Honey West was a TV show from the mid-60's lasting one season. It starred the gorgeous girl from Altair IV from the movie Forbidden Planet - Anne Francis. She portrayed a beautiful detective who had inherited her dad's operation along with his partner "Sam Bolt" portrayed by John Ericson. It was a spin-off of the TV show Burke's Law. There is also Irene Hervey as the sometimes ditzy and sometimes wise Aunt Meg. Another regular on the show was an ocelot named "Bruce".
The series was based on a batch of novels by G.G. Flickling starring the detective Honey West. "G.G. Flickling" was in fact a married couple named Gloria and Forest Flickling. The first of the novels was titled This Girl for Hire and came out in 1957. There followed eight more novels ending with one titled Bombshell in 1964.
Honey fought thugs and unreconstructed Nazis with some success. Enough to spark interest in a television show which itself sparked interest in two more Flicklng novels in the early 70's.
I rather enjoyed the black and white TV show for several reasons. The relationship between Honey and Bolt is caring but pugnacious. There's not much reason to see them in a romantic relationship and that frees the characters up a lot. They are more like older brother and younger sister. Sam is a sometimes cautious, private investigator who uses a lot of high tech to follow his cases. His relative experience and caution is welcome because Honey herself is a bit of a risk taker and is all too ready to walk into dangerous situations and hope for the best. She is bolstered by her considerable fighting skills which often prove overwhelming even for the men who attack her at least once an episode. Sam too is pretty good with his mitts.
Another reason for enjoying the show is the brisk pace. Each episode is only a half-hour long and that makes for smart, quick storytelling with sometimes clever transitions. As the series progressed the stories became a little less about basic gumshoe work and added a bit of sci-fi wonder. Before the show lapsed after a single season and a mere thirty episodes Honey and Sam had confronted a gorilla, a bear and a murderous robot. The pop music scene was often a part of the show's background and there were a few instances of trying to promote the character such as the presence of a Honey West doll in one episode and a dance dedicated to Honey West on another.
Aside from the doll there is one lasting artifact from the show and that's the nigh obligatory comic book from Gold Key. This one alas features some indifferent artwork by Jack Sparling, but something is better than nothing. To read this vintage treasure check out this link. Honey West was a fun light-hearted but still exciting TV show, and I enjoyed swinging through these shows a great deal.
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Gosh, this takes me back. I think I remember her transportation being a generic van (or am I mistaken?), which seemed a little understated for a detective of Honey's mettle--though I'm guessing she operated undercover for her investigations for the most part.
ReplyDeleteSam Bolt drove around throughout the series in a "TV Repair" van which hid all manner of surveillance equipment used in their investigations. Honey for her part drove a Jaguar convertible. Often, she went undercover though she was most of the time discovered.
DeleteWe live in an era where movies less than two hours long are considered short, but I remember seeing a lot of well-structured half-hour TV shows (much in reruns, I guess). The short lived T.H.E. Cat series with music by Lalo Schifrin was stylish and noir-adjacent. There was a WW II spy series called Blue Light, also a half hour, also short-lived. I recently saw the pilot of Man With A Camera on some free streaming platform, with Charles Bronson starring as a two-fisted journalist. I think the reason a lot of early TV had these punchy half-hour shows is a carryover from radio drama. There must've been overlap in producers and writers (and in some actual shows, like Gunsmoke). People actually had lives back then and the idea of binging several hours of television over a weekend might've seemed practically distopian to them.
ReplyDeleteI'd suspect also that producing an "hour" of television (the actual minutes in that hour have shrunk over the years) is cost effective in that there is only one production team and twice the commercial time. Less creativity and more ads seems to be in keeping with those make-a-buck ideals that motivate practically all of modern life. (That sounded a bit more cynical than I intended.)
DeleteOh yeah, the great (and not so great) spy era of the '60's! Loved Anne! A lot of one season wonders came and went. Funny thing though, 30 episodes/one season back then would have been 3 seasons nowadays.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough.
DeleteHoney was introduced on TV via a "backdoor pilot" on Burke's Law, another fabulous, lighthearted detective show from the 60s, starring Gene Barry as a millionaire playboy/homicide detective. Really. Episodes were an hour long, and often full of interesting guest stars, many from the Golden Age of Hollywood. It's worth checking out as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've seen an episode of Burke's Law, but you make sound intriguing.
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