The location was great, the characters were great, the cast was great. So why only one season? The reason became clear about 2/3 of the way through the season. Early on, BSB's New Orleans was full of black people and white people mixing together - whites still held the privileged spots, mind you, but black people had jobs and dignity and white private eyes had no problem working with them and even visiting them in their homes. Then, suddenly, all the black musical bands became white. All the black people on the street disappeared. Even the Baron, head of the band at the Absinthe House, disappeared with his black band and a white band replaced them. (Note, the Baron was played by Eddie Cole, Nat "King" Cole's older brother - Nat's own tv show was canceled, by him, only 3 years earlier because they couldn't get any sponsors for the show by a black man even if he was Nat "King" Cole).. White USA in 1959 was not interested in seeing black people and white people together, and that interaction was what gave BSB's New Orleans its flavor and made it the background to its stories more interesting. Without that NO flavor, BSB was more like just another 77 Sunset Strip, and not the series it was really born to be. Kudos and respect to everyone involved in taking a chance at integration, even if the US wasn't ready for it - the product was very good, and maybe it helped us in the long run.
Two of the characters went on - Rex Randolph (Richard Long) to 77 Sunset Strip and Kenny Madison (Van Williams) to Surfside Six. Long, whose career began in film in 1945, went on to other series (The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor) but had suffered an early heart attack at age 33 and died at 47, in 1974, working steadily to the end and set to appear in All the President's Men when he passed. Andrew Duggan (Cal Calhoun in BSB) went on to do Lancer and Van Williams went on to do The Green Hornet.
I understand Arlene Howell left the series early because she became pregnant, and that she did not work in the industry after that.
Two of the characters went on - Rex Randolph (Richard Long) to 77 Sunset Strip and Kenny Madison (Van Williams) to Surfside Six. Long, whose career began in film in 1945, went on to other series (The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor) but had suffered an early heart attack at age 33 and died at 47, in 1974, working steadily to the end and set to appear in All the President's Men when he passed. Andrew Duggan (Cal Calhoun in BSB) went on to do Lancer and Van Williams went on to do The Green Hornet.
I understand Arlene Howell left the series early because she became pregnant, and that she did not work in the industry after that.