"77 Sunset Strip" (1958) TV series 1958-1964

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Creator:

Roy Huggins

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Release Date:

10 October 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Stu Bailey and Jeff Spencer were the wisecracking, womanizing private detective heroes of this Warner Brothers drama...

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Private | Thief | Racetrack | Male Female Relationship

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 2 wins

Cast

Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	...	Stuart Bailey / ... (162 episodes, 1958-1964)
Roger Smith	...	Jeff Spencer (81 episodes, 1958-1963)
Edd Byrnes	...	Kookie / ... (80 episodes, 1958-1963)
Jacqueline Beer	...	Suzanne Fabray / ... (66 episodes, 1958-1963)

Also Known As:

Sunset 77 (USA) (working title)
77-Sunset-Strip (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
77 de Sunset Strip (Spain) (series title) [es]
Setenta y Siete (Spain) [es]

Runtime:

60 min (206 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Television

Trivia:

This series was produced by Warner Brothers for ABC and the episode "The Kookie Caper" (episode 2.2, October 9, 1959) has some inside jokes about other series produced by that studio for ABC. Early in episode, Kookie (Edd Byrnes_ indicates that he doesn't know that Will Hutchins is the star of "Sugarfoot" (1957). Later, he can be seen reading an issue of TV Guide magazine with the stars of "Maverick" (1957), James Garner and Jack Kelly, on the cover. Both of those shows were produced by Warner Bros., as was this one.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Biography: Mary Tyler Moore: All American-Girl (1995)" (????)

The essence of cool

I was about 8 years old when this went off the air and adult TV series were just starting to come up on my little radar screen. I have no recollection of ever watching this private detective show until I caught it on the American Life channel (before it turned into the Combat! Channel and this along with many other fine shows disappeared). I knew nothing about the show but somehow knew about Edd Byrnes/"Kookie".

This show rocks! It is early American television at its best. Now I've only seen about 3 episodes but they are just so damn good. One, starring a very talented Bert Convey, spent almost the entire show on the guest actors, in fact Efrem didn't appear until about two-thirds of the way through and was seen sparingly after that. In another episode Efrem dramatically freed Americans in East Berlin and Smith was barely seen. Wouldn't ever see that sort of flexibility in story-telling on a series today. Some of the plot elements are overdone, cheesy and/or unbelievable, but that just adds to the camp factor.

The two leads are great and play well off each other in super cool fashion, while Byrnes earns his rep as their sometimes assistant. Great stuff, wish it still appeared somewhere on the digital dial.