Well, I've gone through the entire runs of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. Now...HARRY O. Anybody remember this amazing existential private eye drama that debuted the same fall as THE ROCKFORD FILES?

SUCH DUST AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON (1973)--Directed by Jerry Thorpe. Stars David Janssen, Martin Sheen, Margot Kidder, Mariana Hill, Sal Mineo, Kathleen Lloyd. Seven years after finally convincing Lieutenant Gerard of his innocence in the final episode of THE FUGITIVE, Janssen returned to television (he had also starred in a one-season flop, O'HARA, U.S. TREASURY, for executive producer Jack Webb) as cynical private eye Harry Orwell in this series pilot.

Orwell was a former San Diego cop who had to leave the force after being shot in the back by a pair of armed robbers in the same incident in which his partner was killed. Nestled next to his spine and unable to be removed by surgeons is the bullet that almost crippled him.

To supplement his pension and to provide funds to renovate his boat, the Answer, Orwell works out of his beach house as a private detective. He usually takes the bus in pursuit of clues, since his beat-up car is usually in the shop, and the bullet in his back prevents him from engaging in much physical activity, which is fine with Harry, since he's too world-weary to beat people up anyway.

In the first ninety-minute pilot, Orwell wakes up one morning to find a guilt-stricken youth named Harlan Garrison (Sheen) in his bedroom waving a pistol. Garrison is the robber who shot Orwell, and, after serving two years in Vietnam, has returned to make amends. He hands Harry $1400 for an operation to remove the bullet from his back. He also wants to hire Harry to find his old partner Walter Scheerer (Mineo), the young man who fired the shot that killed Harry's partner. Scheerer and Garrison's former girlfriend Marilyn (THE CAR's Lloyd, billed as Kathleen Geckle) have teamed up to start a heroin operation out of Walter's late father's paint factory, and have also put out a contract on Harlan's life.

As the introduction to one of TV's best-written crime dramas, HARRY O does a fine job establishing the Orwell character, who is a crusty loner more at ease with a wisecrack than an actual personal relationship; even though engaged in a romance of sorts with a lovely woman named Mildred (Hill)--a relationship Harry clearly wishes to keep in the bedroom and no further--Harry wastes no time making the acquaintance of single secretary Helen (Kidder), picking her up in a bar on the spur of the moment, spending the night at her place, and leaving her in the lurch in the middle of the night with her car keys in hand.

Although much of the credit must go to writer Howard Rodman (COOGAN'S BLUFF) and producer-director Thorpe (KUNG FU), it is mostly Janssen's own acting abilities and charm that makes Orwell such a fascinating character. Janssen rarely had the opportunity to showcase his own laconic sense of humor, and in HARRY O, he indulges himself to his heart's content, tossing off one-liners and friendly banter with both his friends and enemies. Orwell, along with James Garner's Rockford (who premiered on NBC the same year), is one of television's great detectives, and perhaps Janssen's best--and even most fondly remembered--role.

HARRY O was followed by another feature-length pilot, SMILE, JENNY, YOU'RE DEAD, which co-starred Zalman King and Andrea Marcovicci, and 44 episodes of a critically acclaimed yet modestly rated series. Also with Will Geer, Mel Stewart, Karen Lamm, Les Lannom, and Cheryl Ladd. Music by Richard Hazard.


SMILE, JENNY, YOU'RE DEAD (1974)—Directed by Jerry Thorpe. Stars David Janssen, Andrea Marcovicci, Zalman King. Janssen’s first go-round as San Diego private eye Harry Orwell, HARRY O: SUCH DUST AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON, was a slight success, but enough of one to persuade ABC to fund a second pilot movie. Once again, the FUGITIVE star teamed with director Thorpe (KUNG FU) and writer Howard Rodman to make an effective mystery propelled by Janssen’s compelling presence.

An old cop buddy asks Orwell to look into the murder of his daughter’s abusive husband. The killer (the recently deceased King) is a psychotic photographer who is stalking the daughter, model Jenny English (Marcovicci), and will kill anyone else who stands between them, including Harry O. Clu Gulager, John Anderson, Howard DaSilva, Tim McIntire, Jodie Foster, Barbara Leigh, and Vic Argo complete the fine supporting cast. With Billy Goldenberg scoring, SMILE was a rating success, though HARRY O was just a middling one during its tumultuous two-season run.

