A few more gifs of Robert Conrad from Hawaiian Eye. Again, many thanks to anyone who uploaded clips/episodes. These snippets are from a wonderful  tribute video that can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.

I’ll get around to 77 Sunset Strip, eventually. I acknowledge it’s weird I haven’t watched that series since it’s the one the spawned the rest.

Anyway.

The homoerotic subtext is prevalent on all of these shows. Surfside 6 is definitely the “hold my beer” series outta the bunch. Sadly, that’s probably why it didn’t last as long as its peers.

Two, later three, men living on a small houseboat with one bedroom—you come to your own conclusions. I am firmly in the “Dave and Ken are a couple and Sandy is their child who sleeps on the couch” camp.

Sandy is a full grown man and just a fellow private detective, I know. And I also know he lived at the racquet club for at least part of the series’ run.

Moving on.

Hawaiian Eye, however, is a little different than Surfside 6 in that I interpret the chemistry as polyship subtext, rather than purely homoerotic. There’s no direct romantic or sexual chemistry between the male leads, Tracy and Tom, as far as I’m concerned. But there is this flirty banter and underlying innuendo between them and the leading lady, Cricket.

The guys both call her “lover”. A lot. Although it’s treated more like someone would call someone else “honey” or “dear”, this show is the only time I’ve ever heard the word used in that context. Kinda pet name, kinda not—again, it’s subtext, and subjective.

Cricket has called each of them lover in the same fashion. Tom has referred to her as lover TO Tracy, in a manner that one could argue is suggestive of them all being together.

It’s all very playful, and in the open, and too amicable to be a love triangle. I’m sure anyone would argue the intent was to portray a lighthearted, “who really likes whom?” game. To tease audiences with hints of romantic feelings, but without allowing the show’s perennial bachelors to get into a serious relationship because their singleness was paramount to maintaining the show’s vibe.

Anyway (again).

I find it all extremely fascinating to look back at shows like this where the writing is so clearly on the wall and be both giddy to see it, but also a little sad to think that the only way anything other than het romance, attraction, relationships COULD be presented was as subtext.

I can also say that of the Hawaiian Eye fics I’ve written, the one where people see a M/M tag (M&M tbf) is the one with more hits. I feel bad for anyone who read that hoping it was romance because it’s an ampersand tag highlighting the friendship between these two characters. And it’s certainly possible that some people clicked on the story ready to rage over the idea of Tom (Robert Conrad’s character) and Moke (an under appreciated supporting character played by Doug Mossman) hooking up and then being a mix of relieved in disappointed when it was gen fic with a bit of angst and whump.