User Reviews

SURFSIDE 6 was a detective series inspired by the popularity of 77 SUNSET STRIP, replacing the New Orleans setting of the newly canceled BOURBON STREET BEAT with an actual Miami address over 20 years before MIAMI VICE, kicking off October 1960. Top billing went to Troy Donahue as wealthy playboy Sandy Winfield, room and board at the Racquet Club paid for by his father, while the actual detectives were Van Williams as Kenny Madison and Lee Patterson as Dave Thorne, with Diane McBain and Margarita Sierra aboard for female support. The second season limped along to 74 episodes before cancelation loomed, Donahue moving over to HAWAIIAN EYE for one more year of fun in the sun. "Witness for the Defense" was a later entry (#40) throwing in a bit of Perry Mason courtroom drama, as Sandy Winfield's latest squeeze Betty (Cathy Case) has a persistent previous suitor in stalking mode, Phil Compton (Phil Arnold), his diamond ring leaving its mark on Sandy's cheek after one kerfuffle, each witnessed by the same cab driver, ex-con Mike Pulaski (Elisha Cook). Mike's closest friend is Tanker Grosch (Lon Chaney), a still formidable former boxer, the perfect patsy in a scheme to kill the hapless Compton and have Sandy Winfield take the rap. Everything goes to plan, one punch from Tanker laying Compton out cold, Mike finishing the job before stealing the victim's wallet and diamond ring, Winfield's arrest bringing his father down from Washington D. C. to offer his assistance to Lee Patterson's Dave Thorne. The case would be entirely circumstantial were it not for eyewitness testimony from stripper Goldie Locke (Marjorie Stapp), claiming to see the culprit's features in the moonlight from her motel window. Pulaski has several aces up his sleeve, demanding a ransom of $100,000 to supply evidence of Sandy's innocence, a pawn ticket leading directly to the unwitting Tanker, who admits to a single blow before being told that several were required to kill the deceased. Blackmail and bribery are all revealed in court, the good natured Tanker not upset that he was used for a fall guy but that Mike won't be his friend anymore. Lon Chaney performs his unmistakable impression of Lennie from "Of Mice and Men," a hulking simpleton who doesn't know his own strength, talking not of rabbits but a yacht, here reunited with director George Waggner, the man who kicked off his success at Universal with "Man Made Monster," "The Wolf Man," and "The Ghost of Frankenstein" (Van Williams does not appear in this episode, the only time we see Winfield Sr. During the show's run).