By the fall of 1963, the granddaddy of Warner Bros. detective shows had grown pretty tired. At the same time, Jack Webb replaced Willian T. Orr (Jack Warner's son-in-law) as head of Warner's TV division. The result of this was a totally revamped 77 Sunset Strip. Only the Stu Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) character was retained in the new format, and his office was moved from the Sunset Strip to a vintage office building in Los Angeles. The show kicked off with a five part episode ("Five") brimming with name guest stars and filmed in New York as well as LA (and, one presumes, on the Warner back lot). I was a junior in high school at the time, and can't remember too much of the plot, except that Stu Bailey needed to follow a number of obscure clues to find a key which fit a lock...OK, I don't remember what it would unlock. However, the production values were well above the previous level of this series and most anything on TV at the time. Webb may have directed some or all of the five parts of "Five." Certainly no expense was spared. The other stories after "Five" were also of a greater depth and quality than normally associated with Warner's penny pinching TV production reputation. Despite this, the series was canceled at the end of the season. And I believe Warner Bros. terminated Webb's contract at the same time. Of course, the fall of 1963 was a time when those who still retained an innocent optimism about America's future saw it fade with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Perhaps after that, audiences weren't in the mood for serious drama on a series that had previously been played at least partially for laughs.
