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Honey West (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Honey West is an American crime drama
television series that aired on ABC
during the 1965-1966 television season. The series stars Anne Francis
as female private detective Honey West
and John Ericson as her partner Sam Bolt.
Only 30 episodes were produced. The entire first season is available on DVD.
"G.G. Fickling" in the late 1950s. Skip had been a United States Army Air Forces
Air Gunner
during World War II, then enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve after the war where he was called back into active service during the Korean War
. The G.G. represented the initials of his wife, Gloria Gautraud who he married in 1949 with initials being used so the sex of the author would remain vague. Though Gloria said that most of the writing was done by Forrest, Forrest said Gloria's ideas were used to make a plausible female character with Gloria also providing Honey's dress sense. Forrest told the Los Angeles Times
"I first thought of Marilyn Monroe
, and then I thought of [fictional detective] Mike Hammer
and decided to put the two together...We thought the most used name for someone you really like is Honey. And she lives in the West, so there was her name."
West was one of the first female "private eyes" to ever appear on television. Francis first played West in the second season episode of Burke's Law
entitled "Who Killed the Jackpot?", broadcast on April 2, 1965, which led to this series being commissioned as a spin-off. Honey West was intended to be the American equivalent of the popular characters Emma Peel
and Cathy Gale
in the British series The Avengers
.
Produced by Aaron Spelling
, his first choice for the role of Honey was Honor Blackman
who Spelling had seen when he was in England where she played Cathy Gale on The Avengers and Pussy Galore in Goldfinger
. Blackman turned the role down. Anne Francis' fashions in the Honey role were by Nolan Miller
with her action scenes choreographed by Gene LeBell
.
named Bruce. (In "The Fun-Fun Killer," which originally aired on March 4, 1966, the African series Daktari
is showing on Honey's TV set, and Honey asks, "Oh Bruce, why do we always have to watch your show?")
Honey's alluring feline qualities were reflected in her animal-print wardrobe and apartment decor. For sneaking around at night and engaging in energetic fight scenes, she wears a black fabric bodystocking
reminiscent of Emma Peel's leather jumpsuit. Like Peel's Lotus Elan
sports car, Honey's similar-looking AC Cobra
convertible emphasized her independence and vitality. Although the racy content of the novels was excised for television, West often goes on solo undercover missions that required a provocative or revealing outfit.
She uses a number of James Bond
-like gimmicks: a high-tech surveillance van, an exploding compact, a garter-belt gas mask, and tear-gas earrings. West is a black-belt in Judo
, as is Sam.
. Second, the network reportedly decided it would be cheaper to import The Avengers and run it in the same time slot than to keep producing Honey West. Francis nonetheless received a Golden Globe Award for her performance.
VCI Entertainment issued a North American Region 1 DVD release of the series in September 2008.
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
television series that aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
during the 1965-1966 television season. The series stars Anne Francis
Anne Francis
Anne Lloyd Francis was an American actress, best known for her role in the science fiction film classic Forbidden Planet , and as the female private detective in the television series Honey West . She won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in Honey West...
as female private detective Honey West
Honey West
Honey West is a fictional character created by Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym "G.G. Fickling", and appearing in eleven mystery novels by the duo.The character is notable as being one of the first female private detectives in popular fiction...
and John Ericson as her partner Sam Bolt.
Only 30 episodes were produced. The entire first season is available on DVD.
Creation
The Honey West character was created by Gloria and Forrest E. "Skip" Fickling under the pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"G.G. Fickling" in the late 1950s. Skip had been a United States Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
Air Gunner
Air gunner
An air gunner a.k.a. aerial gunner is a member of an air force aircrew who operates flexible-mount or turret-mounted machine guns or autocannons in an aircraft...
during World War II, then enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve after the war where he was called back into active service during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. The G.G. represented the initials of his wife, Gloria Gautraud who he married in 1949 with initials being used so the sex of the author would remain vague. Though Gloria said that most of the writing was done by Forrest, Forrest said Gloria's ideas were used to make a plausible female character with Gloria also providing Honey's dress sense. Forrest told the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
"I first thought of Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, and then I thought of [fictional detective] Mike Hammer
Mike Hammer
Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:...
and decided to put the two together...We thought the most used name for someone you really like is Honey. And she lives in the West, so there was her name."
West was one of the first female "private eyes" to ever appear on television. Francis first played West in the second season episode of Burke's Law
Burke's Law
Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...
entitled "Who Killed the Jackpot?", broadcast on April 2, 1965, which led to this series being commissioned as a spin-off. Honey West was intended to be the American equivalent of the popular characters Emma Peel
Emma Peel
Emma Peel was a fictional spy played by Diana Rigg in the British 1960s adventure television series The Avengers. She was born Emma Knight, the daughter of an industrialist, Sir John Knight.-Casting:...
and Cathy Gale
Cathy Gale
Dr Cathy Gale was a fictional character, played by Honor Blackman, on the 1960s British series The Avengers. She was the first regular female partner of John Steed following the departure of Steed's original male co-star, Dr David Keel...
in the British series The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
.
Produced by Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
, his first choice for the role of Honey was Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
who Spelling had seen when he was in England where she played Cathy Gale on The Avengers and Pussy Galore in Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
. Blackman turned the role down. Anne Francis' fashions in the Honey role were by Nolan Miller
Nolan Miller
Nolan Miller is an American fashion designer and television costume designer best known for his work on the long-running 1980s series Dynasty, its spin-off series The Colbys and the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. He collaborated on many projects with television producers Aaron Spelling and...
with her action scenes choreographed by Gene LeBell
Gene LeBell
Ivan Gene LeBell is a former American Judo champion, instructor, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and professional wrestler born in Los Angeles, California. LeBell has worked on over 1,000 films and TV shows, and has authored a number of books.In 2000, he was promoted to 9th Dan in US Ju-Jitsu...
