HAWAIIAN EYE Season One

Connie Stevens, Anthony Eisley, Robert Conrad

HAWAIIAN EYE TV series Season One (1959).

77 Sunset Strip was such a successful private eye show that Warner Brothers producer William Orr decided to use the same formula -- good-looking guys involved with dames and intrigue -- on a series set in Honolulu instead of Los Angeles and the result was Hawaiian Eye. Anthony Eisley and Robert Conrad played the detectives, who have an office complete with bedrooms and swimming pool inside the Hawaiian Village Hotel (which still exists) for which they do security. They also have time to take cases for people who are being threatened or searching for someone who's disappeared etc. 

Douglas Mossman as Moke

There are two other recurring characters, the cab driver and kibitzer Kim (Poncie Ponce), and the singing photographer Cricket Blake (Connie Stevens). Cricket is a petulant, annoying, 12-year-old in a woman's body who has a serious crush on Tracy Steele (Eisner of The Wasp Woman). She not only adds little to the program -- there are plenty of attractive women in the stories -- but her contract obviously gives her the right to sing a song in virtually every episode. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that Stevens' whispery so-called singing is pretty mediocre. Actually Poncie Ponce, who like Stevens is afflicted with terminal cuteness, has a much better voice and is a more talented singer. Others who appeared frequently in the first season and afterward include handsome Hawaiian native Douglas Mossman as security officer Moke and Mel Prestidge  as Lt. Danny Quan, another native Hawaiian who was also a real-life sheriff at the time the show was filming. 

Anthony Eisley and Robert Conrad

Hawaiian Eye was a good and entertaining series if not necessarily a great one. It lasted four seasons, however. Notable episodes include "Beach Boy" with Troy Donahue, Faith Domergue and Robert Lowery in a story of a young man who may or may not be the wealthy heir who supposedly drowned ten years earlier. "Secret of the Second Door" features Harry Bartell in a story of a woman who wants Tom Lopaka (Conrad) to find a stolen cache of money. "Dead Ringer" stars an excellent Dianne Foster and Warren Stevens in a tale of a sinister plot that enfolds Lopaka simply because he resembles Foster's husband. "The Kikiki Kid" stars John Gabriel as a nightclub singer with major show biz aspirations who pursues and romances a columnist (Jean Byron) who can help him while neglecting his wife (Myrna Hansen). Kim is accused of stealing a diamond worth half a million dollars in "Cut of Ice" with Robert Clarke and Frank Albertson. 

Verdict: Fun colorful series with interesting leads and guest performers. ***.