Clint Eastwood quit TV series after “three or four days” of executives

Clint Eastwood, never one to appreciate interference, quit a TV series after a mere three or four days, according to a co-star. Folks who have followed Clint Eastwood‘s life and career with keen interest will likely know he’s not a fan of suits or hassle (he refused a star on the Hollywood walk of fame because of paperwork) and it seems this was the case here, too.

Timothy Olyphant, who recently appeared in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and is now celebrating the continuation of Justified, said as much in an NPR interview conducted before the 2023 Actors Strike.

Talking about one of his first big acting gigs, a meta-celebration revival of 77 Sunset Strip, before he scored a role in one of the best Westerns on TV, Olyphant said one of the best actors of all time quit after “three or four days.”

“I went in a read for the late Phyllis Huffman, who cast all of Clint Eastwood’s movies and I got the job. It was for the Warner Brothers network,” Olyphant said about the remake of the private eye series. “Clint, you know, his relationship with Warner Brothers is legendary, so he was going to produce this show and I was going to be the kind of the Edd “Kookie” Byrnes-type character.”

“It was a tribute to the show. It wasn’t a remake. Some guy — Jim Caviezal was the star. He was the guy who moved out to L.A. and started a detective agency and named it after his father’s favorite television show, 77 Sunset Strip.”

“We sat down at the table read. I was looking for Clint everywhere. He’s nowhere to be seen. So when we finished the reading I asked, where’s Clint, you know. They said he quit. Apparently, after about three-four days of television network executives, he pretty much decided, ah, you guys go ahead without me. And so, that was it.” The pilot was shot but the revival was never picked up, regardless of Eastwood’s involvement.

For projects that made it onto screens, have a look at our best Clint Eastwood movies list. We also have a retro The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly review. And for more stories, check out why Clint Eastwood refused to leave a movie set even though it was on fire. Otherwise, we’ve also got lists of the best movies of all time and the new movies still to come in 2023.