Harry O, sometimes spelled Harry-O, is an Americanprivate detective series that aired for two seasons on ABC from 1974 to 1976. The series starred David Janssen, and Jerry Thorpe was executive producer. Harry O followed the broadcast of two pilot films: firstly Such Dust as Dreams Are Made On and secondly Smile Jenny, You're Dead, both starring Janssen.
Synopsis
starred as the title character Harry Orwell, a San Diego cop forced into retirement when he is shot in the back. To support himself, he sets up a private investigation practice out of his beach house on Coronado Island, in San Diego. Henry Darrow originally starred as Lt. Manny Quinlan. For the second half of the first season, the series was retooled, with the location of the series shifted to Los Angeles, California, due to the high production costs of filming in and around San Diego. The retooling consisted of more than just a location change: a revised theme song and incidental music were composed and new supporting characters were added, notably the irascible Lt. Trench of the Santa Monica Police Department, who became Orwell's new foil/contact. Most noticeably, a lighter tone for the scripts and acting was adopted. Harry still lived in a beach cottage−this time somewhere along the Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica and Malibu. In "Reflections", episode 5 of season 2, he gave the address as "1101 Coast Road". The second season saw a further reworking of the opening credits and theme song and recurring characters added. Anthony Zerbe who played Lt. Trench won a Primetime Emmy Award for his role on the series. Recurring characters included Farrah Fawcett-Majors, as Harry's attractive next-door neighbor and sometime girlfriend Sue Ingram/Ingham; Paul Tulley as Sgt. Roberts, Lt. Trench's assistant; Les Lannom as Lester Hodges, a bumbling private-eye wannabe; Tom Atkins as Sgt Frank Cole; and Bill Henderson as Spencer Johnson, Harry's frustrated car mechanic. Harry's small Austin-Healey, which spent almost all of the first season in non-running condition, would later see more time on the road as the series progressed, though it was never entirely reliable. Also, in the San Diego episodes, the bullet in Harry's back noticeably impeded his ability to get around; by the second season, even though the bullet's existence was mentioned in passing, Harry was miraculously able to run, jump and engage in strenuous physical activity with seemingly no issues.
Reception and cancellation
Ratings for the series were initially fair, and they received a boost after the series was retooled in January 1975. Harry O was picked up for a second season and continued to gain viewership and critical acclaim. However, then-ABC president Fred Silverman decided to take the network in a different direction and canceled the series in favor of Charlie's Angels. Farrah Fawcett-Majors, supporting player to Janssen's Harry O, was selected as one of the three stars of that new series. The last original episode aired on April 29, 1976. The series' cancellation greatly disenchanted its star Janssen, who had found and shaped probably his most ideal character ever in Harry Orwell, he thus vowed never to participate in another television series again. He would, though, later in the mini-series Centennial.
Syndication
The show was rerun late at night on CBS during 1979-1980. It was run in syndication in the late 1980s on a few stations around the US, but in general has not otherwise been seen. The first pilot movie still receives occasional airings to the present day.
Episodes
Pilot Movies
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Season 1: The San Diego episodes
Henry Darrow as Lt. Manny Quinlan, Harry's sometimes antagonistic police contact
Tom Atkins as Sgt. Frank Cole, Quinlan's none-too-bright assistant
David Moses as Officer Billings, a patrolman often seen performing crime scene duties
G.W. Bailey as Officer Remsen, a patrolman also often seen at crime scenes
Mel Stewart as Roy Bardello, Harry's sarcastic mechanic
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Season 1: The Los Angeles episodes
Anthony Zerbe as Lt. K.C. Trench, Harry's new police contact
Paul Tulley as Sgt. Roberts, Trench's quiet assistant
Hal Williams as Clarence, Harry's new mechanic
Kathrine Baumann as Betsy, one of a group of friendly stewardesses who live next door to Harry
Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Sue Ingram, another stewardess-next-door seen after Betsy leaves to marry her boyfriend
Sue's huge dog Grover appears in two episodes, as Harry is often forced to look after him while Sue's away
Betsy's massive boyfriend Walter is often mentioned, but never seen
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Season 2
Anthony Zerbe as Lt. K.C. Trench, Harry's police contact
Paul Tulley as Sgt. Roberts, Trench's assistant
Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Sue Ingham, Harry's neighbor
Bill Henderson as Spencer Johnson, Harry's frustrated mechanic
Richard Stahl as Dr. Carl Samuelson, a police pathologist
Les Lannom as Lester Hodges, an amateur criminologist who gets mixed up in Harry's cases
Margaret Avery as Ruby Dome, an informant Harry is friendly with
Susan Adams as Jean Parnell, a police lab technician
Barbara Leigh as Gina Walters, Harry's contact at the DMV
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Home media
On July 11, 2012, Warner Bros. released Harry O: The Complete First Season on DVD in region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and only in the US. The 6-disc set features all 22 episodes of the season as well as the original pilot tele-film Such Dust as Dreams Are Made On. The second and final season was released by Warner Archive on February 5, 2013.
