Set against the beautiful tropical landscape of Honolulu, Hawaii, this series centered around the cases of Hawaiian Eye Private Investigations and the two handsome, slick, tough-guy detectives who ran the firm, Thomas Jefferson Lopaka, or Tom for short, and Tracy Steele, a Korean War veteran and former city police detective. They operated out of a swank office at the Hawaiian Village Hotel, where they were also the house detectives. Assisting them occasionally was a funny, ukulele-strumming Hawaiian taxi driver named Kazuo Kim, whose wardrobe, consisting of a straw hat and crazy Hawaiian shirts, and numerous relatives living all over the Hawaiian Islands, willing to help his employers if they needed it, provided invaluable comic relief. They were also aided by a dim-bulbed, scatter-brained, flippant nightclub singer and photographer named Chryseis "Cricket" Blake. Later joining the team, was private eye Greg MacKenzie, an old friend of Tom's from the mainland. Troy Donahue came along in the last season, as hotel Social Director Philip Barton. Lieutenant Danny Quon was their contact on the police force who was always on call to provide any vital information that could help the Eyes crack a case. Ah, TV was a much simpler place back then. They didn't have gimmicks like car chases or explosions, and the plots were fairly transparent by today's standards, but it still holds up well as solid entertainment. Only one thing - the idea of an exotic Hawaiian location was nice, but we all know that not one foot of film was shot there, right? All done on the Warner Bros. sets in Burbank…..still, it paved the way for H-50 a few years down the road! Aloha After the hip, breezy opening credits sequence (with most of the cast riding surfboards on the foamy waves off Honolulu), "Hawaiian Eye" becomes a strictly set-bound detective series that drags its feet in the proverbial sand. The ABC show (popular for four seasons, though not in reruns) was recently seen, briefly, on the American Life network, but I was disappointed with the writing, the direction, the slim budget and the way gorgeous, mercurial Connie Stevens is shunted off to the Shell Bar without much dialogue (once Troy Donahue joined the cast in the final season, Connie's role was apparently expanded). Grant Williams is handsome but bland, muscular Robert Conrad is inert, but Poncie Ponce gives the proceedings a little bounce. Sometimes, the stories about these "great old TV shows" are actually much better than the programs themselves.
Heydchin replied
370 weeks ago