Efrem Zimbalist, Jr’s death reminded me that I never got to see 77 Sunset Strip. I can’t recall it ever being run in syndication on any of the cable channels.
I’ve seen a lot of 1960’s shows thanks to cable syndication. Star Trek came on from 4 to 5pm. I watched it every weekday after getting home from school. Worked out great, because dad took over the tv for the local news at 5.
A short list of series I’ve seen on cable. Leave it to Beaver, Mannix, Big Valley, Bonanza, Perry Mason, Batman, Andy Griffith Show, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie, Brady Bunch, Partridge Family. I could keep on listing great shows that I was too young to see when they were in prime time. Cable filled in a lot of gaps in my tv experience.
Does anybody remember 77 Sunset Strip running in syndication? You recall which channel? TBS? WGN 9? Those are two I used to watch a lot.
I know it would be horribly dated today. I’ve heard it was one of the coolest shows on tv in the early 60’s. Even had a song written called Kookie, Kookie Lend Me Your Comb. Kookie was the hip and cool character in 77 Sunset Strip. Just like Fonzie was the cool character in the 70’s when Happy Days was on tv.
Seems so strange that such an iconic show didn’t run in syndication during the 70’s and 80’s.
I have a vague recollection of it being on in Minnesota in the early '80s (maybe Sundays on KXLI 41, out of St Cloud?), but I don’t think it lasted long.
Can’t speak to syndication, but I watched it faithfully as a young kid on the network in prime time. It was my favorite show as an 8-year-old, for whatever reason. I can still name all of the actors and their character names, including Kookie’s replacement J.R.
Watched it sometimes when it was first-run in primetime. I thought Kookie was cool, Daddy-O, smirking and preening. Listening to the first few bars of that smazzamatazz theme song should indicate how well it’s aged.
“Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb” was on the radio for a while. Considering how much “greasy kid stuff” he used, welder’s gloves would have been advisable for handling that comb.
I preferred the spinoff series “Hawaiian Eye” with Connie Stevens as Cricket Blake.
Saw it during it’s original run. Although I apparently don’t remember all that well. When I was checking IMDb after hearing about EZJ’s death, I was surprised that Connie Stevens wasn’t a regular. I thought she (or one of the blonde clones of that era*) had been on it. Guess it was Hawaiian Eye bleeding over in my brain.
There was some syndication in the 60s, I think mainly afternoons.
It was the last days of the real nightclubs on Sunset, with men in suits and all that Mad Men stuff.
“Hey, did anybody ever tell you that you look just like Connie Stevens? You do, I really mean it. Yeah, I met her once. At a Dick Clark road show. I mean that I’m not just feeding you a line. I really think you do. You look a lot like Connie Stevens.”
Yep, saw it in the 60s as weekday or Saturday filler. We got the other Warner Bros TV: Surfside 6, Bourbon Street Beat, and Hawaiian Eye. I remember watching but no details remain in the brain.
I’m positiive I saw it first on WTTG, I wouldn’t have been able to see it in primetime. I think you’re older than me, but do you remember Pic Temple on in the morning for kids?
The first run of the show predates me but I do remember bumping into reruns while channel surfing in the 70s and 80s. I think Nick-at-Nite might’ve also aired it for a time. Never really watched it though.
It’s one of many old shows that I’ve heard a lot about but I’ve never seen a whole episode of as far as I can recall. Other examples off the top of my head are Peter Gunn, Route 66, Rawhide, The Virginian, Maverick, My Mother the Car, My Favorite Martian, The Many Loves of Doby Gillis, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Our Miss Brooks, Father Knows Best, The Ed Sullivan Show, Medical Center, and Marcus Welby. I’ve never noticed that any of those was running in syndication except, I think, The Virginian used to be on late at night on Nickelodeon many years ago. I once stumbled on an episode of Peter Gunn while flipping through the channels but it was almost over and I never saw another.
I watched a few episodes in its original run, as well as its sister series: Surfside Six, Bourbon Street Beat and The Roaring Twenties.. I also saw it in its original syndication.
The shows probably didn’t get much syndication because they were in black and white. Other than a few exceptions – all comedies – B&W shows of the 50s dropped out of syndication by the 80s.
I remember seeing it in its first run when I was a kid. I always waited for an appearance by Kookie (he was the definition of c-o-o-l in our house), then nodded out after that.
I have the vaguest of memories of it, in prime time. I would hardly call it an “iconic show” except for the theme song. I’m sure other than Kookie combing his greasy hair, there wasn’t much to it other than a snappy theme song. Dopey middle of the road early TV.
I would MUCH rather see reruns of Adventures in Paradise with Gardner McKay. Why don’t they show THAT? At least its got scenery.
Peter Gunn, Route 66, Rawhide, and Dobie Gillis are currently in reruns on MeTV. Father Knows Best is on Antenna TV. The Virginian, Maverick, and Marcus Welby are on COZI TV. I watch all of these shows at least weekly, many of them are on daily. Of course, not all of these channels are available everywhere. But those shows are now currently being run.
I remember it being in syndication in the late 1960s, but I never watched it. It was rerun on the *Goodlife TV Network seven or so years ago. I did watch it then. WB had a formula for it’s Private Eye series of that time. Take a ‘real’ actor (in this case, Zimbalist), a cute guy (Roger Smith), and a quirky character (Kookie and Roscoe). Actually, that’s a pretty common formula for any series.