.
Synopsis
West has a partner and man-Friday, Sam Bolt (John Ericson), who communicates with Honey via a radio hidden in her lipstick case. She keeps an exotic pet ocelotOcelot
The ocelot , pronounced /ˈɒsəˌlɒt/, also known as the dwarf leopard or McKenney's wildcat is a wild cat distributed over South and Central America and Mexico, but has been reported as far north as Texas and in Trinidad, in the Caribbean...
named Bruce. (In "The Fun-Fun Killer," which originally aired on March 4, 1966, the African series Daktari
Daktari
Daktari is an American children's drama series that aired on CBS between 1966 and 1969. The series, an Ivan Tors Films Production in association with MGM Television, stars Marshall Thompson as Dr. Marsh Tracy, a veterinarian at the fictional Wameru Study Centre for Animal Behaviour in East...
is showing on Honey's TV set, and Honey asks, "Oh Bruce, why do we always have to watch your show?")
Honey's alluring feline qualities were reflected in her animal-print wardrobe and apartment decor. For sneaking around at night and engaging in energetic fight scenes, she wears a black fabric bodystocking
Bodystocking
A bodystocking is a one-piece article of lingerie that covers the torso, legs and sometimes the arms of the wearer. Similar in texture and look to stockings or pantyhose, a bodystocking is not a unitard, which is worn as an outfit or article of clothing, or a leotard, which is used as a practice...
reminiscent of Emma Peel's leather jumpsuit. Like Peel's Lotus Elan
Lotus Elan
Lotus Elan is the name of two convertible cars and one fixed head coupé produced by Lotus Cars. The original Type 26, 26R Racing version , 36R Racing version , 36 Fixed Head Coupe, 45 Drop Head Coupe, and the "Type 50" +2 Coupe, circa 1962 to 1975, are commonly known as the '60s Elans...
sports car, Honey's similar-looking AC Cobra
AC Cobra
The AC Cobra, also known colloquially as the Shelby Cobra in North America, is an Anglo-American sports car that was produced during the 1960s.-History and development:...
convertible emphasized her independence and vitality. Although the racy content of the novels was excised for television, West often goes on solo undercover missions that required a provocative or revealing outfit.
She uses a number of James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
-like gimmicks: a high-tech surveillance van, an exploding compact, a garter-belt gas mask, and tear-gas earrings. West is a black-belt in Judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
, as is Sam.
Reception
Honey West was cancelled after just one season. This came down to two factors -- first, competition from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.The show renders the title as Gomer Pyle - USMC. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy...
. Second, the network reportedly decided it would be cheaper to import The Avengers and run it in the same time slot than to keep producing Honey West. Francis nonetheless received a Golden Globe Award for her performance.
Cast
- Anne FrancisAnne FrancisAnne Lloyd Francis was an American actress, best known for her role in the science fiction film classic Forbidden Planet , and as the female private detective in the television series Honey West . She won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy award for her role in Honey West...
as Honey West - John EricsonJohn Ericson (Actor)John Ericson is a German-American actor and film and television star....
as Sam Bolt - Irene Hervey as Aunt Meg
Season 1
| Ep # | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Swingin' Mrs. Jones" | September 17, 1965 |
| 2 | "The Owl and the Eye" | September 24, 1965 |
| 3 | "The Abominable Snowman" | October 1, 1965 |
| 4 | "A Matter of Wife and Death" | October 8, 1965 |
| 5 | "Live a Little, Kill a Little" | October 15, 1965 |
| 6 | "Whatever Lola Wants...." | October 22, 1965 |
| 7 | "The Princess and the Paupers" | October 29, 1965 |
| 8 | "In the Bag" | November 5, 1965 |
| 9 | "The Flame and the Pussycat" | November 12, 1965 |
| 10 | "A Neat Little Package" | November 19, 1965 |
| 11 | "A Stitch in Crime" | November 26, 1965 |
| 12 | "A Million Bucks in Anybody's Language" | December 3, 1965 |
| 13 | "The Gray Lady" | December 10, 1965 |
| 14 | "Invitation to Limbo" | December 17, 1965 |
| 15 | "Rockabye the Hard Way" | December 24, 1965 |
| 16 | "A Nice Little Till to Tap" | December 31, 1965 |
| 17 | "How Brillig, O, Beamish Boy" | January 7, 1966 |
| 18 | "King of the Mountain" | January 14, 1966 |
| 19 | "It's Earlier Than You Think" | January 21, 1966 |
| 20 | "The Perfect Un-Crime" | January 28, 1966 |
| 21 | "Like Visions and Omens and All That Jazz" | February 4, 1966 |
| 22 | "Don't Look Now, But Isn't That Me" | February 11, 1966 |
| 23 | "Come to Me, My Litigation Baby" | February 18, 1966 |
| 24 | "Slay, Gypsy, Slay" | February 25, 1966 |
| 25 | "The Fun-Fun Killer" | March 4, 1966 |
| 26 | "Pop Goes the Easel" | March 11, 1966 |
| 27 | "Little Green Robin Hood" | March 18, 1966 |
| 28 | "Just the Bear Facts, Ma'am" | March 25, 1966 |
| 29 | "There's a Long, Long, Fuse A'Burning" | April 1, 1966 |
| 30 | "An Eerie, Airy, Thing" | April 8, 1966 |
DVD release
In 2006, Delta Home Entertainment released the entire series on Region 0 DVD in the UK.VCI Entertainment issued a North American Region 1 DVD release of the series in September 2008.
External links
- Anne Francis
- Honey West at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
- Pierce, J. Kingston. "A Taste of Honey." The Rap Sheet, July 29, 2009.