On Location, ‘Riptide’ Barely Makes a Ripple : Show Biz Not Big Biz In Redondo

Quiz: Choose one of the following to complete the sentence:

“The Tonight Show” is to Burbank as “Riptide” is to:

a) Marina del Rey

b) Honolulu

c) Newport Beach

d) Redondo Beach

Give up?

D. Redondo Beach. No kidding.

“Riptide,” a light-hearted NBC detective show that ranked among the top 20 series the past two years, launched its third season Tuesday night from King Harbor in Redondo Beach. The action-adventure show is the South Bay’s only weekly network television series.

It may also be one of its best-kept secrets.

“No, that’s not filmed here, that is (done) in the Marina,” said Bess Storie, a Greyhound worker from West Los Angeles who was spending a day at King Harbor last week. “I watch the show all the time, and I come here every week. I know.”

Storie was one of about 50 surprised visitors at King Harbor who stumbled upon the Riptide--a yacht that serves as home to the three private detectives in the show--as it was moored outside the Redondo Fish Market last Thursday. Several workers washed and polished the white boat as cameramen and other film crew members arrived for work.

‘I Love Murray’

“That is the Riptide,” Storie squealed once she spotted the cameras. “I am not going to leave until I get to see Murray. I love Murray! He is the only reason I watch the show.”

Murray, played by actor Thom Bray, is the brainy, bespectacled member of the unlikely detective trio that also features Perry King and Joe Penny as good looking, beach-boy-style private eyes. The three bachelors live and work out in King Harbor, which was chosen by producers in 1983 to portray what they called a “glamorous Southern California marina.”

Rick Dumm, associate producer for the series, said producer Stephen J. Cannell first spotted King Harbor. “They flew over and saw this quaint, cute, little marina there, and Steve looked down and said, ‘That is the place.’ ” Dumm said.

But while scenes from King Harbor, its International Boardwalk and other parts of Redondo Beach are flashed each week on millions of television screens nationwide, the “Riptide” phenomenon has amounted to little more than a ripple in Redondo Beach.

Promotional brochures distributed by the city and Chamber of Commerce don’t even mention the television series. There are no signs at King Harbor beckoning tourists to visit the home of “Riptide,” and it is almost impossible to find merchants in the area that have picked up on the “Riptide” theme.

Even at the Sport Center Bar & Grill, a new restaurant on Harbor Drive that features a mixed drink called the Riptide, the general manager reports that he has done more to promote the Miami Ice, a mixed drink named after the racy TV series “Miami Vice,” situated 3,000 miles away.

“We definitely need to push it more and maybe have a special when the show is on,” said manager Fred Shields. “But people don’t tend to go out and watch ‘Riptide’ in the bars. That’s why we have been concentrating on Miami Ice.”

Representatives from the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, while lauding the show for whatever visibility it brings to the city, said “Riptide” has amounted to very little new business. The only revenues they attribute directly to the series are the fees that restaurants, hotels and stores receive from the show’s location managers when crews film in or around the harbor.

The fees, which are arranged informally between the location managers and merchants, can run into thousands of dollars, businesses and city officials said. They are intended to offset losses caused when pedestrian traffic is blocked by film crews or when shops are closed for a scene. Mary Davis, owner of the Portofino Inn, said she receives as much as $2,000 a day for scenes that disrupt operations at the hotel.

Business Unpredictable

Merchants and restaurant owners say street business picks up slightly when “Riptide” crews shoot in the harbor, but they complain that the increase is unpredictable because the crews come only every other week--and then without any public hoopla. Curiosity seekers can’t even visit the “Riptide” attractions on non-filming days, they say, because the Riptide houseboat and the Ebbtide speedboat, both used extensively during the show, are anchored in Wilmington except when needed for filming.

Jim Graham, who heads marketing and promotions for the city’s Harbor Department, said many King Harbor merchants have shied away from selling “Riptide” souvenirs and launching other promotions related to the show because of red tape involving rights to the show’s name. And he said the city--which has no visitors bureau--simply lacks an effective means to promote the series.

“If the visitors bureau thing happens, we will probably put a piece together on the show that would be part of a press kit on the city as a whole,” he said, adding that plans are under way to establish such a bureau. “Right now, we have nothing.”

Nonetheless, Graham said, the series is well known beyond Los Angeles. In fact, he said, he receives numerous inquiries about it when he represents the city at various tourism conventions in the United States and Canada.

“You’d be surprised at the response,” he said. “People say they know Redondo Beach because that is where King Harbor is. They know the show.” He said that about half of the people who inquired about Redondo Beach at a convention last year in Las Vegas sponsored by the American Society of Travel Agents mentioned “Riptide.”

‘Positive Light’

But Ernie O’Dell, executive director of the chamber, says that hasn’t been enough.

“I am sure a lot of people now see the harbor in a positive light,” O’Dell said. “But I wouldn’t call the show a big draw. They don’t make a big deal about being located in Redondo Beach.”

