I’ve enjoyed reading Robert Parker’s “Spencer” novels, but I completely missed the TV series when it came out. Now I’m wondering if the TV series was any good. I figure it couldn’t be as sharply done as the Robert Parker novels, but was it even close? And is any network carrying it so I can decide for myself?
Just think of Captain Sisko from Deep Space 9 with a pair of totally black wrap around sunglasses. That is Hawk from the series. A totally cool guy.
First of all, It’s “Spenser”–like the poet.
The series was good for TV, but blander than the books–mainly because of network censorship. (Robert Parker complained, when he was writing an episode, that the censors wouldn’t allow Spenser and hawk to shoot the bad guys first.)
Also, I don’t think Robert Urich was hard-boiled enough for the Spenser. Avery Brooks, however, was excellent as Hawk. I can’t even remember the other actors.
Totally agree. My favourite Hawk quote, “You owe me so much money, I can’t afford to kill you.”
Wasn’t there a Hawk spin-off series?
There was a string of made-for-TV movies after the series, wasn’t there? I never found that the TV version of Spenser had quite the biting wit of the book version. And, I don’t think they played up the patter between Hawk and Spenser enough.
Parker’s Jesse Stone novels would probably work better as a series, IMO. A larger cast, more fixed sets, a more troubled protagonist to explore. Win/win to my mind.
You may already be aware of it, but they have made a couple of “Jesse Stone” TV movies in the last few years, in fact, the thing that got me thinking about the Spenser TV series was the news that a new Jess Stone movie is airing on one of the networks this Tuesday (I forget which).
That’s kind of what I was afraid of. The thing that made the Spenser novels fun was that Spenser and Hawk were so hard-boiled that your average mobster would wet himself at the thought of having to mess with them. I was afraid the TV suits would try to soften them up. That’s so wrong, like dumbing down Sherlock Holmes to make him more “approachable.”
There was, “A Man Called Hawk”, probably one of the first series to have a black male lead. It only lasted 13 episodes, but the cast list was impressive. Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett, and Wesley Snipes before they were famous. It’d be nice if they brought out both series on DVD.
DS9 was always best when Sisko went Hawk.
It’s all worth it for how beautiful Avery Brooks is.
I loved the TV series, but then, I had a thing for Robert Urich from his Vega$ days. And Avery Brooks was awesome. Richard Jaeckel was great as Quirk.
There was also a series of TV movies more recently starring Joe Mantegna. I think the first one was Small Vices. Parker wrote the screenplay. They were much darker than the tv series, but their Hawk ain’t nearly as cool.
When Ben Sisko shaved his head on DS9, I was a very happy woman indeed. Hawk runs a space station–the way it should be.
Agree wholeheartedly. He is much more memorable than Urich.
I had a somewhat different take on Spenser: For Hire, a series I loved. When I first heard that Robert Urich was taking the part, I thought, “oh no, this can’t be good,” because while I loved Bob, I had never read the books, and the description of Spenser as “hard-boiled” made me think that he just wouldn’t be tough enough. Then I read the books. Sure, Spenser talks tough and likes to shoot people. But he’s really a pussycat. He reads poetry, he loves to cook (all those careful descriptions of meal preparation), he is devoted to Susan, etc. When I think of the T.V. series, I always remember the scene from the opening credits in which Bob is slurping up spaghetti. To me that was a perfect Spenser moment, and Bob was perfect for the part.
I do like the Joe Mantegna Spenser as well, although those movies are darker and not as much fun.
FYI, although Spenser: For Hire has never been released on DVD, a collection of the TV movies which were made after the series ended (with Urich and Brooks, although some of them have an alternate Susan) is available.
Yeah, Avery Brooks was great as Hawk.
I also liked the guys who played Quirk and Belson–I thought they were perfect.
The TV series with Urich wasn’t half bad, but not nearly as good as the books. And Avery Brooks was the best thing about 'em. He’s an Oberlin grad, as am I, and I saw him on tour in his one-man show about Paul Robeson a few years ago. A great actor and singer too.
Just saw one of the Joe Mantegna TV movies - the first, I think. It was OK. Nothing to write home about.
i don’t think enough can be said about how finestkind avery brooks was in the role of hawk.
My favorite is actually from one of the fairly bad TV movies they did (Judas Goat, to be specific). Spenser and Hawk are searching a house and in the process of looking through all the rooms, pass by each other. Hawk explains his progress simply to Spenser, “Nobody.” Then, seconds later, from off screen, you hear him exclaim, “Somebody!”
Dead body, at that.