The show revolved around two Los Angeles detectives, both former governmentsecret agents: Stuart ("Stu") Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist Jr., playing a character that Huggins had created in his 1946 novel The Double Take) and Jeff Spencer (Roger Smith). Spencer was also a former government agent, and a non-practicing attorney. They worked out of swank digs at 77 Sunset Strip, between La Cienega Boulevard and Alta Loma Road on the south side of the Strip next door to Dean Martin's real life pizza joint, Dino's Restaurant, where Suzanne the beautiful French switchboard operator played by Jacqueline Beer, handled the phones.
Hanging around for comic relief were Roscoe the racetrack tout played by Louis Quinn, and the rock and roll-loving, wisecracking, hair-combing, beatnik, P.I. wanna-be, valet parking attendant next door, Gerald Lloyd Kookson III ("Kookie"), played by Edd Byrnes. Comb sales soared. So much for Huggins' hopes for a straight P.I. series. Hardboiled drama was out and occasionally self-deprecating humor was in.
In 1960, Richard Long moved over from the recently cancelled detective series Bourbon Street Beat in his role of Rex Randolph and in 1961 Robert Logan was added as J.R. Hale the new parking lot attendant who spoke usually in abbreviations.
The Edd Byrnes character Kookie became a cultural phenomenon, with his slang expressions such as "ginchy" and "piling up Zs" (sleeping). When Kookie helped the detectives on a case by singing a song, Edd Byrnes began a singing career with "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb" (based on his frequent combing of his hair). When his demands for more money were not met, he left the show, but came back later as a full-fledged partner in the detective firm in May 1960.
In 1963, as the show's popularity waned, the entire cast except for Zimbalist was cut, and Jack Webb was brought in as executive producer and William Conrad as director. The character of Stuart Bailey became a globe-hopping investigator, with lavish international sets. The show was canceled at the end of the year.
The success of 77 Sunset Strip led to the creation of several other detective shows in exotic locales, all produced by the Warner Brothers studio which created "Strip" — Bourbon Street Beat in New Orleans, Hawaiian Eye in Hawaii and Surfside 6, in Miami. The casts (not to mention the scripts) of the various shows sometimes crossed to the other programs, which was logistically easy since they were all actually shot in Hollywood on the Warner Bros. lot.
Currently, there is only a mere engravement in the sidewalk commorating 77 Sunset Strip between La Cienega & Alta Loma Road and the area is slated for re-development as part of "The Sunset Millennium" Project. And in an ironic twist of fate, the opposition to the redevelopment of the area is known as "Save Our Strip" or "SOS" and is spear-headed by former 77 Sunset Strip semi-regular Gigi Verone.
There actually is no number 77 on the Strip, as all Sunset Boulevard addresses have four digits.
Relevant quality search results and fast easy navigation throughout the
different sections of the site, make Americola.com
a great entertainment
search engine offering
celebrity biographies, high resolution
celebrity photos, videos and more.
