Well, Dick, I must admit it has been a while since I've seen Harry O and it is the Anthony Zerbe episodes I remember best. Also, I think I was going through and loving the Lew Archers for the first time about then, so PI sentimentality probably didn't bother me much, quite the opposite. Still, I wish they'd put the show out on DVD so I could see how well they hold up.
Mark
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> From: dlochte@gmail.com
> Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:00:36 -0700
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Farrah Fawcett's hardboiled connection
>
> An even stronger connection than her appearance in Harry O -- she was the
> star of the TV movie Criminal Behavior, an adaptation of a Ross Macdonald
> stand alone. (I think it was The Ferguson Affair, but I'm too lazy to dig
> out the info to make sure.) I am sure that the part was given a sex-change
> to accommodate Fawcett.
>
> I try to stay out of the minor quibbles that pop up from time to time on
> this list, but in the Harry O vs. Rockford Files matter, I feel I have to
> jump in. Over the last two years, I've seen most of the Harry O's (on
> cable). As I'd remembered them, they were pure private eye. What the years
> had filtered out were the sticky sentimentality and peachiness of the first
> seasons. Those are the ones where Harry winds up looking out at the dark
> Pacific or doing his half-limp jog along the beach, while in voice-over, he
> explains the deeper significance of the events we've just seen. Once
> Anthony Zebra became the friendly-enemy police contact, things lightened up
> a little. By the time Fawcett moved in as Harry's next-door neighbor, the
> show had become almost as good as the one I'd remembered. Rockford, on the
> other hand, is, if anything, better than it's memory. Since it's been
> available all over the dial -- and on DVD -- it's easy to see that it was
> smart TV right from the jump. Clever plots, witty dialogue, great
> characters. And not one pretentious moment. If Rockford jogs along the
> beach, it's because somebody with a gun is chasing him. The final two-hour
> movies may show their padding but the original run, IMO, is a small screen
> private eye saga that has never been equaled.
>
>
>
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