William Wilson says:

HARRY O: SMILE JENNY, YOU'RE DEAD (1974) - This was the second pilot for the detective TV series starring David Janssen. Harry Orwell (Janssen) is a former cop turned PI after a bullet lodged in his back sent him into an early retirement. He gets a call from a former colleague on the force to investigate the murder of his daughter Jennifer's (Andrea Marcovicci ) estranged husband. Naturally Jennifer's current beau is the main suspect, but no one knows she is really being stalked by a psycho with a camera (Zalman King). I enjoyed this, namely because of Janssen's performance as the depressed private eye. Orwell has some great idiosyncrasies (lives on the beach, plays chess with his stewardess neighbor, takes the bus everywhere) and it is great to see a detective who can't chase the crooks. Creator Howard Rodman worked on tons of stuff including ROUTE 66 and NAKED CITY before this. The series got greenlit after this pilot (I haven't seen 1973's pilot SUCH DUST AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF) and lasted for two seasons. Also featuring Tim McIntire, John Anderson, Clu Gulager and Jodie Foster as a homeless kid.

I won't go episode by episode, but HARRY O's first hour-long episode must be mentioned. It was written by Howard Rodman and directed by Jerry Thorpe, both of whom also worked on the two HARRY O pilots. "Gertrude" earned Rodman an Edgar nomination and justifiably so.

It's a weird plot for a private eye show about an oddball named Gertrude (played by THE GOVERNOR AND J.J.'s Julie Sommars), a teetotalling virgin, who hires Harry to find her brother, whom the U.S. Navy claims is AWOL. Harry, who basically works whenever he feels like it, takes a liking to Gertrude, despite their opposite personalities and the fact that the only clue she can provide is a left shoe her brother mailed her.

David Janssen is one of the greatest television actors ever. You already knew this from THE FUGITIVE, but it's doubled down in HARRY O, where most of the fun comes out from his reactions. Orwell's first meeting with Gertrude takes place in a kitchen where she has offered him "refreshments," which sadly (for Harry) is lemonade and not a drink. Certainly Rodman and Thorpe had a lot to do with the dialogue and the staging, but this scene is a perfect example of finding an interesting way to dump a load of exposition and backstory using humor and character development. Janssen and Sommers are wonderful in this scene.

HARRY O tried not to dwell much on violence or genre cliches, although obviously they crept in with a network involved. Even when the stories weren't up to snuff, they were usually saved by Janssen, who created a wonderfully wry, free-spirited character who nonetheless suffered from obvious physical (Orwell had a bullet lodged in his back, and Janssen's knees were messed up) and emotional pain.

You should see him in the two films he made with Jeffrey Hunter. David Janssen like you've never seen him.

I devote a couple of lines to his performance in my IMDB review of HELL TO ETERNITY (1960):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053901/reviews-25

And he's a full-on bad guy in MAN-TRAP (1961):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055134/reviews-2

Marty's thread has pushed me to start up my HARRY O discs again. I bought the entire first season back when iOffer had everyone selling stuff seasons for like $8. Last night I took in two episodes and will try to make it a habit every week until I've finished it (no TWILIGHT ZONE crack, McKee!).

I started with "Coinage of the Realm" (S1, ep. 5) which has Harry hired by a single mother to her missing husband as her daughter needs a kidney transplant and he is the perfect match. Don (Kenneth Mars), the disappeared dad, took off after a hit-and-run where he killed a mob type. Oh, he also absconded with the victim's valuable briefcase with betting earnings and a client list inside. Good episode with some funny bits in it. For example, Orwell's car breaks down while he is being followed and he has to ask the two hitmen (who are implied to be lovers) for help. There is also a funny scene where Orwell is locked in a snake house with a venomous reptile coming his way. Normal TV would have him taking it out. Here, he screams for help until some comes to save him. There are some good scenes with the little girl and Janssen talking, a rarity as most child actors would butcher this dialogue.

A nurse (Rosalind Cash) who helped Harry during rehab for his back asks for her help after her brother is picked up for a murder in "Eyewitness" (S1, ep. 6). Seems the teenager gunned down a local baddie in the dark hallway of a tenement complex and Harry locates a witness in a young blind boy, who is the brother of a streetwalker (Margaret Avery) he once knew. This one is interesting with its presentation of race relations circa 1974. Harry gets more respect on the street for being an ex-cop and there are several scenes to imply that he left the force due to its "who care if we lock up the wrong guy" stance. IMDb lists G.W. Bailey as one of the cops in this, but I didn't catch him.

Dawn Lyn is the young actress in "Coinage of the Realm." The sister of Leif Garrett, she was a good actress who was on MY THREE SONS. Horror fans will remember her from DEVIL TIMES FIVE.

