are great!!!! I was born too late to watch these when originally aired so I am starved for quality television.


Miss Randi

 

[Mark To]

I really was too young to see those shows myself. When I started watching prime time shows around 63-64 I just went for the sitcoms. I didn't start to watch dramas until later in the decade by which time the great dramas were gone and we were left with the crime shows (Ironside, Mannix, etc.) and the hokey, youth oriented, trying too hard to be relevant shows like Mod Squad, New People, Storefront Lawyers, Young Rebels, etc. But thanks to videotape trading and 16mm film collecting I discovered all of these great shows from the 1960-65 era that I had never seen. It's really a shame that as great as these shows are they just don't appeal to a mass audience at this point. I'm just thankful that I grew up in an era when a bias didn't exist towards things that came before my time as it does today. But its also what you are exposed to and back when we had only 3 networks the independent stations had air time to use for older reruns. That, plus the fact that all viewers counted, not just those who are young and easily bamboozled by sponsors. It remains to be seen what happens but there could be a point where the studios have emptied the vaults of their most commercial products and they start to dig deeper for esoteric titles. Hey, I never thought I'd see Naked City but it happened, albeit only the episodes with big guest stars.

 

[Bert Greene]

The high quality of the 1960-65 dramas seems to be one of the most neglected and forgotten aspects of tv-history. I was too young to see them originally as well, but spurred on after my introductions to "Route 66," "Ben Casey" and "Naked City" back in the 1980s, I did seek out tapes of such items. Quite a revelation, compared to the cliche you usually hear about the supposed vapidness of 60s television. There were a lot of very interesting dramas... "The Nurses," "Arrest and Trial," "Empire," "Mr. Novak," "The Breaking Point," "The Defenders," "Trials of O'Brien," "The New Breed," "Follow the Sun," "Sam Benedict," "Mr. Broadway," and many others (admittedly many that didn't last beyond a single season). But even the genre shows like "Gunsmoke" and "Combat" were all at the top of their form back then.

As for the Warner Bros. shows, like "77 Sunset Strip" and "Hawaiian Eye," they were basically fluff. Good fluff, but fluff nonetheless. My sister graciously taped all the episodes aired on Goodlife for me. She's one of the lucky few with access to the channel. Initially disappointed by their predictable, cookie-cutter approach, I gradually warmed up to them as breezy, easy-going entertainment. I'd get them on dvd were they to ever be released.