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77 SUNSET STRIP

"The Gang's All Here"

Original air date Jun 29, 1962
Directed by James Komack
Written by Roy Glenn & Jim Waters

Regular Cast
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Stuart Bailey
Roger Smith as Jeff Spencer
Edd Byrnes as Kookie
Jacqueline Beer as Suzanne Fabray
Louis Quinn as Roscoe

Guest Cast
Sammy Davis, Jr. as Kid Pepper
Peter Brown as Timmy Ellison
Dick Foran as Lt. Ellison
Roy Glenn as Big John Pepper
Sammy Davis, Sr. as cashier
Jim Waters as Checker

77 Sunset Strip was one of several Warner Brothers detective shows which ran in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 77 Sunset Strip (10-1958 through 12-1964) was one of the most successful. The regular stars included Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and Roger Smith, the original partners in the detective agency; Edd Byrnes, as Kookie, originally the jive talking parking attendant who became a full-fledged detective after a job action against Warner Brothers; Louis Quinn, their colorful "pony tipster;" Jacqueline Beer as the French secretary and Robert Logan who replaced Kookie as parking attendant after Kookie moved up.

It was very common for Warners players from one series to appear on another series, sometimes in character. Peter Brown's appearance in this episode came after Lawman ended its run in the fall of 1962. Peter plays the alienated son of a police lieutenant who has taken up with pool hall riff raff. Lt. Ellison seeks out his friend Stuart Bailey to help him get his son off the path to perdition to a more mature course. (Would it have helped to stop calling him "Timmy?")

Kookie is sent to infiltrate the pool hall crowd because detective or not, he's still cool. His ex-con, jive talking cover quickly impresses the two would-be crooks who are convinced that with the addition of Kookie, they can pull off the intended burglary. However, during the course of the burglary Kookie brings Kid Pepper to his knees when he puts an (unloaded) handgun to his father's head and threatens to kill him. Kid declares his love for his father and begs Kookie not to kill him. Lt. Ellison and Stuart Bailey enter. Ellison announces he will have to turn Timmy and Kid over to the law but that he will stand behind his son all the way. In a touching moment, Timmy declares that was all he wanted.

Sammy Davis, Jr. plays Peter's best friend, the alienated son of a janitor who fancies himself a bad ass criminal. He has a plan to rip off one of the companies his father works for by copying his father's keys.

NiteOwl Review: We'll bet Peter had fun making this episode with his friends Sammy and Edd, with the added touch of Sammy Davis, Sr. in a bit part. Although it was nice seeing the three of them together, the episode didn't have much else enduring about it. We admit we probably liked it better when we saw it almost 50 years ago. In our opinion, Warners detective series didn't hold up as well as the western series much as we liked them at the time. Dated as they are, we'd love to see them again.

Official Peter Brown Fan Site