Shark Bytes

Bring this show to DVD already! Everybody needs to write warner home video- Lets get this released!

I really liked "Spenser" and I wish it had a longer run. However, like the original "Star Trek" it had a difficult three-year run and was granted a third season after a vast letter-writing campaign.

I believed that this was a sophisticated program and having Robert Urich also serve as off-screen narrator dispensing quotes from the classics gave it a strong intellectual feel. The chemistry between Urich, Barbara Stock and Avery Brooks was a potent asset and Ron McLarty provided a perfect comic foil as Lt. Belson. There were very few dud episodes but constant changings of time slot did not exactly help "Spenser" garner a stronger audience that would have guaranteed a longer run.

I did not care too much for the sequel films and Joe Montegna just did not have the magnetism in the title role that Urich did.

I would like to see this series rerun on A&E or TNT.

GREAT SITE!!! Spenser is one of my all-time favorites,because of Bob Urich and the 'spirit' for lack of abetter word,that he/it displayed.IMHO it approached 'Rockford' in the fit of actor to character. Susan was wondrous, Hawk was walkin' 'hurt',even the cars were great. Chuck Conners as 'king powers', the old mob guy was a masterstroke. Favorite eps? Homecoming,3/1,great writing and a book-like setup; and the too-rare pilot.
The second ep/first year dealt with Susan wanting an abortion, but RU, a 3x adoptive father in real life, had issues,so small changes were made... you could tell he really had to pull it up for that one, but it was done in a classy way, with a great, touching ending.
IMHO,(again?),the series suffered after the first season,when Rockford vet producer was brought in,and Susan booked for a year. The show was at its'best in the pilot, the early eps,and was often spotty, but still good, after that.
I think the later Lifetime movies reeked....the new female producers just didn't do the deal here. The movies just looked cheap,and besides, Spenser NEEDED, desperately, his mnuch abused Mustang. The first flick had him in a red Ford Probe, using a celphone, (girl car/yuppie props! not good!) C'mon, that was like putting Rockford in a Corolla! The 'feel' was just gone... Anyway,I still miss the show, and Urich, and the great chem the show displayed.

Robert Urich is missed. His laid back style foiled nicely with Hawk.

My favorite chacter was Hawk; "It's a good day to die." I waited for him to say it on DS-9. But if you had to walk down a dark alley at night, Hawk was your back-up of choice!

For those who don't know, Urich, a Michigan State Grad left a large bequeth to the school. Bob, where ever you are: Thanks!

one of the best detective / crime- tv-shows!
I love the casting (especially Bob Urich as Spenser and Barbara Stock as Susan);
the opening-music-theme is great.
I really don't understand why this great show is not available on DVD (the 3 seasons / 66 weekly episodes; NOT the
"reunion-movies" )

I agree that Robert B. Parker can't be held accountable for the shortcomings of Spenser: For Hire. The show and the books need to be evaluated separately. I liked the show and would love for it to come out on DVD. I have read every book and enjoy those as well.

I first met Spenser through the TV show, and subsequently have read or listened to several Spensr novels. I also have seen a few Joe Mantegna movies. IN my opinion, neither actor is the perfect Spenser, but I favor Urich over Mantegna, and I favor the TV Spenser over the book Spenser.

If the TV show is fomulaic, the books are much more so. We know that Spenser will have a soliloquy or two with Susan, usually in bed or on the phone. In the books, I get very tired of the interchange between Susan and Spenser--too much cute sex talk, very predictable.

The TV show had Spenser as more of a literate guy, while the books have him more of a thug. I was atracted to the literate guy, not the thug. The literate guy was not so one or two dimensional as is the thug. Also, Joe Mantegna's reading of Spenser has a definate Italian strongarm man ring to it. Isn't that Vinnie's role?

INHO Spenser is Parker in fantasy autobiography. He sees himself as a stud that no woman can resist, they all have the hot's for him, sometimes cheaply so. Then, too, the book Spenser can't think about women without sexually fantasizing. So much for cultured PI.

I also find Rita Fiore a better paramour than Susan.

The comment about Brian Dennehy as Spenser is intriguing. I'd like to see him have a go at it.

It didn't JtS, it stayed great till the end, and the episode that ABSOLUTELY took my breath away was 'Homecoming', when SS returned, and you see her standing in the half-light of Spenser's apt, then the look on Hawk's face when he sees her the next morning, and later on they renew their commitment to each other, forever .........you get the idea.

