Hawaiian Eye--t.v. show

If anyone is interested, The old television show, Hawaiian Eye, is playing on cable-Tuesdays-on the GOODL station. I'm not sure what GOODL stands for, but I have been taping the epsiodes for a month now, and the opening credits show a huge Tiki. If anyone was at the Tiki Oasis III you'll probably remember the show. In Minnesota this particular channel is in the high 200's if that helps at all. Enjoy.

And all I can think of now when I think of this show is the theme song - being blurted out at TOP volume by King Kukulele....all Oasis weekend long.

"Hawaiian Eeeeeeeee-EEEYE!"

is this a station you can get all over the country?

It is on GTV..which is the Good Life Channel.
It was on every Monday at 8:00pm.

Then last week it wasn't on, and Surfside 6 was in its place. It was okay, but it wasn't as cool as Hawaiian Eye.
Tomorrow it shows Bourbon Street Beat? is on instead of Hawaiian Eye or Surfside 6.
77 Sunset Strip is still on Mondays at 7:00pm. Its cool too.

GTV website doesn't show Hawaiian Eye airing again until the 24th.

I emailed them and explained Hawaiian Eye was the only reason that I would be watching their channel and that once every 3 weeks wasn't enough. I got no response.

http://www.goodtv.com/program.php?programid=HE

Thanks for the info. Erich.. Of course after I posted my information I couldn't find the show anywhere. I'm glad it's still on but every three weeks? Not enough-I'm hooked on Connie Stevens special brand of singing Hawaiian songs.

http://www.nctc.net/~hazard/conrad/album/hawaiian.html

Well I'll be a tiki's uncle. I clicked around there on the old clicker and discovered that I actually do get the Good Life Network. Thanks to Tedtiki for posting this. According to the Good Life Network website 'Hawaiian Eye' airs on Mondays at 11PM and then runs again at 2AM. I'll have to hold out til next Monday to check it out. Can't wait.

Unga Bunga thanks for that clip. That is so priceless, Robert Conrad doing his best Elvis via Ricky Nelson imitation.

I'm sure ole Bob was perfecting his Eveready Battery commercials while on the set of Hawaiian Eye. "C'mon, I dare you to knock this Tiki off my shoulder."

I have the album with soundtrack from Hawaii Five O .........the theme song is on it ........S.

Many years ago ..........my boys used to put on a Luau in West Houston ..........at the Savannah Apartments off of Westheimer.

People came from one end of town to the other every year to attend. We'd play about 20 songs and then repeat ..the theme song from ........."Hawaii Five O".

A good time was always had by one and all.

[ Edited by: fijifingers on 2005-01-24 18:22 ]

I finally caught 'Hawaiian Eye' tonight. Awesome! My new favorite re-run show, and I only watched half of it. I had to see the Johnny Carson tribute Jay Leno did on The Tonight Show. Great tribute. Ed McMahon, Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, Drew Carrey, and KD Lang. Tons of great footage of Johnny from back in the day. Anyway...I'll catch up with Hawaiian Eye next week. Aloha!

I don't suppose anyone knows if any distributor has the intent to put Hawaiian Eye out on DVD, do they?

I'd be very interested in that for sure. Monday's episode was filled with great Tiki-fun.

i've been watching Hawaiian Eye on ALN network (cable) ~ its been on sporadically, so i've just set my DVR to record it.

i found the entire set at http://www.ilovethatdvd.com/ ~ 38 episodes on 19 DVDs for $115 bucks. seems reasonable! but its a little confusing, there's supposed to be 4 years and 134 episodes.

WOW!!! I wonder what the quality looks like? These have not been released legitametly yet. I may have to email them. Thanks for the tip and link. Hawaiian EyeeeeeeYa!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

Post from 2003

Hey, JeffCentral, let me know what they said if you email them.. I kind of like the fact that I have work at collecting the episodes on my own, but it will take about ten years at this pace.