G.W. Bailey turns up at the very end of the show during the wrapup at the apartment building. His back is mostly to the camera, but you do get a look at the side of his face.

Does Harry ever get paid for his work? Like Mannix, he seems to take a lot of cases as personal favors for his friends or just because he takes a shine to a stranger. Of course, Rockford rarely got paid, but not for a lack of trying.

Something else I've noticed about HARRY O: a lot of rack focuses!

I skipped ahead to "The Last Heir" (S1, ep. 14) based on what Marty said about it via email. Harry travels to a far out desert abode owned by Letty (Jeanette Nolan), who is convinced one of her relatives is trying to kill. Orwell hasn't been hired by her though, but by her nephew Jeff (Clifford David) to check on her mental health. Soon all the relatives -- brother Zachary (Whit Bissell), Jeff's wife Anne (Katherine Justice), sisters Helen (Irene Tedrow) and Loretta (Sylvia Field) -- are showing up for their yearly meeting and folks start getting bumped off. This was a great little episode with a cool location and a very solid older cast. One interesting thing they do is have Letty and Helen as former actresses, allowing for older headshots of Nolan and Tedrow to be used. This was also the last role for Field, who is probably best remembered as Mrs. Wilson on DENNIS THE MENACE. As always, Janssen is excellent in the lead role and he has great chemistry with Nolan, whose characters is always calling him names depending on her mood (from Houdini to Valentino).

What's fascinating about this episode is that it is an Old Dark House mystery set in the desert. Harry O is trapped in a musty old castle with a group of relatives who all hate one another. Somebody is bumping them off one by one (bloodlessly), and Harry has to play detective. The killer has sabotaged all the cars so no one can leave, the castle has no phone, and they can't be rescued until the weekly delivery truck comes in seven days. Eventually, the killer poisons the water supply and trashes the generator, leaving the survivors with no air conditioning or drinking water (Harry brings pails of water indoors, so the evaporation will cool the castle a bit).

Putting the ever-exasperated David Janssen in the middle of an Old Dark House mystery is a brilliant idea. Gene Thompson wrote it, and director Richard Lang shot "The Last Heir" at Shea's Castle, a private residence located near Lancaster, California that has been seen in other productions, including Al Adamson's BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE. Lang appears to have filmed most if not all the interiors there too.

I think I know why this is. Call it an educated guess. "The Last Heir" was the fourteenth episode aired, and I'm betting it was the fourteenth shot. After thirteen episodes, Warners demanded HARRY O wrap up shooting the series on location in San Diego and demanded production be moved to Los Angeles. Producer Robert E. Thompson was replaced by TWILIGHT ZONE's Buck Houghton and story editor Robert Dozier.

I think "The Last Heir" was hastily slotted into the schedule until production could pick up on the Warners lot--sets built, offices found, soundstage available. My copy has no main titles, so I don't know whether the episode carried the previous titles with Henry Darrow in the credits or the new titles with new supporting regular Anthony Zerbe (neither appears in "The Last Heir," and it's possible Zerbe hadn't even been cast yet).

As I said, this is conjecture on my part, but it makes sense.

Back on schedule, I returned to the series in chronological order with "Shadows at Noon" (S1, ep. 7). Harry Orwell isn't actually hired for a case in this one as he just begins poking around after a mysterious young girl, Marilyn (Diana Ewing), shows up in his house. Turns out she was a mental patient who escaped on a day out and claims she is being held against her will. Harry starts looking into her family life (father died, she gets estate, sister has her committed) and decides to go undercover as a mental patient to talk to this girl. Not a good idea as the family doctor who okays the ruse is also in on the plot. Suddenly, Harry finds himself trapped inside a mental institution, trying to get the desensitized staff to believe he is really a detective ("I'm not crazy!"). I'm a sucker for the old "sane person trapped in an insane asylum" plot so this was a great episode for me. Naturally, it will all work out in the end, but Janssen has some great moments where he is talking to staff who he thinks know who he is and suddenly comes to the realization they think he is crazy. One of the episode's highlights is the end where -- SPOILER -- Harry is walking on the beach with Marilyn and it looks like the typical episode wrap up. But then she starts rambling and you realize that, despite what Orwell uncovered about the murder, Marilyn is also mentally ill too. Their walk ends with him passing her along to her handlers from the institution. END SPOILER Look for Tom Atkins in a supporting role as, what else, a detective.

