Warner Bros. Classic TV Detectives Were the "Ginchiest" - Part 1

Roger Smith, Edd Byrnes, and
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

Warner Bros. was the kingpin of prime-time crime shows on television in the early 1960s. All its series featured the same formula: good-looking private eyes that worked in exotic locales surrounded by beautiful women and assisted by a kooky assistant or two. Warner's first series, 77 Sunset Strip, established the formula, became a cultural phenomenon, and ran for six seasons. Its creation and evolution form a fascinating backstory.

Franchot Tone as the
original Stu Bailey.

Writer (and future TV executive) Roy Huggins wrote several literary novels and short stories in the 1940s and 1950s featuring a private eye named Stu Bailey. Franchot Tone played Bailey in a 1948 film called I Love Trouble. In 1956, Huggins penned a pilot episode for a television series with Bailey called "Anything for Money" on the anthology TV series Conflict. The pilot, which starred Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., didn't sell, but it intrigued Warner Bros. enough to order a second pilot. However, the studio wanted the running time expanded to 90 minutes so it could be marketed as a feature film. Huggins and screenwriter Marion Hargrove came up with Girl on the Run (1958), with Zimbalist reprising his role of Bailey. It served as a second pilot episode for the 77 Sunset Strip TV series and was also released overseas as a theatrical film.

Warner Bros. picked up the series, but the show's convoluted creation led to a dispute with Huggins over royalties and who held the rights to any future film involving the characters. Huggins eventually left 77 Sunset Strip to devote more time to Maverick, another show he created. Huggins enjoyed a long and extremely successful career as a studio executive and TV producer, creating classic series such as The Fugitive and The Rockford Files.

Kookie combing his hair
(what else?).

En route from the movie Girl on the Run to the 77 Sunset Strip TV series, other changes occurred. Stu Bailey acquired a partner in Jeff Spencer (Roger Smith), a former federal agent (like Bailey) who was also a non-practicing attorney. In Girl on the Run, Edd Byrnes played a sociopathic killer named Kenneth Smiley, who had a propensity for combing his hair. During a screening of the film, the young members of the audiences reacted so favorably to Byrnes that he was added to the TV series cast--as a good guy. He played a valet named Gerald Lloyd Kookson III--"Kookie" for short--who still liked to comb his hair.

77 Sunset Strip debuted on ABC in October 1958 and was an instant hit. It climbed in popularity, peaking at #6 in th Nielsen ratings for the 1959-60 season (tied with Father Knows Best). It also became a cultural phenomenon with its hip theme song (complete with snapping fingers) and Kookie, who unexpectedly became the most popular member of the cast. His "Kookie-isms"--his personal slang expressions--appealed to the show's young viewers. Examples include: "a dark seven" (a depressing week); "headache grapplers" (aspirin); and the "ginchiest" (the greatest).

Edd Byrnes even parlayed his fame to a brief singing career, scoring a novelty hit with "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb" (a No. 4 hit on the Billboard Top 40). At the height of his popularity, Byrnes demanded a larger part on the series and walked out. He returned after a short hiatus, though, and Kookie was promoted to partner in the detective firm.

Zimbalist moved from one
hit to another.

By its fifth season, ratings had declined significantly. Roger Smith had left after a blod clot was discovered in his brain and Richard Long became a new partner. In 1963, Warners hired Jack Webb and William Conrad to totally revamp the show. They first fired the cast, retaining only Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and transformed Stu Bailey into a globe-hopping federal agent. The new 77 Sunset Strip never caught fire and show was cancelled in February 1964.

Zimbalist wasn't out of work for long. The next fall, he was headlining a new TV series, Quinn Martin's long-running The F.B.I. Roger Smith retired from acting in 1965 and became a full-time agent for his wife, Ann-Margret. Edd Byrnes never matched his "Kookie" success, but appeared in numerous TV series and films, include the musical Grease.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this profile of Warner TV detective series, to include Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, and Bourbon Street. And if you feel an urge to hear the theme to 77 Sunset Strip, click on the link below. And, yes, the Dino's Lodge that appears in the opening was owned by Dean Martin.