This series was produced by Warner Bros. for ABC, and The Kookie Caper (1959) had some inside jokes about other series produced by that studio for ABC. Kookie, portrayed by Edd Byrnes, indicates that he doesn't know that Will Hutchins is the star of Sugarfoot (1957). Later, he can be seen reading an issue of TV Guide, with the stars of Maverick (1957), James Garner and Jack Kelly, on the cover. All three of these shows were produced by Warner Bros.
Even though Dino's Lodge is shown in every episode, Dean Martin, who owned the lodge, was never on the show, nor even mentioned.
The character of Stuart Bailey originally appeared in one novel and three short stories written by series creator Roy Huggins. The character first appeared on screen in Huggins' penned I Love Trouble (1948), he portrayed in that movie by Franchot Tone.
The building in which the detectives' offices were located was, in real life, the home of the Mary Webb Davis modeling agency. The front of the building, the Dino's Lodge driveway, and part of Dino's, were reproduced on a Warner Bros. soundstage, which is where most of the scenes that took place in that area were filmed. The doorknob on the real door was on the left, and that's where it was on the mock-up in the earliest episodes. Later, for some reason, they moved the knob on the soundstage version to the right. The Mary Webb Davis office was eventually replaced by the Tiffany Theatre. The building has since been torn down.
The network handed the creative reins of the show over to Jack Webb and William Conrad for the show's final season. Webb and Conrad proceeded to fire the entire cast except Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and re-molded his character Stuart Bailey into an international spy.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