THE ROCKFORD FILES also did an episode (a 2-parter, I think) where Rockford went undercover as a mental patient and then was unable to convince the authorities he was actually sane. I'm sure there are many more detective shows that did this. I guess the private eyes within these shows never watch TV, or else they would have known that plan never works!

Atkins appeared in several episodes until HARRY O shifted to L.A.

I'm almost halfway through the second season. What I'm finding is that, due at least partially to network interference, HARRY O is an average show with above-average acting by Janssen and Anthony Zerbe (and Henry Darrow in the San Diego shows). One noticeable change is in Janssen's narration, which was more personal in the San Diego episodes. Harry was having an internal conversation about life and the universe and telling us about himself and who he was. Later, he pretty much just filled in plot points like Magnum. The scripts (except for the ones written by Howard Rodman, which are poetic) are routine P.I. fare, but are highly enlivened by Janssen's wry and very likable performance. I love the comic banter between him and Zerbe, and the directors are good at finding bits of business for the actors to do during dialogue scenes to spice them up visually.

"Ballinger's Choice" (S1, ep. 8) concerns a woman, Margaret (Juliet Mills), who hires Harry Orwell to find her missing book editor husband, Philip (Paul Burke). He says he was away on a business trip, but he was actually involved in a fatal car crash that left his female passenger (and assumed lover) dead. As Harry digs deeper, it appears that Philip was having an affair with a 16-year-old girl (Lisa Gerritsen), who also turns up dead soon. This is more of a standard mystery for the series and you'll guess the perpetrator because of how they throw suspicion on everyone else in the small cast of characters. The subject matter hints at pretty grim things, so it is interesting that pedophilia is tackled with such nonchalance. There is also some comedy in the form of Harry and his long suffering car and mechanic. The episode ends with a pretty cool boat chase, which would no doubt be filmed in front of greenscreens today.

"Second Sight" (S1, ep. 9) opens with a missing psychiatrist who ends up dead. The doc had Harry Orwell lined up for an appointment because he wanted to hire him because he felt someone was trying to kill him. The only missing file from the office is for Fay Conners (Stefanie Powers), a writer who allegedly gained psychic powers after a car accident that left her blind three years ago. Not only is she able to see exactly where the missing shrink's body is, but all of the murders she writes about in her novels have come true. This is the first episode in my HARRY O journey that I thought was subpar. Powers is good in her role, but the writing on this episode is really lazy. First, they want the audiences to accept that psychic foretelling is true. Second, the mystery revelation is so dumb and the villain's motives and actions so silly that you really just groan when it is all explained.

Like most TV detectives, Harry Orwell had an amazingly high pain threshold and uncanny luck for getting shot a lot, but suffering only superficial wounds. After the pilots and first few episodes, HARRY O forgot about one of Orwell's most interesting features, which is that he retired from the force with a bullet in his back which left him unable to move about quickly. Howard Rodman and Jerry Thorpe's idea, I think, was to avoid action cliches by having Orwell physically unable to fight and chase people. It didn't take long for ABC (likely) to toss that out the window.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that Harry O gets shot again in this episode. It wouldn't be the last.

Indeed as Orwell gets shot again just two episodes later. "Material Witness" (S1, ep. 10) opens with Dr. Noelle Kira (Barbara Anderson) witnessing a mob hit in broad daylight. Wanting to keep her safe until trial and sensing his department is corrupt, Capt. Pete Jaklin (James Olson) recruits old friend Harry Orwell to be her security. Naturally, the mob has hitmen after her and Harry must fight them while trying to figure out who the mob mole in police headquarters is. Man, this show is quickly flying off the tracks with this episode and the previous one ("Second Sight") being generic detective/cop show material and Orwell's more personal quests being neglected. Sad to see this stuff popping up so early into the series. As Marty mentioned, the clever idea of Orwell being a banged up dude who can't do the chases is almost completely abandoned. The mystery is very obvious as well (hint: when they show a guy a lot early on and then he disappears, he's the one!). One cool thing is you get to see Mike Farrell in a supporting role just a year before starting his huge M*A*S*H gig.

At least the action beats are done well. Director Barry Crane, at one time the U.S.' top bridge player who was murdered in the 1980s, worked with Barbara Anderson on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE two years earlier. Few crime drama plots are as well-worn as this one, including the trope that the cop and the witness start the hour hating one another and end it in an embrace. But, as mentioned above, the action is good, the locations are interesting, and Janssen is terrific.

Oh, and this still isn't the last time Orwell gets shot.

