Before Steve McGarrett had Danno booking them, before Thomas Magnum started sleuthing out of the guest house of the Robin Masters estate, this duo of Anthony Eisley and Robert Conrad had a detective agency in Honolulu in this first television series to be based out of the Aloha State, Hawaiian Eye.Looking back if I was Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens I'd feel very cheated that Jack Warner didn't bother to spring for a location budget to Hawaii. The entire series was shot on the Warner Brothers sound stage with some establishing footage to make sure you knew it was Hawaii. This was good back in the day when you could have Dick Powell in Flirtation Walk singing Aloha Oe to Ruby Keeler on the sound stage, but audiences wanted more than that. At least movie audiences did. For the small screen Jack Warner and the rest of the brothers wanted things economical.In fact though Warner proved to be quite shrewd in plunging headlong into television production. His son-in-law William T. Orr produced all those westerns and detectives shows that were sprouting like weeds all over TV Land. The sponsor's money for these shows kept Warner Brothers out of the red like other studios were going through.Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens who was the gal pal of both Eisley and Conrad got their first big breaks in Hawaiian Eye. They're the reason the show is remembered today. Anthony Eisley never quite caught on the way the other two did. Hawaiian Eye was a cloned show as was Bourbon Street Beat and Surfside Six of Bill Orr's first success, 77 Sunset Strip. Many times the same plots were used in episodes of the different shows. And the detectives on one series were probably required to do box office duty and make guest appearances on each other's shows, which they did frequently. Talk about a good neighbor policy.Still Conrad and Stevens ought to feel cheated that they didn't get to go to Hawaii for Hawaiian Eye.

Before Hawaii Five-0... before Magnum P.I., there was... Hawaiian Eye!The stars really did surf during the forward credits (I think)! I thought that was so cool! I was only around 5 when this show appeared. What I remember about the show is, Tracy Steele had a really cool name and a pencil thin mustache. I loved pencil-thin mustaches back then. Paladin (Richard Boone) in "Have Gun Will Travel" had one too. I always thought, "When I grow up, I'm going to grow a pencil-thin mustache like those guys. But, I never did.Tom Lopaka. By his name, were we being asked to believe pretty boy, Robert Conrad, was Hawaiian? Puh-LEEZE! There's a link on a website called Whirlygig that offers a portion of the episode called "The Comics." It guest stars Mary Tyler Moore. In it, Tracy Steele has arranged for Lopaka to be asked to the stage in a nightclub they are enjoying for the evening, to sing a song. With a little coaxing, Lopaka goes to the stage and sings the cheesiest lounge lizard style song called, "I Want You, Pretty Baby." Holy cow, is it hokey! Was that really Robert Conrad's voice or was it a dub-in?All that aside, this was a fun detective show. I remember thinking Cricket Blake was pretty cute! Connie Stevens became an early sixties blonde female icon in this series.The series made us think of Hawaii and its tropical enticements. The theme song still haunts my memory.

This was the debut of the brash confidence that made Robert Conrad such a great choice for the James West role in the "Wild Wild West" TV series. The first time you saw the "unique gadgets" and level of action fighting in a TV series that transferred back and forth between both rugged and refined western settings. Conrad's "James West" character bolstered by fellow agent "Artemus Gordon" displays that same type of confident attitude portrayal that made Clint Eastwood famous in his cult Westerns. The Hawaiian Eye cast was young & vibrant with Connie Stevens displaying her trademark girlish sexuality that became evident in her films and in real life. Conrad, handsome and muscular would probably have also been a good choice for the Eastwood type westerns.

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