1. Hawaiian Eye

A television detective show that ran on ABC from 1959 to 1963.

Hawaiian Eye was a detective series set in Honolulu, Hawaii. The show was essentially a carbon-copy of the then hugely popular show 77 Sunset Strip. Both shows featured two good looking detectives, aided by a comic relief-type character and a leggy blonde.

This series centered around the cases of Hawaiian Eye Private Investigations and the two slick, tough-guy detectives who ran the firm - Thomas Jefferson Lopaka (Robert Conrad) and Tracy Steele (Anthony Eisley), a Korean War veteran and former police detective.

Lopaka and Steele operated out of a swanky office located in the Hawaiian Village Hotel.

The duo was assisted occasionally by Kazuo Kim (Poncie Ponce), a funny, ukulele-strumming Hawaiian cab driver. Each week, Kazuo donned a straw hat and an assortment of Hawaiian shirts, and rattled off an endless series of bad jokes. His - and his numerous relatives living all over the Hawaiian Islands, were willing to help out from time to time.

Lopaka and Steele were also aided by a scatter-brained, blonde nightclub singer and photographer named Chryseis "Cricket" Blake (Connie Stevens).

Later in the series, Lt. Danny Quon (Mel Prestige) became the requisite police detective who was always available to provide 'official' information. In the final season the team brought on board a mainland friend of Tom's, detective Greg MacKenzie (Grant Williams)


Hawaiian Eye on IMDB.



Updated March 10, 2005