Finished the entire run. It's sad to see the way the quality slowly dropped off as the series went along. By the end of the second season, the series even forgot about "The Answer," Harry O's broken boat on which we so frequently saw him repairing (and, of course, was the show's central metaphor). With a lesser actor than Janssen as its star, HARRY O would likely be as forgotten today as LONGSTREET or MATT HELM. I'm not sure how much fun Janssen had working on the show, but it's obvious he and Anthony Zerbe loved their scenes together, as they bicker and banter like an old married couple (and often appear to be improvising).

You can tell how much the series devolved just from its opening titles. In its first season, Billy Goldenberg's theme was meditative, and clips used showed Harry O painfully chasing a bad guy or just being contemplative. One wonderful shot (over which Janssen's name was superimposed) is of Orwell riding a bus and thinking. Another is a long shot of him walking down an arena's dark corridor. For season two, Goldenberg's theme became "rockier" (complete with electric guitar) and featured clips of Harry running, jumping, driving, and diving. In other words, HARRY O now looked and played like every other P.I. show then on the air.

I still recommend the series, mainly because of Janssen, who is terrific in it.

Well, I'm a lot slower than Marty.

"Forty Reasons to Kill" (S1, ep. 11 & 12) is a two-parter with Harry investigating the death of a young hippie friend (Harry certainly has a diverse group of friends). Seems the kid was found dead with $40,000 worth of cocaine on him, but his fiance insists he was drug free and would never deal. The only lead is his recent attempt to purchase some land up in Northern California. Harry travels up there and meets rich heiress Glenna Nielson (Joanna Pettet), who had sold the young man 40 acres for $1,000 an acre. Harry starts digging into country records and soon finds himself framed for the murder of Nielson family board member John Mackenzie (Broderick Crawford). Glenna, who has fallen for Harry, posts his $100,000 bail (that's a lot of falling) and he has to solve this conspiracy before his trial. This is a good episode with some nice moments. There is really never any big mystery (the killer is revealed at the end of part 1), but the script does have a pessimistic outlook on the world that is appreciated. The end has an undercranked car chase that ends up looking like a Benny Hill bit in places.

"Accounts Balanced" (S1, ep. 13) has Harry back in San Diego and reluctantly taking on a case for his old flame Anne (Linda Marsh). She fears her accountant husband Paul (Robert Reed) might be cheating on her and Harry quickly confirms that. Things get complicated, however, when the woman he was seeing is found dead in her hotel room the next morning. Harry starts to dig deeper into Paul's life and discovers he has been doing lots of bad things under various aliases. This is a really good episode. Well, if you can swallow Reed as a suave ladies man and --SPOILER -- cold blooded hitman. The reason I liked it so much is it returned Harry back to his own personal world. For me, the shows involving his past seem to work better than the one off adventures. Also, the relationship between Harry and Lt. Quinlan (Henry Darrow) continued to develop and Tom Atkins' character is given much more definition as a goofy underling. Too bad for them though as this is the last episode they would appear in before the entire show got reworked. Accounts balanced, indeed.

After "Gertrude," "Forty Reasons to Kill" is probably HARRY O's finest hour(s). It has scope, strong characters, good guest stars, interesting locations and production value, and great work by Janssen. The very talented Stephen Kandel wrote it, and I'm pretty sure he based it on a two-hour CANNON he wrote the year before that guest-starred, of all people, David Janssen. That CANNON was (faithfully) adapted from a David Delman novel and sent private eye Frank Cannon to a small town to solve a murder involving an old friend. The basic story and atmosphere are the same in both the CANNON and HARRY O episodes, and both are quite good.

If you can't buy Robert Reed as a hitman, get a load of him as a leering pedophile women's prison warden in NIGHTMARE IN BADHAM COUNTY! Busting his hump to escape his goody BRADY BUNCH image, he also played a sleazy obscene phone caller in THE SECRET NIGHT CALLER. The greatest Reed role of all time is the transsexual doctor he played in a two-part MEDICAL CENTER. He was nominated for an Emmy, and he honestly is affecting in the part, but the show is a real howler in parts, notably the ending when we see Reed in drag playing a man-turned-woman after a sex change operation. No question it was a gutsy move for Reed, MEDICAL CENTER, and CBS to do the show at all, and that it's mostly a sincere effort is important to keep in mind.

