Honey West: The Complete Series (4pc) (Full B&W)

How cool were the 60's? If this show is any indicator, the 60's were like, UberCool. Somewhere between the innocence of the 50's, and the love-ins and be-ins(and sometimes violent protests) of the late 60's and early 70's, were the early to mid-60's. The country and the world were in a state of transition, and the entertainment of that era reflected it. Beach parties and Beatlemania was upon us, pop groups became TV stars, and spy shows were played both straight and for laughs. The one common thread through all of these things was that they were perceived as COOL, at least for their time.

HONEY WEST is a prime example. I have vague recollections of watching some episodes during its initial run, but it may have been too "serious" for my 12 year old mentality at the time. Looking back on it now, it really was a great show, and Anne Francis was drop-dead sexy in the title role. Curiously, the show was only a half hour series, and I think many of the stories could have benefited with a longer time slot. Perhaps the network execs of that day thought it was too lightweight to hold its audience for a full hour. All I know is that the stories are tightly written, move along at a terrific pace, but are then over before you know it.

In any case, HONEY WEST is truly a rediscovered gem from a bygone era. The DVDs are crystal clear and sound great, and the packaging is compact and efficient. Though the shows are almost like a mini time capsule, they hold up surprisingly well even today. The clothes, the cars, the "sophisticated" gadgets, the 60's style karate chops - all make it seem both dated but somehow quaintly cool, like some of the early Bond pictures. It's a real blast from the past, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who either lived through that decade, or wants to have a look back at when things were REALLY cool!

What a fun, sometimes campy 60's private eye show with a stereotype-breaking female heroine! This short-lived series ran from 1965-1966 for about 40 episodes. Honey West used martial arts, guns, and gadgets to trap her prey, all the while looking young, stylish, and as savvy as the episodic writing would allow for the times. Anne Francis was oh so very young during this show but had the voice and spirit of someone older than her years. Each episode runs about 23 minutes, and there's a chapter stop that allows the viewer to skip the somewhat bizarre still-photo opening/credits. The transfer is good, there's minimal grain and the mono sound is excellent.

Honey West has several attractions. As a detective show, it covers the basics of a new mystery in each episode, seemingly packing as much into its half-hour format (25 minutes without the ads) as many hour-length shows. It's got action, if mostly of the most rudimentary kind--rock'em-sock'em fights with karate chops, and a few more elaborate action set pieces. There are spy gadgets, though nothing very exotic: communication devices in sunglasses, surveillance gear, a little knock-out gas, that sort of thing. It's got attitude, both tongue-in-cheek humor and some early feminist chic--Honey West is in charge, sexy and smart, kicking butt with martial arts while also remaining sweet and hardly offensive to male insecurities. And it's got attractive stars, not only the bemoled Anne Francis in the title role but also John Ericson as her partner with the equally pulpy name Sam Bolt, who looks at various angles like Warren Beatty or Kurt Russell, and who seems to be doing a bit of young Brando at times. There's also Irene Hervey as Honey's Aunt Meg, who brings a homey charm (can't help but think of Margaret Sullavan in The Shop Around the Corner when I watch her mannerisms). And of course there's Bruce Biteabit, Honey's pet ocelot, emphasizing Honey's own feline qualities.

The script formula

The formula for the show is pretty simple. A typical episode starts with some provocative event, such as Honey stealing a museum artifact, or gunshots followed by Sam jumping through a window and running to Honey's waiting car. Honey has been hired or will soon be hired to investigate something related to the opening scene. Honey and/or Sam often gets a job at some crucial location (they seem to never have trouble getting hired) to do undercover work, during which they sometimes communicate by talking into their fake eyeglasses or the like. Often Honey ends up in some skimpy clothes or elegant gown. Almost always Sam does surveillance from his Econoline van, fitted out with a periscope, listening equipment, and monitors to watch from remote cameras. There's a lot of witty banter, or at least tongue-in-cheek banter, especially between Honey and Sam, and sometimes between them and the criminals who are happy to explain their plans before attempting to kill them. At some point there is a fight where Honey, often joined by Sam, usually knocks someone out with karate chops. If it's the last fight of the show, it's topped off with a witty remark or two. Then there's a brief final scene where it's time to relax or celebrate, often with Sam and Honey going out for dinner.

Some romantic tension between Sam and Honey is maintained, but not much ever comes of it (it is the first season, after all). Sam is devoted, Honey merely friendly. They're a team, each backing the other and sometimes taking the lead, though Honey often frustrates Sam by doing whatever she wants despite his worries for her safety.

Guns are of little use. If someone brandishes a gun, it will usually be knocked out of his (sometimes her) hand, leading to a fight in which Honey will flip the bad guy over by the arm, and chop him unconscious. Honey and Sam get their share of concussions too--thank goodness they're both quick healers!

A favorite technique to transition between scenes, used about once per episode, sometimes more, is to start a sentence in one scene and finish it in the next. For example, after Honey and Sam have a tiff, Aunt Meg says to Honey, "You'd make a nice couple. Why not get married, then you can fight ..." [sudden scene change to Sam telling Honey apropos something else entirely] "... legally, that's the only way to do things, legally." Or, as a variation, Sam yells at Honey, "It's not the first time you shaded the facts! Are you doing it now? Because if you're fencing ..." [cut to scene with Honey watching two people fencing]. Just another fun touch.

The scripts are by a bunch of different people (and there were about as many directors) but are consistent enough in characterization. The quality of the mysteries varies from pretty good to absurdly silly, but both kinds have their pleasures.

