Honey West

Honey West

Sam Bolt

Bruce the Ocelot / ... (17 episodes, 1965-1966)

Aunt Meg

First prime time TV series starring a female private eye.

The character of Honey West was created by Skip Fickling and Gloria Fickling (as G. G. Fickling) and appeared in a series of novels, most of which were published in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The final novel was published in 1971.

This was produced by Aaron Spelling, who later created Charlie's Angels (1976). The similarities between the two series cannot be ignored. This show may have been ahead of its time, lasting only one season. However, by 1976, times had changed and, sprinkled with the proper camp elements, Charlie's Angels (1976) was a runaway hit.

The style of the detective agency's name changes from episode to episode. Sometimes it is "H. West & Company, Private Investigators" and other times it is "Honey West & Co., Private Investigators." In the novels on which the series is based, it was sometimes "H. West, Private Investigators" and other times "H. West, Private Investigations." The reason it was "H. West" in the novels and not "Honey West" was twofold: Honey did not want potential clients to know she was a woman before they met her, and the business, which she had inherited from her father, Hank West, had always been called "H. West."