You don't even have to wait for season 2 to see the switch. Starting with episode 15 in season 1, the series went with a redone opening that focuses heavily on action. Spot the differences:

HARRY O original opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o5-7bAEtWQ

HARRY O season 1 revamped opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zd9zIjtnTc

Number of shots of Harry in action in the first one: 2 (both semi-running)
Number of shots of Harry in action in the second one: 8 (lots of running, car chase, boat chase, fisticuffs)

"For the Love of Money" (S1, ep. 15) has Harry heading down to L.A. to help Emily (Mariclare Costello), a secretary who ripped off $25,000 in bonds from her boss with her boyfriend. (The location switch is explained with some "she had relatives in San Diego who hired me to go down to L.A." voice over dialogue.) She wants Harry to convince her employer to not press charges if she returns them. However, the boss (Joe Silver) reports $500,000 in bonds were stolen. Harry must now find out who is lying, while dealing with a new friendly adversary in Lt. K.C. Trench (Anthony Zerbe).

I reviewed the fourteenth episode "The Last Heir" earlier in this thread and I agree with Marty's hypothesis that this was a transition episode between the old HARRY O (shot in San Diego) and the new HARRY O (shot in Los Angeles). The changes implemented by the studio are obvious from the start with the aforementioned juiced up opening credits. Harry now rents a beach front apartment, which gives the audience plenty of ladies in bikini to ogle ("We're stewardesses!"). And, naturally, one immediately falls head over heels for Harry and is a fixture in his daily life now. An emphasis on light comedy and Harry delivering wise cracks has been boosted. Harry is also meaner in this episode, gently roughing up a guy who is tailing him. Not all changes are bad though because -- as Marty pointed out -- the exchanges between Janssen and Zerbe are fantastic. Zerbe would eventually win an Emmy for his performance on this show.

It is funny that a grumpy old dude like Harry (Janssen was about 45, but looked 55, and I'm not sure how old the character was supposed to be) attracted so many 22-year-old babes. Farrah Fawcett-Majors appeared in several shows as Harry's main lady, but he had several (and, of course, many old flames who re-entered his life as clients). His first in L.A. was played by THE THING WITH TWO HEADS' Kathy Baumann, who had a very large but never seen boyfriend named Walter that spawned many funny gags.

Interestingly, these affairs seemed to be very casual to fit a somewhat bohemian lifestyle that was unusual for middle-aged crimefighters on network TV. Jim Rockford lived at the beach too, but he also had a family and a circle of friends and acquaintances. Orwell was a loner.

"The Confetti People" (S1, ep. 16) centers on head case Jack (John Rubinstein), who thinks he shot his artist brother to death during an argument, and hires Harry to find his brother when the body is missing. Thing is, the next day the brother is alive and well, but gets shot and killed for real when Jack shows up at the house again. With his client incarcerated, Harry must figure out exactly who is behind this fantasy-turned-reality murder. Solid acting and directing in this episode are betrayed by a really weak script. I mean, it is one of those episodes every show has where a person says a certain thing and the viewer immediately knows the twist and the villain's motive. Director Richard Lang was a HARRY O veteran, directing 18 episodes over the show's two seasons. This episode, his fourth as director, has lots of style for a TV show with the camera always prowling around. Diana Hyland, the future wife on EIGHT IS ENOUGH, is the artist's wife and the similarly named Scott Hylands plays the artist's apprentice.

With the relocation to Los Angeles, I knew it wouldn't be long before we got a story about corrupt Hollywood types. This happens in "Sound of Trumpets" (S1, ep. 17) the third episode since the switch. Harry saves the life of trumpet player Art Sully (Julius Harris) after he drunkenly falls off a pier at night. He actually saved his life in more ways than one as a guy with a knife was about to sneak up on him and stab him. Naturally, Harry takes him in and the guy repays him by stealing Harry's long suffering car. Things get complicated when mega pop star Ruthie Daniels (Brenda Sykes) shows up and asks Harry to locate Art again as he is her father, who seems to have a vendetta against his former record label after they paid for his defense during a murder trial. This is a pretty solid episode that gives Harry a new foundation in a beach front place in Santa Monica (his voice over states how his old place in San Diego was torn down for a high rise). Luckily for him, the stewardess moved right next door. This is one of the heavier entries in terms of stars as both Jim Backus and Cab Calloway have supporting roles. Also, Hal Williams, earlier a beat cop in EYEWITNESS, is now cast as Harry's mechanic.

I never thought much of Richard Lang as a director, and he didn't really work on many A-list shows. However, his work on HARRY O is pretty good. He worked a lot with executive producer Jerry Thorpe on KUNG FU, which explains his frequent employment on HARRY O. Diana Hylands acted in four or five FUGITIVEs with Janssen. Of course, a couple of years after her HARRY O, she was dead.