Indeed, detectives Nick, Cody and Murray, while living and working in King Harbor, seldom mention Redondo Beach by name. But that is not by accident.

Babs Greyhosky, head writer and executive producer for “Riptide,” said scripts are tailored to skirt direct references to the city because of the show’s emphasis on crime and corruption. She said the producers do not want to depict Redondo Beach or its businesses as havens for criminals--for both legal and public relations reasons. As a result, she said, the characters in “Riptide” usually refer to King Harbor and to the fictional Pier 56--not to the city itself.

“We are pretending that King Harbor is a separate little town,” Greyhosky said. “With the police called King Harbor Police, we can have a corrupt policeman. But if the city is somehow inherently tied in, we have problems.”

And problems they had, on at least two occasions when city officials took offense to scripts about the harbor. Graham asked Greyhosky to change references to King Harbor in one script and to drop an entire scene from another, Graham said.

In the first instance, the story dealt with a fictional mobster who owned King Harbor. Members of the mobster’s family attempted to kill a down-and-out Hollywood star who apparently held the rights for a lease to part of the harbor. The “Riptide” detectives set out to help the woman get what was rightfully hers.

Script Changes

But Graham complained that the plot inaccurately portrayed King Harbor--although the city does issue leases for the harbor, the harbor is not privately owned--and reflected poorly on both the actual leaseholders and the city itself. He asked that all references to King Harbor be deleted from the script. Greyhosky complied, and substituted Pier 56 for King Harbor throughout the story. There is no Pier 56 in Redondo Beach.

In the second instance, Graham objected to a scene in which one of the actors complained about garbage and pollution in the harbor. “He was supposed to blow up and complain about how the harbor wasn’t as clean as it used to be and that there was trash in the water,” he said. “We don’t want people in North Dakota to get the impression that, ‘Hey, this place is a mess and we don’t want to go there.’ ”

Graham said the entire scene was cut.

While there is no established policy for script review, Greyhosky said she sends the city a copy of scripts that Stephen J. Cannell Productions, producers of the show, feel might raise sensitive issues in Redondo Beach. She said she has never objected to the city’s requests for changes.

When the show premiered in January, 1984, for example, the harbor was referred to as King’s Harbor. In the spirit of accuracy, Greyhosky agreed to change the name to King Harbor when city officials advised her that that there is no possessive in the harbor’s real name.

“We just sit around and say, ‘How can we make the show fun and interesting?’ ” Greyhosky said. “We have never drawn anything from the history of Redondo Beach. . . . If it appears that way, it is total coincidence.”

‘Happy Marriage’

Added Graham: “We work on the basis of a happy marriage. We trust that they aren’t going to do something that surprises us and embarrasses everybody. On the other hand, we aren’t unreasonable when they make requests.”

As the script changes illustrate, city officials--and local businessmen for that matter--are aware of the marketing potential a weekly television series presents for the city. Most of them, though, are hard pressed to explain why nobody seems to be capitalizing on it.

“Maybe all of the bars in the area should get together and come up with one drink that will be the Riptide,” said Gordon McRae Jr., general manager of Redondo Beach Marina and president of the Redondo Boardwalk and Marina Assn. “We should be taking advantage of the show. We are glad to have them here, and I think the show has put Redondo Beach on the map.”

McRae said the merchants association at one time considered changing the name of the International Boardwalk to Pier 56, the fictional name used in the series for the boardwalk area. Pier 56 signs, posted by Cannell Productions, line the boardwalk area year-round.

But Cannell Productions objected to the move because of possible liability problems, he said. Merchants in the area also decided that International Boardwalk enjoys greater name recognition than Pier 56, he said.

For several months last year, a marquee at the entrance to Redondo Beach Marina on Harbor Drive, where “Riptide” crews film at least 20 days a year, boasted that the harbor was home to the television series, McRae said. But the promotional effort was short-lived, eventually being replaced by more pressing announcements, he said.

“We haven’t seen a large increase in business as a result of the show, but there should be a long-term benefit to the area,” he said. “Two years from now, when people come to Los Angeles for vacation, they may come to Redondo Beach.”

Positive Picture

Graham, of the Harbor Department, agrees that the show’s benefit to the city is primarily one of exposure. He said the series tends to portray King Harbor in a positive manner, focusing on the sun-and-fun life style that Southern California is known for worldwide.

“The impact of the show is that someone watching it in the middle of the winter in Iowa is going to decide to go to California for vacation and visit Redondo Beach,” Graham said. “A lot of people will be exposed to Redondo Beach who have never even heard of our little city of 60,000. They see bikini-clad women and attractive men speeding around on boats and enjoying the beach.”

As for locals, like Robert Buhl, a 13-year-old Lomita resident who was among the crowd that watched the filming last Thursday, “Riptide” means Hollywood has moved closer to home.

“This is great,” Robert said. “My friend at school has all three autographs. I come here a lot, but I’ve never seen something like this before.”