Harry O

Synopsis

Janssen 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. (Henry Darrow's character Lt. Manny Quinlan was killed off in a crossover episode.) Most noticeably a lighter tone for the scripts and acting was adopted. Harry would still live in a beach cottage−this time somewhere along the PCH between Santa Monica and Malibu. In Season 2, Episode 5, "Reflections" he gave the address as "1101 Coast Hwy, Malibu". (This beach location was the same location used for both pilot movies.)

The second season would see 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; 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. As well, in the San Diego episodes, the bullet in Harry's back noticeably impeded his ability to get around; by 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 got 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 3 stars of that new series. The last original episode aired on April 29, 1976. The series cancellation greatly disenchanted star Janssen, who vowed never to participate in a television series again.

Pilot Movies

Both pilot movies are set and shot in Los Angeles.With the exception of Harry Orwell, none of the recurring characters that would feature in the series appear in the pilot movies. As well, the pilot movies contain some details of Harry's backstory that clash with the character as established in the series.Note that two of the actors who would feature in the series play different roles in "Such Dust As Dreams Are Made On": Les Lannom (who played Lester Hodges in the series) plays a student, while Mel Stewart (seen as Harry's mechanic Roy in the series) plays Harry's police contact Sgt. Granger.In the second pilot movie, "Smile Jenny, You're Dead", Barbara Leigh (who would appear as Gina in the series) plays a character called Mildred.

Season 1: The San Diego episodes

Episodes 1-13 are set and shot in San Diego.The supporting cast for the San Diego episodes includes:

Henry Darrow as Lt. Manny Quinlan, Harry's sometimes antagonistic police contact

Tom Atkins as Sgt. Frank Cole, Quinlan's none-too-bright assistant (5 episodes)

David Moses as Officer Billings, a patrolman often seen performing crime scene duties (4 episodes)

G.W. Bailey as Officer Remsen, a patrolman also often seen at crime scenes (3 episodes)

Mel Stewart as Roy Bardello, Harry's sarcastic mechanic (seen in 2 episodes, referenced in others)

Season 1: The Los Angeles episodes

Beginning with episode 14, there was a change in format. Behind the scenes, new production staff members were brought in, and on-camera, the entire supporting cast was dropped. Filming moved from San Diego to Los Angeles.Episode 14 was a stand-alone story that sent Harry out to perform his investigations in a remote desert location.From episode 15, Harry relocated to Los Angeles, moving his residence to the same location seen in the pilot movies.The supporting cast for the Los Angeles episodes (from episode 15) includes:

Anthony Zerbe as Lt. K.C. Trench, Harry's new police contact

Paul Tully as Sgt. Roberts, Trench's quiet assistant

Hal Williams as Clarence, Harry's new mechanic (3 episodes)

Kathrine Baumann as Betsy, one of a group of friendly stewardesses who live next door to Harry (3 episodes)

Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Sue Ingham, another stewardess-next-door seen after Betsy leaves to marry her boyfriend (3 episodes)

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

Seen in one episode each were two characters who would become recurring players in season 2: Les Lannom as amateur criminologist Lester Hodges, and Margaret Avery as friendly informant Ruby Dome. Henry Darrow would also return for one episode ("Elegy For A Cop") as Manny Quinlan.

Season 2

Season 2 remained in Los Angeles. There were some changes to the supporting cast, and the theme was given a second radical re-arrangement.The season 2 supporting cast includes:

Anthony Zerbe as Lt. K.C. Trench, Harry's police contact

Paul Tully as Sgt. Roberts, Trench's assistant

Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Sue Ingham, Harry's neighbor (5 episodes)

Bill Henderson as Spencer Johnson, Harry's frustrated mechanic (4 episodes)

Richard Stahl as Dr. Carl Samuelson, a police pathologist (4 episodes)

Les Lannom as Lester Hodges, an amateur criminologist who gets mixed up in Harry's cases (3 episodes)

Margaret Avery as Ruby Dome (a.k.a. Ruby Lawrence), an informant Harry is friendly with (3 episodes)

Susan Adams as Jean Parnell, a police lab technician (3 episodes)

Barbara Leigh as Gina Walters, Harry's contact at the DMV (seen in 2 episodes, referenced in others)

DVD release

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 (MOD) 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.