77 Sunset Strip (TV Series) Terror in a Small Town (1962) User Reviews

Never pick up hitchhikers

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 12 May 2018]

Law enforcement is constantly telling motorists never to pick up hitchhikers as you never know who it is you are giving a ride. Take Gerald Lloyd Kookson of Bailey&Spencer who has to pick up some papers in a small burg out near the Imperial Valley. He gives a ride to Martin West who gets the drop on him and helps himself to Kookie's car, ID, and gun.

West is fleeing the law in the town of Bromley where he's just accosted Dee Carroll and tried to rape her, but it was broken up by her husband Kevin Hagen. The town's at a fever pitch and it's Edd Byrnes who gets arrested by the bottom feeding sheriff Don Kelly. When Kookie escapes the whole place turns into a mob with Hagen leading them.

Elements of the classic Spencer Tracy movie Fury are found in this one. Edd Byrnes takes center stage in this one as a desperate and innocent man on the run.

Kookie accused

[darbski · 10/10 · 1 August 2017]

Kookie stands accused in this episode, and it is a warning to people about hitchhikers. He picks one up, and it almost gets him killed in a couple of different ways. First, the hitcher almost stabs him with a pair of scissors, then, a mob of idiots (who can't be stopped by a very weak deputy) almost have a shootout and then a lynching. An early appearance by Warren Oates as a lamebrained jailer is interesting, and Kevin Hagen plays an out of control vengeful husband. Kookie's helped by a girl who buys him some time, and she's the only one that isn't guilty of some king of stupidity in this episode. Kookie is saved; not a big surprise, and he goes on his way.

Yeah... "goes on his way". That's just not gonna be good enough, though, is it? Here's why. Kookie was a hotrodder when this series started. Lean, fit, and he drove one of the coolest REAL hot rods ever on television. And now, he's reduced (due to some corporate bean counting sponsorship ad-man) to driving a lowly Ford Falcon. He should have a very fast, beautiful 1957 T-Bird; nothing ridiculous, just a clean, sanitary ride with wire wheels, thin whitewalls, strong engine, duals and a stick shift. It would befit his history and the fact that he appreciated fast iron. Good acting, good action, good episode.

Couldn't even finish the episode

[nbrice18 · 1/10 · 22 May 2018]

I generally love this show but for the first time I had to stop watching 1/4 of the way through. It seems like every detective show, even this one from the 1960s, has to portray small towns as provincial backward hell holes with corrupt cops.

This episode is a prime illustration. The last straw was that the sheriff had a SOUTHERN ACCENT. In California! Being a life long southerner it's extremely irritating to see this stupid cliché time and time again. Rather than finish watching to see how Kookie finally managed to get free I deleted the show from my DVR.