{"id":18444,"date":"2023-07-10T20:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=18444"},"modified":"2023-07-10T20:00:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T00:00:10","slug":"revisiting-harry-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=18444","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting ‘Harry O’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\nhttps:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=qP_nvvcdbWk\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I should really wait <\/strong>to post this review\/appreciation until I\u2019ve had the time to watch the whole series through on YouTube, but I need a topic tonight and I already know what I think. Harry O<\/a><\/em>, starring David Janssen, was one of the best TV PI series of the 1970s, and could have done even better if the network hadn\u2019t clotheslined it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series struggled a bit getting launched. The first pilot movie, which you can watch above, was about a grumpy Los Angeles private eye named Harry Orwell (Janssen). He used to be a police detective, but a bullet near the spine put him on the disabled roster, so now he freelances. Only he\u2019s a bit of a misanthrope (though he always seems to have a beautiful girlfriend) and actively discourages business. His injury interferes with his activity at times. He lives in a shack on the ocean, where he\u2019s constantly working on his sailboat, \u201cThe Answer,\u201d which is never quite finished (metaphor sighted!). He has a car, but it\u2019s always in the shop and he rides the bus instead \u2013 which offers interesting creative opportunities for the writers, as when he loses a \u201ctail\u201d while riding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems network executives found the first pilot a little dark, so they ordered another one, which was lighter but hardly cheery. But that one was enough to get the series green-lit. (Jody Foster plays a homeless girl in this one.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the season begins, we find Harry living on Catalina Island near San Diego. Still in a shack, still working on his boat and riding the bus. His cop buddy is now Lt. Manny Quinlan (Henry Darrow, whom you may remember as Manolito on The High Chapparal<\/em>). They\u2019re on and off friends, but have each other\u2019s backs when the chips are down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, half-way through the first season, the network decided it was too expensive to shoot on Catalina and moved Harry closer to LA, but in a nearly identical living situation. His police buddy is now Lt. Trench, played by Anthony Zerbe, who won an Emmy as a supporting actor. The two actors\u2019 chemistry was extremely good. Harry\u2019s car was finally liberated from the shop, but it still broke down a lot. The tone was lightened yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second season, Harry\u2019s back injury \u2013 though never forgotten \u2013 became less important. Toward the end, a young actress named Farrah Fawcett-Majors (at the time) showed up as Harry\u2019s stewardess girlfriend. (This attracted my increased interest.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the network decided it wanted to change its entertainment direction. The relatively intelligent Harry O<\/em> series was cancelled to be replaced by a star vehicle for Farrah \u2013 Charlie\u2019s Angels<\/em>. I\u2019ll confess I was a big fan of the Angels at the time, but today I find I can\u2019t bear to watch it, even when Farrah\u2019s on. Harry O,<\/em> on the other hand, holds up extremely well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private eye shows were a staple of prime-time TV in the 70s. Quinn Martin Productions, especially, ran a content factory that turned them out like sausages. QM did some quality work \u2013 he\u2019d produced The Fugitive<\/em>, which made David Janssen a star. But they also turned out shows like Cannon <\/em>and Barnaby Jones <\/em>that were almost indistinguishable in format, and even recycled each others\u2019 scripts from time to time. I came to see the Quinn Martin trademark as a sure sign of phoning it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Harry O<\/em> was a smart show with good writing, good acting, and atmosphere. I\u2019d put it right up there with a very different show, The Rockford Files.<\/em> It could have been a classic, given the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Janssen swore never to do a network series again. He did a miniseries, but never a weekly show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I should really wait to post this review\/appreciation until I\u2019ve had the time to watch the whole series through on YouTube, but I need a topic tonight and I already know what I think. Harry O, starring David Janssen, was one of the best TV PI series of the 1970s, and could have done even … Continue reading Revisiting ‘Harry O’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[4788,4789,2747],"class_list":["post-18444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-david-janssen","tag-harry-o","tag-television"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18446,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18444\/revisions\/18446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}