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 ]

ps Wed. on AL is Spy Night - one of the shows I SPY in on DVD, the other two - MAN and GIRL FROM UNCLE are not as of yet....

Is it just me, or do other people cringe when Connie Stevens sings? Great show anyway.

The Connie cringe, I know...my friend Dug Miller once made a compilation tape of ALL musical numbers from all the performers (mostly Connie and Poncie), cut back to back. Kinda hard to watch, you gotta be hardcore H.E. obsessed. Off course, it has the famous Arthur Lyman peformance of "Taboo" at the Shell Bar on it. Unfortunately, they cut away from it after a few shots, arrgh!

My new book will have a photo I took of the Hawaiian Eye office sign in it, now in posession of Doug "Moke" Mossman, the "guard" and Hawaiian advisor on the show. He had also lifted the original logo Tiki off the studio lot when the show closed, but it has since rotted away in his yard in Waikiki. Also in the book: A cool photo of the cast of Surfside Six in the "Boom Boom Room", THEIR local Tiki Bar.

Kevin Kidney is the real Hawaiian Eye authority, he once bought soap from Connie Stevens in her store in Beverly Hills (wow!) and by now owns about 40 original 16mm network copies of the show. We were thinking about a H.E. festival sometime, with Connie as guest of honor....

You are not alone Jab.....my wife can't understand why she doesn't sing a Hapa Haole tune or Bali Hai or anything but the goofy pop songs she croons.

Hawaii becoming a state brought with it a golden age of television escape. Hawaiian Eye ran from 1959-1963 and Adventures In Paradise from 1959-1962. I noticed in some of the episodes of AIP that Lyle Wheeler was the production designer (South Pacific-Bird Of Paradise) for a brief time and probably left to work on Aloha Jhoe's in Palm Springs. In one episode Gardner McKay is next to a Tiki that was from the set of Bird Of Paradise (1951).

There were at least 2 more adventure series, The Beachcomber (1962) ran for one season (39 half hour episodes) and The Islanders ran from 1960-1961 and like Hawaiian Eye and Adventures In Paradise was a one hour series. Even though they only made 24 episodes, they managed to have their own set of ceramic bamboo mugs and pitcher made which have escaped my lower bids on ebay several times. I believe several TCers have all or part of this set.

I ALWAYS wanted to get a look at Cameron Mitchell as the "Beachcomber"! He was a great character actor and I can really imagine him in that part. Have never glimpsed a scene or still of that series so far, it might be lost without a trace.

You all are being a little harsh on Connie me thinks. Sure she wasn't the greatest singer in the world, but when she looked at that t.v. camera and sang, it was if she was singing to me personally-even if I wasn't even born yet.

On 2006-03-24 06:44, bigbrotiki wrote:

My new book will have a photo I took of the Hawaiian Eye office sign in it, now in posession of Doug "Moke" Mossman, the "guard" and Hawaiian advisor on the show. He had also lifted the original logo Tiki off the studio lot when the show closed, but it has since rotted away in his yard in Waikiki. Also in the book: A cool photo of the cast of Surfside Six in the "Boom Boom Room", THEIR local Tiki Bar.

Would that be your Witco book? I can't wait.

Is Doug Mossman any relation to Sterling Mossman? I just recently found this record for my collection:

Here's an interesting tale of how Sterling Mossman's Barefoot Bar inspired the Barefoot in Paradise clothing line, and eventually Hang Ten's logo:

http://www.gobarefoot.com/newhistory.html

[ Edited by: thejab 2006-03-24 11:47 ]

Here's an interesting tale of how Sterling Mossman's Barefoot Bar inspired the Barefoot in Paradise clothing line, and eventually Hang Ten's logo

Jab, thanks for posting that - the informative post of the week (for me anyway).

