Post #222448 by AquaZombie on Wed, Mar 22, 2006 12:44 PM

This is one of my faves and it's still on the newly christened American Life Network (they gave Nick Clooney, who used to host all the shows, the boot too - too bad, I think he's cooler than his son.) There are indeed 134 episodes over 4 seasons. Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens are the only cast members to remain throughout the series - Anthony Eisley lasted I think three, then Troy Donahue (after "Surfside 6" was canned after 2 seasons) took over as lead dick the final season. Grant "Incredible Shrinking Man" Williams joined the cast late in Season 2, I think. Right now it's part of AL's "Private Eye Night" - "77 Sunset Strip" and "Harry-O" are on every week, but they rotate "HE" with "Surfside 6" (Miami) and "Bourbon Street Beat" (New Orleans - lasted only one season, then star Richard Long moved to "Sunset" in its third season, and co-star Van "Green Hornet" Williams moved over to "Surside" for the duration of its two season run.)

Only the "Sunset" soundtrack has been issued on CD (and so has Edd "Kookie" Byrnes album, a must have for Beat-Pop fans), but I have the "Hawaiian Eye" and "Bourbon St" on LP. ("Surfside" never got an album but the theme song was recently revived on "Family Guy" and re-recorded version is on "TV's Greatest Hits" Vol. 1). They're all killer crime jazz, and the "Eye" album features exotica tracks and Conrad singing "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me" (not a bad crooner.) Connie Stevens sings in the Shell (tiki) Bar in every episode. It was mostly filmed in Burbank but there was a lot of atmospheric second unit stuff shot in Oahu for local flavor. Lots of aloha shirts and tikis, too, with Diamond Head a common (blue screen) backdrop. The detective's office is located in what was the Hawaiian Village and is now the Hilton - I remember grilling the staff there, no one had ever heard of the show (or Martin Denny for that matter, and he performered there for years.) In most episodes the PIs kiss (via their hand) the tiki statue in their office for good luck.

All shows are from Warner Brothers, which also owns all the other cool vintage reruns on AL (including their Western and War nights with stuff like "Combat" and "Maverick"). WB recently put out some sample episodes of relatively obscure shows like "F Troop" "Cheyenne" and others on DVD, which bodes well for these shows too. WB is pretty good about offering a lot of stuff from their vast vaults for purchase, but we'll see. Right now I'm recording every episode of all the PI shows, which are in excellent shape and practically uncut from what I can tell (though for some reason they often nix the opening credits of "Sunset", no idea why since they always show the others. Must be a time thing - or they're trying to discourage bootlegging for completists, so they'll buy the official DVDs anyway if they're ever issued.)

Oh yea - if you live in the Bay Area and get evil Comcast, forget it. They dropped GoodLife a while ago, replacing it with another sports channel, wet T shirt golf or something, rather than catering to what they deemed a tiny demographic. However, I'm lucky enough to live in Alameda which has its own alternative cable system - they not only carry AL, but they also have Boomerang, the nifty Cartoon Network spinoff which features all the old Hanna Barbera and Looney Tunes stuff. This would be the only reason for Forbidden Island to get cable...
it's cheaper than Comcast and they provide more attentive service too since they're such a small company. Aloha.

[ Edited by: AquaZombie 2006-03-22 12:50 ]