5: Part 1

Somebody help me! No-one has mentioned what, to me, was the biggest change that came with the series re-vamping - new theme music. This was the best TV theme I have ever heard, up to and including today. It has as much to do with the previous finger-snapping nonsense as a commercial jingle has to Beethoven. It had horns and strings and was incredibly stirring music. I relate it to The Magnificent Seven theme in quality. I've been able to locate this series' original theme in several places, but no luck finding the last seasons' music. Please post a comment if you have any info on this. As far as the show in this final season, I had always enjoyed the program and I continued to watch even after every resemblance to the original was dropped.

While there is some praise for the last season of 77 Sunset Strip, it is obviously misplaced. The show only got an order for about half the episodes of seasons one through five, and then it was gone.

The iconic theme song was replaced by a drab James Bond wannabe composition. The colorful co-stars -- gone without explanation. In the first show, Bailey claims to be broke.

While the series always threw in a few noir plots, the last season seems dedicated to that, with drab voice-over exposition and a constantly dark look.

We can blame Jack Webb for much of this. His vision of TV worked OK for Dragnet. It torpedoed 77 Sunset Strip and sent it straight to the bottom. When a series has a loyal following for five years, it's sheer folly to turn everything on its ear. Possibly the desire to bandwagon the spy craze spelled the end for Sunset Strip just as it did for Burke's Law. Sad. However, this season really didn't even manage that. All they managed was to copy cheesy 30s and 40s noir film.

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. looks miserable and out of sorts for this entire episode. With his co-stars and friends axed and the premise ruined, I'm sure he was at odds with the changes and felt the death grip of tanking ratings closing about the throat of the series. Even the character of Stuart Bailey is present in name only, with lines completely foreign to the character's history.

This show was the first of a five part episode, and the supporting cast is deep and impressive -- but ultimately wasted with the depressing plot and shady characters.

I was a teen when my favorite TV show had its fall premiere in 1963 with this five part episode. I hated it and, without warning, the total revamp of the series. All my favorite characters were gone, without explanation, and suddenly Stu Bailey no longer worked at 77 Sunset Strip....despite the show's name. All they kept was EZ, Jr. and the show name, and they changed Bailey's personality significantly from an easy-going PI who got along well with the police, to a terse PI who maintained the typical film-noir antagonism with the cops.

I felt totally betrayed by the show's producers and there was no way I was prepared to accept this "abomination", so I stopped watching and was not surprised when I heard it was canceled in mid-season. Watching these episodes now fifty years later, as an older adult, they actually were fairly well done if you're a fan of the film-noir style, a hard-bitten detective slinging along solo and taking on all comers.

On its own, this five-part season opener and the subsequent episodes hold up well...as a totally separate show. My opinion is that Jack Webb and William Conrad shot themselves, and the show, in the foot by trying to hold onto the show's audience by keeping same name. If they had changed the name of the show, say to "Stu Bailey, PI", and opened the first episode with some explanation as to why the dramatic change, it might have worked better and held an adult audience. As it was, us kids back then could not accept it...we wanted our Kookie!

To Samurray: You are right on the money about the new theme song for the final season of 77 Sunset Strip. It's one of the best ever. I don't know of any source for this on CD, but I have an old 33 1/3 rpm vinyl record called Top TV Themes of 1964, and that's one of them, as performed by a Warner Bros. orchestra. It is truly stirring and exciting and should be better preserved. Best of luck finding a copy. Clearly, the show was taking an entirely new direction in this season, with only Efrem Zimbalist Jr. remaining from the original cast. The show took a far more serious tone and even opened its final season with a five-part storyline -- almost unheard of for a network series at that time. And again, the theme song drove home this new approach and new tone. So glad someone else recognizes it as such. Thanks.

A five-episode series introduction to a newly revamped show? Poor idea. Bailey chases one lead after another getting nowhere fast. It was as if the writer new he had to do five shows and was required to fill air time. Dull? Boring? Yeah.

An army of guest stars paraded before and after each episode cannot make up for the weaknesses in the story. This was so bad I decided not to bother with the remaining episodes of the season. Jack Webb and William Conrad are no longer around to share a clothespin award. Save yourself the trouble and agony of watching this season. It is not worth it.