It's funny in "Sound of Trumpets" that Harry, his mechanic, and his new acquaintance on the police force are now besties that go to jazz shows together. Considering he just moved to L.A. and the fact that he's a grumpy loner, Orwell sure makes friends quickly.

Nobody is going to give up the chance for a free, private show by Art Sully!

"Silent Kill" (S1, ep. 18) centers on janitor Ken Corby (James Wainwright), who is arrested for setting a fire that killed three people at an apartment building he used to work at. Problem is Ken is a deaf mute who has no idea why he was taken in and Harry teams with Ken's wife, deaf Eileen (Kathy Lloyd), to clear his name. Ken contends he was only there to pick up his last two weeks of pay, while the police say it was revenge. Arson plots are pretty standard stuff for TV crime shows and 99% of the time you already know the motive and perpetrator before the opening credits end. This case is no different. This episode does feature more solid acting though, especially from character actor Wainwright as the deaf mute. He is so convincing with his looks and use of sign language that I actually thought he was a deaf mute. Director Richard Lang returns and does a nice little trick where he shows the proceedings from Ken's POV, completely silencing the soundtrack for a period of time. Works pretty well.

Yep, this was a very cool way to put the audience inside Ken's desperate head and let us know how lonely he must be all the time. Wainwright had just done a cop show called JIGSAW. Since he always played tough guys, it was interesting to see him play a more vulnerable character.

Oddly, Kathleen Lloyd, who was also in the HARRY O pilot, shows up as a different character about three episodes later. I'm all for shows bringing back good actors as different characters (I think LAW & ORDER is the only current series that does this, but they all used to), but they oughta wait more than three weeks.

"Double Jeopardy" (S1, ep. 19) opens with Harry witnessing a girl being shot and killed while she is riding on horseback on the beach. Immediately on the scene is struggling actor Todd Conway (Kurt Russell), who jumps on the horse and rides off. This action makes him look like the killer and that is bad news as the girl was the daughter of mafioso-turned-legit businessman Carl Milland (Will Kuluva), who quickly sends out men to deliver justice. After surviving a cut brake line hit attempt with Todd, Harry takes the case and for good reason as he had run ins with Milland 20 years ago when he was still a cop. As you can see, this was an episode with a big name before he got big on the silver screen (again) in Kurt Russell. Kurt is Kurt but he does have a nice rapport with David Janssen as his character helps fix Harry's boat. Also, this episode introduces Farrah Fawcett into the mix as a sexy stewardess neighbor for Harry. The mystery is pretty routine, but there are a few nice bits in this. One of the best is Milland's wife trying to stop him from going out to kill Todd and ruining his life. Another is a quiet scene between Janssen and Anthony Zerbe in an empty courtroom where Zerbe reflects on the sense of justice (after the sentencing of a woman who killed her abusive husband). This is also one of the first episodes not to feature Zerbe's cop character Trench intricately involved. Director John Newland had done DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK a few years before this. This was the last of the four HARRY O episodes he directed.

I never figured out why Russell was on the beach or why he jumped on the horse and rode off on it. Either I missed something, or I was a victim of syndication cutting.

His explanation was that he jumped on the horse to go get help. Why he was on the beach is never said, but I assume he was just hanging out and then became the "wrong place at the wrong time" guy. Either that or he was secretly stalking that hunk Harry Orwell in his jean shorts.

"Lester" (S1, ep. 20) opens with a young woman being chased and hit by a car in a college park at night. The next day her roommate reports her missing and the top suspect is Lester (Les Lannom), a student bordering on autism who asked her to meet him there. Lester's attorney hires Harry, who quickly discovers the missing girl's body in an abandoned mansion. The problem? The specifics of the crime are almost identical to an unsolved abduction-murder that occurred in Lester's hometown just over a year ago. This episode is strange in that it features perhaps the show's most graphic bit (the discovery of a half naked corpse) and a larger amount of comedy (Harry's interactions with Lester; the intro of a neighbor's goofy big dog). The episode ends with Lester wanting to team up with Harry as a detective's sidekick (he even dresses like Harry and mimics his actions) and the producers seemed to like that idea as Lannom came back in three more episodes. It is funny too because - as Marty mentioned above - the actor was recycled from an earlier episode in season one of this series.

One of the later Lester episodes was clearly intended as a pilot that teamed him with Benson Fong as an older criminologist. Stuart Whitman, Roddy McDowall, Dean Jagger, and Anne Archer were the guest stars, and Janssen was barely in it. Les Lannom as Lester is amusing enough, I guess, but I can't figure out why Jerry Thorpe was so high on him. His David Janssen impression is really good.

