I was barely a year old in 1973, when a detective series called Harry O (starring David Janssen, from The Fugitive) debuted on ABC. Needless to say, I didn’t see it. But it showed up in Sunday afternoon reruns on WWOR when I was a kid, and I’d catch it now and then. For some reason, it left an impression on me. Something about this miserable-looking guy always riding the bus and wearing what seemed to a permanent wince just stuck with me. As I got older, and started to really appreciate PI fiction, I learned that Harry O was something of a cult hit. Thankfully, the show was released on DVD back in 2012 and occasionally shows up on obscure TV channels like Decades or Retro TV.
The show began life with two separate pilot movies. The first, titled "Such Dust as Dreams Are Made On", introduced Harry Orwell and features one of the best opening scenes I’ve ever come across. We start in Harry’s beach house, where he’s asleep in bed. His alarm clock rings, and, eyes still closed, he instinctively goes to grab it. But it’s not on his nightstand. Instead, the alarm clock is handed to him by a man just off-screen. As the camera pulls back, we, and Harry, see the man (played by a young Martin Sheen) is aiming a gun at Harry. The following exchange takes place:
MAN
I called the police department to find you.
HARRY
I’m in the phone book.
MAN
They said they retired you four years ago, on a line-of-duty disability pension. You’ve got a bullet in you.
HARRY
What do you want?
MAN
Well, my name is Harland Garrison. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?
(off Harry’s blank look)
Well, about four years ago, on Friday, January 18th , around 1:20am, you and another cop got a call on a burglary in progress at a drug store. When you got there, there were two guys with guns. You got shot, and your partner was killed.
(beat)
I’m the guy that shot you.
Is that great, or what? I’m glad I reprinted it here, because I’m so in love with that scene I’m tempted to steal it. Anyway, Garrison has reformed, and hires Harry to protect him from another, more dangerous criminal.
It’s a good pilot, but ABC wasn’t convinced it would make a good series, so 18 months later they produced a second pilot movie, called "Smile Jenny, You’re Dead." It’s just as good as the first one, and also introduces the last piece of what made Harry O so great: the voiceovers. And these voiceovers weren’t just there to move the plot along. You really got a look into Harry’s mind, and even his heart. They were more about how Harry saw the world than what he was going to do to solve the mystery.
For instance, in "Smile Jenny, You’re Dead," Harry ends up falling for his client, only to have her walk out of his life at the end. The movie concludes with the following voiceover:
Days happen to you. And sometimes I wish I could go back to being seventeen again. When I was seventeen, I once said, "A woman is like a bus: let her go, there'll be another one along in 5 minutes." Now that was a long time ago.
Good-bye, Jennifer.
Harry lives in San Diego in a small beach house, where he spends his off-hours fixing up his old sailboat called “The Answer.” His little convertible is constantly in the shop, so he usually gets around by bus (or by bumming rides from his clients).
Harry’s use of the bus made for a great scene in the first regular episode, when two guys try to tail him. He’s on the bus, which makes it easy for him to spot a tail. So he gets off at the next stop and starts walking, which forces the guys following him to park their car and walk after him. Then he simply goes to the next bus stop, and gets on the next bus. The two goons are too far away from their car to continue to follow him. It’s a fun, playful little bit that totally works.
During the early days of the show, Harry’s relationship with the police is different than most private eyes. Since Harry’s a former cop who left in good standing, the cops are all friendly, and are happy to help him out. It’s a welcome change.
Harry O was created by Howard Rodman, who was a screenwriter of such movies as Charley Varrick, Madigan, and Coogan’s Bluff, as well as a staff writer on numerous classic TV series, like Route 66 and Naked City. He’s only
credited as having written the two pilot movies and two of the first season episodes of Harry O. I don’t know how involved – if at all – he was in the second season of the show. He’s credited as a “consultant,” and didn’t write any episodes. Regardless, the episodes in which he’s credited as writer are the stand-outs of the series.
Midway through the first season, they started making some changes to the show, apparently to make it a little more appealing to a broad audience. For one thing, they stopped mentioning the bullet in Harry’s back, and his car broke down far less frequently. There was an increase in gunplay and car chases, and Harry’s voiceovers got less introspective and more plot-driven. Then they moved him from San Diego to Los Angeles (to another beach house, literally on the other side of the pier from Jim Rockford’s trailer!).
The move to Los Angeles also introduced Harry’s neighbors – a group of flight attendants who shared the house next door to him. They were played by a revolving group of actresses, most notably Farrah Fawcett and Loni Anderson.
Harry was a bit like Quincy, I guess, in that he was an older, gruff guy who was constantly getting action from younger, gorgeous women.
These changes made the show less distinctive, but it remained entertaining. For instance, Harry’s new, slightly more antagonistic police contact, Lieutenant K.C. Trench, played by Anthony Zerbe, was fantastic. A lot of what people remember about the show is the banter between the bohemian Harry and the aloof, cerebral Trench. Since Harry hadn’t been a cop on the Los Angeles force, his relationship with them was more adversarial.
Harry’s former police contact on the San Diego force comes to Los Angeles and is murdered, in an episode written by Rodman. It’s a great story, and ends with this solemn scene: Harry’s in a bar, where he had previously written the name of his friend (Manny Quinlan) on a bottle of tequila, and told the bartender to hold onto it. Now, having brought Manny’s killer to justice, Harry has come back to the bar.
HARRY
Leon, you can open that bottle now.
BARTENDER:
You know, you gave me too much money for it.
HARRY
Every once in awhile somebody will come in here and you'll see that you like ‘em right away, because they’re decent, and just good people. So give ‘em a drink out of this bottle. It doesn't matter whether they have money or not -- tell ‘em the drink's on Manny Quinlan. Maybe they'll remember him. If you feel like it, tell ‘em he was a friend of mine.
BARTENDER
What'll I do when the bottle runs out?
HARRY
Nothing… Nobody lives forever.
Which was a sadly prescient line of dialogue. Because Harry O was cancelled after its second season. It ran for a total of 44 episodes, plus the two pilot movies. All of which are available on DVD, and well worth your time.
About the author:
Jay Faerber is a critically-acclaimed writer of comic books and television. He has co-created and written such comic book series as Elsewhere, Copperhead, Noble Causes, Dynamo 5, and Near Death at Image Comics, and has worked on such iconic titles as Green Lantern, X-Men, Titans, and Superman. He grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania, the son of a school teacher and firefighter.
