Surfside 6 (Season 2)

Surfside 6 was an ABC television series which aired from 1960 to 1962. The show centered on a Miami Beach detective agency set on a houseboat and featured Troy Donahue as Sandy Winfield II; Van Williams as Kenny Madison; and Lee Patterson as Dave Thorne. Diane McBain co-starred as socialite Daphne Dutton, whose yacht was berthed next to their houseboat. Margarita Sierra also had a supporting role as Cha Cha O'Brien, an entertainer who worked at The Boom Boom Room, a popular Miami Beach hangout at the Fontainebleau Hotel, directly across the street from Surfside 6. Surfside 6 was in fact a real address in Miami Beach, where an unrelated houseboat was moored at the time; it can also be seen in the sweeping aerial establishing shot of the Fontainebleu in 1964's Goldfinger.

  • Poster for Count Seven!

    Count Seven! (Episode 1)

    Air date: 1961-09-18

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Ken is hired to investigate theft at an amusement park. He befriends a little girl while there, then finds himself between the girl's divorced parents when the man's fiancee turns up murdered and the little girl's stuffed birthday present is stolen at gunpoint from her home.

  • Poster for The Wedding Guest

    The Wedding Guest (Episode 2)

    Air date: 1961-09-25

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: When Daphne is kidnapped on the way to a friend's wedding in Nassau, Sandy discovers the truth about the prospective groom.

  • Poster for One for the Road

    One for the Road (Episode 3)

    Air date: 1961-10-02

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: When Daphne falls in love with a mysterious young nomad, the detectives are suspicious of his past.

  • Poster for Daphne, Girl Detective

    Daphne, Girl Detective (Episode 4)

    Writer: Herman Groves

    Air date: 1961-10-09

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Daphne invites a friend of hers and her actor husband to a party on the houseboat. The couple argue and leave separately. He waits for Daphne's friend and kills her. Daphne strongly suspects this, but since Lt. Plehn and the SurfSide detectives refuse to listen to her theories she decides to take matters into her own hands.

  • Poster for The Empty House

    The Empty House (Episode 5)

    Air date: 1961-10-16

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A wealthy businessman hires Ken to look after his wild daughter. The girl is enamored with an ex-con who owes a crime boss $25,000. When the man turns up dead, she confesses to his murder.

  • Poster for Witness for the Defense

    Witness for the Defense (Episode 6)

    Air date: 1961-10-23

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Dave Thorne tries to defend Sandy, who is facing a murder charge after slugging a drunken attacker who was found dead only minutes later.

  • Poster for Laugh for the Lady

    Laugh for the Lady (Episode 7)

    Air date: 1961-10-30

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Dave Thorne runs into an old girlfriend who turns out to be involved in a marital triangle that leads to attempted murder.

  • Poster for The Affairs at Hotel Delight

    The Affairs at Hotel Delight (Episode 8)

    Writer: Montgomery Pittman

    Air date: 1961-11-06

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: While preparing to leave a tiny hotel Ken finds a young woman passed out in the hall outside his room. He revives her and discovers she is carrying $45,000 ransom money for her abducted boyfriend. Ken, against his better judgment, decides to help her ""negotiate"" with the kidnappers because she is $5,000 short of their ransom demand -- and she keeps fainting.

  • Poster for Jonathan Wembley Is Missing

    Jonathan Wembley Is Missing (Episode 9)

    Air date: 1961-11-13

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Sandy is persuaded to help a ventriloquist whose dummy has been kidnapped.

  • Poster for The Old School Tie

    The Old School Tie (Episode 10)

    Air date: 1961-11-20

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Jersey State, Dave's alma mater, is holding its class of 1951 reunion at the Fontainebleau Hotel. The reunion opens up old wounds that lead to murder.

  • Poster for A Matter of Seconds

    A Matter of Seconds (Episode 11)

    Writer: Stephen Lord

    Air date: 1961-11-27

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for Prescription for Panic

    Prescription for Panic (Episode 12)

    Air date: 1961-12-04

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for A Slight Case of Chivalry

    A Slight Case of Chivalry (Episode 13)

    Writer: Michael Fessier

    Air date: 1961-12-18

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Dave is the focal point in the hunt for Dan Castle, Dave's one-time employer in a private investigative office in New York. People inquiring as to the man's whereabouts include a bounty hunter who is out for the $5,000 reward on Castle's head on a murder charge in New York and a woman who claims to be his wife. Dave tries to sort out who is telling the truth about his one-time co-worker before the bounty hunter makes Castle his sixth victim.

