Girl on the Run

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Girl on the Run (1958) is the first made-for-television movie and served as the pilot for the series 77 Sunset Strip. The film featured Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Erin O'Brien, and Edd Byrnes.

Byrnes played a vicious killer who compulsively combed his hair; the character proved so popular with young viewers that the actor was brought back as series regular "Kookie," a comically "hep" car hop who compulsively combed his hair. Singer/actress Erin O'Brien's performance as a singer required no dubbing; she appeared as a featured solo singer on six episodes of The Steve Allen Show during this same period.

The movie was created by Roy Huggins, scripted by Marion Hargrove, and directed by Richard L. Bare. According to Huggins' videotaped Archive of American Television interview, the Warner Bros. studio ran the movie in a theatre for one day on an offshore island in order to cheat him of the series creation residuals, since Jack L. Warner had decreed that no writer or producer would ever receive a creator credit for a series. Fame Is the Name of the Game is usually cited as the first made-for-TV movie but Girl on the Run predated it by eight years.

[edit] Cast

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Stuart Bailey
Erin O'Brien as Kathy Allen/Karen Shay
Edd Byrnes as Kevin Smiley
Barton MacLane as Francis J. Brannigan
Ray Teal as Harper