1965

The series has plenty of period atmosphere. The clothes precede the height of 60s fashion, and Honey's high-class wardrobe is mostly in a less obviously time-bound style, but "flood" pants are in evidence, along with thin ties (almost all the men wear them, mostly with suits), a few floral prints. The decor is more late 50s and early 60s than what the 60s came to be known for.

There are a few attempts to show "mod" culture, the clothes, hair, attitudes and dancing, very tame, mild stuff but amusing. One episode features Bobby Sherman as a rock-and-roller with a substantial acting role.

There are lots of big cars with big engines, many of them convertibles. Honey's own car is a tiny, very sporty brand new convertible Shelby Cobra, with a Ford 289 engine.

Fans of Gilligan's Island will recognize the lagoon in one episode, along with a few other borrowings in others.

Special features

The special features add to the retro experience. On each of the four DVDs, separate from the episodes, there are some vintage TV ads such as would have been played during the show, about 50 altogether. They're for cigarettes and cigars, makeup, perfume, ordinary stuff, along with some promos for the series itself. All in black and white.

There are also some still photos in a sort of slide show on the first two CDs.

Guest stars

Since the show only ran for one season it didn't rack up the list of guest stars that many series do, but there are several faces you'll recognize. Besides Bobby Sherman, there's Dick Clark, a very young Maureen McCormick (Marsha Brady), Wayne Rogers (Trapper John), and a bunch of popular character actors, including Joe Don Baker (CIA agent Jack Wade in GoldenEye) in his first credited role, John McGiver (the friendly Tiffany's salesman in Breakfast at Tiffany's), Michael J. Pollard (Barrow sidekick C.W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde), and Warren Stevens (Doc Ostrow in Forbidden Planet).

Music

The theme and score is light jazz, with some of the campy lounge style that was used in TV themes of the day. Lots of sax, muted horns, blaring horns, marimbas, discreet electric guitar, double bass, drums. Joseph Mullendore (1914-1990), the composer/arranger of the score, worked on many TV shows and several films in the 50s through 1970. A soundtrack album is available on CD (here).

Cancelation

According to Anne Francis and others, despite being up against more popular shows, Honey West was expected to go into a second season, in color, but ABC decided they could buy the US broadcast rights to the British series The Avengers, which had been part of the inspiration for Honey West (along with the more tawdry Honey West books), for less money than making their own series. Francis has said that this might have been a blessing for her, as she had a four-year-old child at the time and found the intensive schedule of a TV series very taxing.

Picture/sound quality

I'm with the crowd who thinks this one is good in black and white. It fits the noir detective aspects and keeps the limited production values of a mid-60s TV show from being even more obvious.

The picture quality is pretty good. If you look closely, it's pixelly, with lots of "jaggies," some moire, but it probably looks better than it did on a lot of TVs when it was broadcast, with pretty good detail and contrast, not oversharpened. The prints are clean, with only the occasional speck.

The sound is generally good clear mono, out of sync in a few places, but not too badly.

Where are they now?

The stars of the series had careers in both film and TV before their TV work pretty well kept them mostly on TV. (It used to be that film producers just wouldn't hire TV actors.) I haven't seen them lately and got to wondering whatever happened to them. Here, for the curious, is what I found.

Anne Francis did some movies and a *lot* of TV roles after Honey West, including a reprise of that role for a revival of Burke's Law in 1994. She had what was supposed to be a major role in Funny Girl in 1968, but most of it (and much else) was cut to focus more on Streisand. In 1970 she wrote, directed and produced a short art film about rodeo life called Gemini Rising (shown at festivals and on PBS), but it didn't get open doors for her in those professions. She published an autobiography in 1982, Voices from Home: An Inner Journey, that focuses on her personal development and includes accounts of spiritual and paranormal phenomena. (The book is still available new, and autographed, at her website, annefrancis dot net.) She has pretty much retired from acting (her last film role was in 2004) and lives in Santa Barbara, California. At her website she posts monthly newsletters, several of which have dealt with her recent bout with cancer.

John Ericson now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he has been active in the theater, served on the state film promotion board and, lately, acted in local film projects. After Honey West he, like Francis, did a few movies and lots of TV, until 1989. After a long hiatus from film, he costarred in a small independent film, Birthday, about a young woman and a dying man, and had a supporting role in the wild (and critically panned) feminist Western The Far Side of Jericho, both made in 2006.

Irene Hervey was already through most of her career when she appeared on Honey West. Between 1968 and 1981 she did a few more TV episodes and a couple movie roles, including radio station owner Madge Brenner in 1971's Play Misty for Me. She worked as a travel agent in her later years, taking advantage of the travel benefits to go around the world to see her son, singer Jack Jones, perform. She died in Woodland Hills, California, in 1998.

According to Ralph Helfer, the animal trainer who provided them, Bruce the Ocelot (Bruce Biteabit) was actually several ocelots of more than one subspecies. I was unable to discover their later careers.

Honey's Cobra (the car) is reportedly alive and well in Indiana. A recent photo can be found by googling "honey west" cobra citymax.

In sum

Honey West is fun. It's good light entertainment, a for-the-time unique feminist twist on the detective show, with attractive stars, a little mystery, a little action, some gadgets, some clever dialogue. Not always top-drawer, but still enjoyable even when coasting. Moonlighting fans will find many of the same attractions here.

Several years ago, I purchased the complete set of "Honey West" on VHS tapes. The quality was simply awful. It's such a pleasure to now be able to see the series, I mean literally see each episode. The restoration process was done very well.

A great series that reminds me of Peter Gunn in some ways, only with gadets. The garter belt gas mask in the first episode is good example, for those who remembers what a garter belt is. Good video transfer except the shadow detail isn't always the best, probably a defect in the original filming. A lot of fun to watch!