The studio imposed change of moving Harry Orwell from San Diego to Los Angeles left lots of loose ends. "Elegy for a Cop" (S1, ep. 21) tries to correct this. Lt. Manny Quinlan (Henry Darrow), Harry's old cop boss/friend, drives to Los Angeles to get his drug addict niece (Kathy Lloyd, two episodes removed from playing a good girl) out of the grip of a mysterious drug dealer (Sal Mineo). However, it is a set up and he is gunned down with money planted on him to make him look dirty. But in his dying moments, Manny writes Harry's address on the envelope and gets it mailed off, knowing his good friend will know to investigate (and pay 56 cents in postage due).

Series creator Howard Rodman returns as an episode writer (his first since the series lead in "Gertrude") and it turns out to be one of the better episodes. He understands the Harry/Manny relationship the best and it is nice that the series brought the character back after the abrupt switch. Rodman's writing is also levels above the stuff usually seen on the episodes, so it really stands out. Of course, I'm still wondering how Tom Atkins character handled the news of Manny's death. ;-) Also worth seeing to catch Sal Mineo doing a really sleazy turn as the villain, showing his versatility. Less than a year after this airing, he would be murdered. It is strange that the series didn't bow out of its first season with this episode. Instead, one more generic episode appeared after this.

"Elegy for a Cop" is a wonderful episode anchored by its tag, poetically written by Rodman and played by Janssen, where Harry buys a bottle (bourbon?) and leaves it with the bartender with instructions for him to pour a drink from it for anyone who's decent and looks like a good person. To tell him the drink is on Manny Quinlan, and, if the bartender feels like it, that Manny was a friend of Harry Orwell's.

"What do I do when the bottle runs out?"
"Nothing. Nobody lives forever."

The episode missteps, however, in its pirating of stock footage of Mineo from the first pilot, SUCH DUST AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF. The motorcycle chase and the scene between Janssen and Mineo at the diner are taken from the pilot, in which Mineo played a different character. The editing is fine, but those who have seen the pilot will be bewildered.

Interesting. I have never seen that first pilot, so that is good to know. It also explains why Janssen is suddenly a guy who likes to wear sunglasses.

The first season of HARRY O, including the DUST pilot, is now available from the Warner Archive.

Really enjoying this now and will look forward to reading through William and Marty's comments when I'm done, with Season 1 anyway.

WA has indicated that Season 2 is coming at some point, hopefully soon. Season 1 has performed well thus far. :)

I was also struck by the scenes of race relations in EYEWITNESS. I liked how Harry interacted with the blind boy, in particular. Later, there's a nice moment in the background when the black detective (Hal Williams) is seen comforting the same boy after the shootout at the episode's conclusion.

G.W. Bailey appears a few times as cop in the show (sometimes billed in the credits as G.W. Baily).

Seeing as folks tended to age a lot more quickly in those days, I wonder if Janssen would have seemed so old looking to viewers back in '74. I'm not real familiar with Janssen's biography, but, IIRC, he liked to drink, which probably added some years to his face, prematurely. It certainly could have had something to do with his untimely and most unfortunate early death from a heart attack. My grandfather was just a few years older than Janssen and had a serious heart attack (which didn't kill him) at around the same age that Janssen was when he had his fatal attack...my grandfather had been fairly liberal with the smoking and drinking up until then and that combined with the heart attack gave him a similarly aged appearance in his 40s and 50s and eventually killed him in his very early '60s.

On a similar note, was watching S.O.B. recently and was similarly struck by how much older a 60+ year-old man in the form of (hard-drinking) William Holden looked as compared to one of many Hollywood counterparts today. BREEZY, with a 54 or 55 year-old Holden romancing a 20 year-old Kay Lenz wouldn't seem like such a big stretch in this day and age, whereas in the film Holden looks and acts even older than, one would imagine, Breezy's unseen father.

As to Harry's magnetism where twenty-something women are involved, might have something to do with the world weariness this guy has (without ever seeming cranky), sensitivity (without being soft), nonchalance, and lack of vanity...it's the kind of thing we are (mostly) sadly missing in actors on television and on film now, and which women seem to have the ability to value (over physical appearance) in a prospective romantic partner...more so than men do, or can, with women, I would say.

Watching the series in order, this is probably my favorite episode so far. Diana Ewing is so good here...simply heartbreaking. What happened to her?

Season 2!