Anyone notice that some (not all) of the Barefoot in Paradise "feet" have 6 toes? One of the two tags shown at the bottom, and also all 4 feet in the photo at the bottom. Easy enough to do nowadays with photoshop, but kinda cool if that photo is old. Maybe Isamu had 12 toes?

Also, Hang Ten was around and had their feet logo before the 70s, so I wonder if buying the logo was just to resolve a trademark dispute or something.

-Randy

And just think I grew up with all those TV shows....Life was grand back then.....

[ Edited by: TB Hawks 2006-03-24 16:05 ]

Indeed. The shows are pretty much interchangable, especially 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye. Two private eye studs and the requisite clown, be it Cookie or Kim. I have read that even the same plots were used with moderate changes.

But don't get me wrong. I love these shows. Great retro sets, fantastic cars, cute girls. I like how Stu has his bar in the office on the Danish Modern credenza. And those suits...very cool. Its wild how these guys prance arournd LA or Honolulu like knights and everybody gets out of their way.

Great stuff. Makes Monday night worth it after football season is over.

Does anyone know if this show is still on TV anywhere? I don't think I ever saw it as a kid (probably didn't get the channel). I just slapped the soundtrack on my player for the first time to day it is groovalicious. I would love to see the show...especially Robert Conrad in a tight skimpy bathing suit.....did I say that out loud. :lol:

Goodlife tv or American life network was showing it every 3 weeks on monday nights, but recently stopped.
They still show 77 sunset strip, but no more Bourbon Street beat, surfside 6 or Hawaiian Eye.

I emailed them about it and got no response.

I recorded about 8 episodes on dvd before they took it off the air.

Cool show, hopefully someone else will start showing it again.

Thanks...I did try to find those stations on Direct TV, but couldn't. I will try again though...maybe they are just taking a break. :)

On 2006-03-24 11:46, thejab wrote:

On 2006-03-24 06:44, bigbrotiki wrote:

My new book will have a photo I took of the Hawaiian Eye office sign in it, now in posession of Doug "Moke" Mossman, the "guard" and Hawaiian advisor on the show. He had also lifted the original logo Tiki off the studio lot when the show closed, but it has since rotted away in his yard in Waikiki. Also in the book: A cool photo of the cast of Surfside Six in the "Boom Boom Room", THEIR local Tiki Bar.

Would that be your Witco book? I can't wait.

Is Doug Mossman any relation to Sterling Mossman? I just recently found this record for my collection:

Here's an interesting tale of how Sterling Mossman's Barefoot Bar inspired the Barefoot in Paradise clothing line, and eventually Hang Ten's logo:

http://www.gobarefoot.com/newhistory.html

[ Edited by: thejab 2006-03-24 11:47 ]

Coincidentally , I am at this moment watching an episode of Hawaiian Eye which featured Sterling Mossman and his group playing a tune at the Shell Bar ! Cricket was on vacation on the mainland ! Ha !

Cool !

Here are some shots from the 1962 board game:

One of the game pieces:

The instruction sheet:

Cool! Please post some more finds from your collector's haul!

Here are some Warner Bros publicity headshot stills:

Robert Conrad

Connie Stevens

Grant Williams

Poncie Ponce

Anthony Eisley (I don't know who the two actresses are, but the one on the left might be Tura Santana. Hawaiian Eye was her first acting job, she went on to be in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

All the headshots I have also came with the studio's mimeographed biography, for instance, here is a section of Poncie's...

Here is a really nice shot that I have as a modern photo print:

Here is an example of a cast sheet, which showed who performed in the episode. This one is for "Koko Kate", Season 3, Episode 38. Unfortunately, it does not mention the musicians or minor background characters. The second sheet has the home addresses of the stars, their pay schedule and who their agents were:

I have sheets of behind-the-scenes photos of an episode "The Scent of Whales" Season 3, Episode 24. Here are some of the selected pics:

This is Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand from the original Star Trek series) dancing onstage. Some of the images I have actually show the camera crew in the foreground filming. Any idea who the band is?