  • Poster for Pattern for a Frame

    Pattern for a Frame (Episode 14)

    Writer: Herman Groves

    Air date: 1961-12-25

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A judge's daughter trips and falls on the beach near Ken, injuring her ankle. The ""accident"" leads to the two going out for dinner. What Ken doesn't know is the woman is being blackmailed by a racket boss to lure Ken into a trap where he will be accused of murder.

  • Poster for The Roust

    The Roust (Episode 15)

    Air date: 1962-01-01

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: When Ken inquires as to why his partner left the Boom Boom Room in an angry huff, Dave says he saw a man he wanted to kill. The man in question is Bernard ""Chilly"" Childress, a ruthless criminal whom Dave once unsuccessfully prosecuted in New York, and who was responsible for Dave once being shot in the chest. Lt. Plehn has word that Childress is planning on moving to Miami, so Dave sets out to do what he failed to do in New York: finish off Childress.

  • Poster for The Quarterback

    The Quarterback (Episode 16)

    Writer: Herman Groves

    Air date: 1962-01-08

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A woman, the former girlfriend of a convicted mob boss, tells Lt. Plehn's brother, a star quarterback preparing to play in the Orange Bowl, that she is Lt. Plehn's mistress, and he stole evidence. Her boyfriend approaches the football star and tells him that, unless he throws the outcome of the Orange Bowl, the district attorney will be contacted and Lt. Plehn will be arrested. The charges aren't true, but the quarterback is so angry at his brother over the story that he refuses to talk to him. Sandy knows something is wrong after he sees Lt. Plehn's brother with a racketeer, but he has only one day before the big game to sort everything out.

  • Poster for Separate Checks

    Separate Checks (Episode 17)

    Air date: 1962-01-15

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for Artful Deceit

    Artful Deceit (Episode 18)

    Air date: 1962-01-22

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for Anniversary Special

    Anniversary Special (Episode 19)

    Air date: 1962-01-29

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A famous TV star's plans for a gala program coinciding with his wedding anniversary face a potential shipwreck when his wife tells him she wants a divorce. He hires Dave to look after her, presenting her as a ""nervous"" type who might try suicide. Dave believes there is something more sinister behind her ""emotional"" problems, centered around her husband's ego and political aspirations.

  • Poster for The Surfside Swindle

    The Surfside Swindle (Episode 20)

    Writer: Robert Vincent Wright

    Air date: 1962-02-05

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Not realizing that he is being taken by a conman, Garibaldi Dinato pays a year's rent up front to lease the Surfside 6 houseboat as a new location for his Italian restaurant.

  • Poster for Who Is Sylvia?

    Who Is Sylvia? (Episode 21)

    Air date: 1962-02-12

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Sylvia, the head of a flourishing swimsuit company, walked off the job. Her husband hires Dave to find her, portraying her as mentally unstable and having made threats on his life. Dave finds Sylvia but she runs away rather than return to her business. When her husband turns up dead, Lt. Plehn seeks her arrest, ignoring the information Dave and Ken uncover about other possible suspects.

  • Poster for Find Leroy Burdette

    Find Leroy Burdette (Episode 22)

    Air date: 1962-02-19

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A woman from South Carolina shows up at the office while Ken's trying to go fishing and asks him to find the boyfriend that jilted her. Initially reluctant, Ken takes the job and discovers that her ex-boyfriend has mob ties. Meanwhile, Daphne and Cha Cha attempt to improve her wardrobe in case Ken finds her boyfriend, and Lt. Plehn is trying to establish a case on a murdered mobster.

  • Poster for Many a Slip

    Many a Slip (Episode 23)

    Air date: 1962-02-26

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Sandy is hired to find an old acquaintance, the director of a lingere show. He encounters a number of romantic double-crosses. One member of the show entourage turns up dead, an apparent suicide, but Sandy thinks otherwise.

