TVXOHOF, JULY 2018 - JEFF SPENCER, PRIVATE EYE

It has been a year and a month since the death of Roger Smith, one of the actors who personified "cool" when it came to the private investigators in Toobworld.  It's time for us to honor that character, because he nailed down the three requirements.

JEFF SPENCER

From Wikipedia:

Roger LaVerne Smith (December 18, 1932 – June 4, 2017) was an American television and film actor, producer and screenwriter. He starred in the television detective series '77 Sunset Strip' and in the comedy series 'Mister Roberts'. Smith went on to manage the career of Ann-Margret, his wife of 50 years.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Jack Gilardi, who is the agent of Smith's widow, actress Ann-Margret, said the actor died at a Los Angeles hospital after battling a terminal illness. Smith had fought the nerve disease myasthenia gravis for many years.

From 1958 to 1963, he co-starred with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. on the glossy ABC series. It made stars of both men and a teen heartthrob out of Edd Byrnes, who played a colorful parking lot attendant named Kookie.

"77 Sunset Strip" had been created by producer-writer Roy Huggins, who also created "Maverick," and it spawned a host of spinoffs and knockoffs, including "Hawaiian Eye," ''Surfside 6" and "Bourbon Street Beat."

Roger Smith played Jeff Spencer, also a former government agent, and a nonpracticing attorney. [With Stu Bailey as the senior partner,] the duo worked out of a stylish office at 77 Sunset Boulevard (colloquially known as Sunset Strip), between La Cienega Boulevard and Alta Loma Road on the south side of the strip next door to Dean Martin's real-life lounge, Dino's Lodge.

These are the TV shows in which Jeff Spencer made his mark:

'77 Sunset Strip' (1958 - 1963)

163 episodes

'Hawaiian Eye'- I Wed Three Wives (1960)
When actor Mark Hamilton comes to Hawaii, Tracy is hired to keep the star's three ex-wives away from him. It turns out that he's evaded paying them the alimony payments he owes them and they're planning to kidnap him in order to get their money. It also turns out that he's been cheating on his income taxes, too, and when his manager finds out about it, Hamilton kills him.

- Two for the Money (1961)
“Two for the Money" is an episode of Hawaiian Eye starring Grant Williams, Robert Conrad, and Connie Stevens. A wealthy man hires Greg to track down the author of the obituary of the wife that had left him many years earlier. He asked Greg to try and bring his daughter back. Soon Greg has to decide which of two women is the real daughter.

'Surfside 6'
- Love Song for a Deadly Redhead (1962)
Jeff, a private investigator from L.A. and friend of the SurfSide detectives, is called to Miami to investigate a threatening note left for a lounge singer. He meets a redhead, who takes him to her home. He passes out and wakes up the prime suspect in the murder of the redhead's husband, leaving his SurfSide friends to clear him.

Those are the official qualifications for Jeff Spencer's membership in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.  But I'm sure crossover enthusiasts can come up with ideas for theoretical connections to other shows.

For example, just off the top of my head....

Lieutenant Douglas Roberts
'Mr. Roberts'

Doug Roberts is a multiversal - The World Stage, the Cineverse, the Television Universe.  It's a theory of relateeveety that his televersion was Jeff Spencer's uncle on his mother's side.  

Maybe you have a few suggestions?  Let me know!

We tip our cap to the memory of Jeff Spencer here at Toobworld Central.  

Welcome to the Hall, Daddio!  You'll find your old partner Stu Bailey already here.....