Noted character actor John Dehner, standing at a prop bar, having a drink with Grace Lee Whitney.

Robert Conrad, waiting for the cameras to roll, sitting with a very young Sherry Jackson (from the Danny Thomas Show)

JonPez,

Great score on the Hawaiian Eye stuff. Thanks for posting and keep'm coming.

DC

Dan is watching the series right now. I'm looking forward to showing him this thread when he wakes up, thank you, Wendy

On 2010-07-25 05:27, danlovestikis wrote:
Dan is watching the series right now. I'm looking forward to showing him this thread when he wakes up

I didn't realize the show was that boring! :D

Jon, great collection. Glad you're posting the pictures so we can enjoy them.

I was re-reading the BigBro's "Sound of Tiki" liner notes on the show. Apparently the cast was never in Hawaii, it was all done on the Warner Brothers soundstage in Burbank !! Even the Hawaiian Village Shell Bar was a set. I guess they had a Hawaiian crew who did the local shooting which was used as rear projection for the actors. :(

That's Hollywood.

They all went to the China Trader after shooting....right across from Bob's Big Boy. They had a drink called a "Hawaiian Eye".

I wonder if there's a recipe for that anywhere.

On 2010-07-26 10:57, tikiyaki wrote:
....They had a drink called a "Hawaiian Eye".

I wonder if there's a recipe for that anywhere

Seriously ??

Kelly was mixing up the "Hawaiian Eye" at the "Sound of Tiki" event at the Tonga Hut a while back.

It was very very good.

DUH...It's on my Grog Log iPhone app...

I'm a little slow this morning. :o

One more closer pic of the full tiki from the front of the board game:

I found this while searching around the other day.
http://www.epicdvdshop.com/product.php?productid=401470

I have the Hawaiian Eye comic book that was published by Gold Key comics.

Troy and Connie on the cover

Troy and the Tiki on the back.

There are a few Tiki figures lurking around on the pages in the comic book.

I sure hope Kevin K gets that new Hawaiian mug out soon.

DC

On 2010-07-26 10:33, JOHN-O wrote:
I was re-reading the BigBro's "Sound of Tiki" liner notes on the show. Apparently the cast was never in Hawaii, it was all done on the Warner Brothers soundstage in Burbank !! Even the Hawaiian Village Shell Bar was a set. I guess they had a Hawaiian crew who did the local shooting which was used as rear projection for the actors. :(

John-O, to differentiate: As far as I understand, the H.E. cast and crew did get go to Hawaii once every season, to be in specific shots to be cut into the various scenes in the episodes. That's when the rear projection "plates" were shot for the beach scenes, too. They are easily detectable as such.

All the interiors were sets on the Warner Brothers lot, even the Lanai with its swimming pool at the H.E. detective's office was built on a sound stage.

This artificiality is the other main reason (the first being their Tiki logo) why I call Hawaiian Eye THE Tiki Television show: It was another example of mainland-made Polynesia (unlike Hawaii 5-0, which was shot on location in Waikiki)

Funny thing is that the sets of Polynesian restaurants and bars in the show looked almost under-dressed compared to some of the lavish Tiki temples outside the studio's gates. It was as if the real Polynesian restaurants had taken their cues from film set concepts, but then overshot their teachers artistry.

We know that cast was in Hawaii once in a while from this post by Bigbro from the Kauai Surf Hotel....

On 2010-06-16 23:26, bigbrotiki wrote:

That would be this still from Hawaiian Eye:

Curious, because most of the time the hotel lobby scenes were shot on a set at Warner Brothers in Burbank.

Reminds me of the story of the back-lot scene with the Adventures in Paradise boat The Tiki docked at the fake lagoon, as posted by Bigbro.

DC

I would love to see this show (I've been a fan of Rod Taylor since the Time Machine and the sci-fi western Outlaws he did back in the 80's), but that is a pretty pricey set.