Spenser: for hire was a great show. The heads of ABC at the time blew it, they had a great show and let it go. Bob Urich was perfect in the role he showed he could do the P.I. thing in the show Vegas. The movies were closer to the books but Joe Mategna was horrible Spenser was supposed to be a guy from Wyoming Mategna sounded like Fat Tony from the Simpsons!! I hope the talk of starting the series again is true as long as the casting is done by Parker.

Beautifully filmed and crafted. The acting was always first rate. I've read all the books and thought Robert Urich played Spenser faithful to them. Avery Brooks was untouchable as Hawk! No one before or after him could play the role as effectively! I thought Barbara Stock did the best she could with what the writers gave her to do. I never had a complaint with her. Carolyn McCormack was an interesting addition to the cast in season 2, I still don't understand why she had to go when Stock came back! All in all, Spenser:For Hire is still my favorite show, and I'm left to wonder why Warner Bros hasn't put it out on DVD.

Spenser For Hire never failed in the ratings, so that is why it never jumped, all this is owed to the way that the late Robert Urich portrayed him. His co-star, Barbara Stock, is drop dead beautiful and really part of the great league of glamorous brunettes. (For those who like to see her scantily-clad, you can see her in an episode of Knight Rider - only she is a villainess.)

I think that shows that are moved from day to day, and time slot to time slot never have a chance, as well as those shows that are put opposite a show with a stronger showing. Spenser was always great, and has a place in my heart for ever. At the time of Spenser, TV was again jamming with comedies, and I think that dramas as great as Spenser were not much looked at. By the way, my brother-in-law built his pool in Mass. when the show was running. Cool, huh?

I just felt the casting was odd in the series, i.e. Robert Urich. Hawk on the other hand was perfect. Now if they could just get Joe Mantegna and Avery Brooks together...

Attention people. Of course there are differences between television shows and the books on which they're based. That's the way it works. The producers make changes because the written word is the written word and television shows are television shows. Both can be equally entertaining, but if everything that was written between the covers of book made for good TV, we could simply hire actors to sit on a stool and read books into the camera. Writers (such as Robert B. Parker) pours their hearts and souls into writing and the books are how they intend everything in the universe they created to be. For the definitive word on what is (or is not) Spenserian read the books! The television series came about when Warner Brothers offered big money for the film rights to the character and Dr. Parker took the money and ran - a move which, by the way, he later regretted. His credit as "Executive Producer" was a largely symbolic way of tying the TV series to the books. In actuality, he very rarely had anything to do with its filming. He never participated in the casting (which was done in California where much of the show's first season was actually filmed), he wrote only one script over the show's three seasons and was never consulted by any of the other scriptwriters who used his works (the central characters, Susan's temporary departure to find herself and Rita Fiore) as their source material. As Dr. Parker now puts it, "That was their show, not my books." It was the people at Warner Brothers - not Robert B. Parker - who made Frank Belson into comic relief, who retired Marty Quick when health problems forced Richard Jaeckel off the show, who took advantage of the personal troubles Dr. Parker was mining in his books to usher Barbara Stock out the door when her contract demands got to high and bring her back a season later when the ratings started to slump, who turned Rita Fiore - a relatively minor character from the books - into Spenser's second season love interest, who caved to early political correctness by reducing the amount of violence that had marked the books and who spun Hawk off into his own even more politically correct series. We can argue whether these changes drove Spenser: For Hire up the ramp until this internet craze finally passes, but we cannot lay the blame for anything associated with the series at the doorstep of Robert B. Parker.

Well, I only caught this show a couple of times, so I can't say whether or not it jumped. I wound up being a huge fan of the books, however, but this occurred after the show was off the air. I have since read all of the books, and upon seeing a few episodes, here and there, I must say that this show probably jumped from day 1. It just doesn't belong on network TV. Especially in the mid 80's. There were so many limitations, and they certainly couldn't bring the spirit of the books to the small screen. The A&E movies weren't bad, but Joe Mategna as Spenser was a total farce! Sure, he acted the part fine, but physically, he just didn't have it. I would love to see HBO or Showtime get the rights to this character and put a series together. Now, on a station like that, they would have much more freedom to tell an accurate tale of Spenser.