  • Poster for The Green Beret

    The Green Beret (Episode 24)

    Air date: 1962-03-05

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Dave is temporarily reactivated into the military as a training officer. Intelligence has an enemy agent under surveillance and knows that her contact is in the unit Dave is training, but they don't know who the spy is. Dave must discover who the spy is to prevent his unit's ordered simulated attack on a nuclear power facility from becoming real.

  • Poster for Vendetta Arms

    Vendetta Arms (Episode 25)

    Air date: 1962-03-12

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Daphne befriends five retired old crooks sharing a house together. A young crook is staying there and is stealing things and threatening everyone.

  • Poster for A Piece of Tommy Minor

    A Piece of Tommy Minor (Episode 26)

    Air date: 1962-03-19

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Singing sensation Tommy Minor has a problem -- gambling. His manager asks Sandy to get the mob off his back. Sandy knows a gambling boat outside the territorial limits runs crooked games, but he has to prove it, and keep himself and Tommy out of danger.

  • Poster for Portrait of Nicole

    Portrait of Nicole (Episode 27)

    Air date: 1962-03-26

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: An insurance company hires the boys to find the beneficiary of a life insurance policy named Nicole Johnson. Things get complicated when the boys find three Nicole Johnsons.

  • Poster for Elegy for a Bookkeeper

    Elegy for a Bookkeeper (Episode 28)

    Writer: Herman Groves

    Air date: 1962-04-02

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A former client of Ken's is murdered in prison before he can be released to testify against a racket boss. In order to prove the boss was behind the murder, Ken must make everyone think the murdered man is still alive -- and that Ken and Dave have split up in an argument over the man's daughter.

  • Poster for The Money Game

    The Money Game (Episode 29)

    Air date: 1962-04-09

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A prince is developing a new co-op with oil. Sandy has been hired to ask the prince to consider a rival partner for the ""black sand"". With the amount of money at stake, rivals will stop at nothing to be the prince's partner.

  • Poster for Irish Pride

    Irish Pride (Episode 30)

    Air date: 1962-04-16

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for Green Bay Riddle

    Green Bay Riddle (Episode 31)

    Air date: 1962-04-23

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: The small town of Green Bay doesn't like outsiders. One such outsider was acquitted of the murder of his father-in-law, although everyone still considers him guilty. Ken is hired by the man's wife to prove to the townsfolk that the man is indeed innocent.

  • Poster for Love Song for a Deadly Redhead

    Love Song for a Deadly Redhead (Episode 32)

    Air date: 1962-04-30

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: 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.

  • Poster for Dead Heat

    Dead Heat (Episode 33)

    Air date: 1962-05-07

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for Squeeze Play

    Squeeze Play (Episode 34)

    Air date: 1962-05-14

  • Poster for A Private Eye for Beauty

    A Private Eye for Beauty (Episode 35)

    Air date: 1962-05-21

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for Masquerade

    Masquerade (Episode 36)

    Air date: 1962-05-28

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for Pawn's Gambit

    Pawn's Gambit (Episode 37)

    Writer: Herman Groves

    Air date: 1962-06-04

    Runtime: 60 min

  • Poster for The Neutral Corner

    The Neutral Corner (Episode 38)

    Air date: 1962-06-11

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: Someone is trying to kill a former boxing champion, so his manager hires Ken to find out who is behind the ""accidents"" (including a bomb placed at SurfSide 6 during a party for the champ). Ken finds no shortage of suspects, including the boxer's ex-wife, a crusading sports writer, and a mob boss who owns the boxer's contract.

  • Poster for House on Boca Key

    House on Boca Key (Episode 39)

    Writer: Herman Groves

    Air date: 1962-06-18

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: A drug store delivery boy borrows a formal jacket from Sandy for a prom. As he leaves the houseboat he is shot. Sandy thinks it was a case of mistaken identity and the bullets were meant for him.

  • Poster for Midnight for Prince Charming

    Midnight for Prince Charming (Episode 40)

    Air date: 1962-06-25

    Runtime: 60 min

    Overview: As part of the latest scheme of a husband and wife con artist team the husband seeks to hire Ken, portraying his wife as cheating on him with the intended scam victim. Ken refuses to take the job because the man named is a friend and frequent client, but he becomes involved when a cohort of the couple turns up dead.

Surfside 6 - Movie poster from The Movie Database (TMDB)