Re: Harry-O on Decades
Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 4:18 pm
Or as Buck Cannon would occasionally pronounce Manolito (mon-o-lito) as 'Man-o-lito".ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 6:55 pmIt's interesting that Manuel "Manny" Quinlan has a very American last name. Should have been Manny Montoya, a nod to his HIGH CHAPARRAL character.Pahonu wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:03 pmI prefer the original theme song and opening montage too. I think the producers kept changing it as the premise of Harry’s world-weary, contemplative detective with a bullet in his back was slowly abandoned. They eventually made the show more action oriented and much more like traditional PI series, a negative in my view.ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 5:18 pm So back to the Harry-O binge... in addition to "Mortal Sin" which I had seen earlier I also saw "Gertrude", "The Admiral's Lady", "Guardian at the Gates", and "Coinage of the Realm". I enjoyed all of them but especially "Mortal Sin" and "The Admiral's Lady". After that I saw bits and pieces here and there, including the one with Larry Hagman as the race car driver and the one with John Colicos which had a weird black & white flashback montage. Those were with Anthony Zerbe, who replaced Henry Darrow as the police lieutenant. I'll say that I really didn't care for the theme song change, neither the one later in season 1 nor the one in season 2, with a bunch of Harry-O's splashed across the screen (like on Mary Tyler Moore Show). The first theme during the first half of season 1 was the best. Simple but effective and easy to hum -- in fact it's been stuck in my head this whole weekend. Well done by Billy Goldenberg! It's not one of the great TV theme songs but it sure is catchy and captures the weary world of Harry Orwell very well. Kind of melancholy, punctuated by moments of excitement.
David Janssen has really grown on me as Orwell. Very good character. Love his voice-overs. They're certainly more frequent than Magnum's. I love it! His world-weariness is kind of infectious. Makes me want to sleep in late and then fish on the beach and fiddle around with an old boat. The cases themselves are all very interesting and the writing is excellent! In some way it's actually a better show than ROCKFORD. Or at least it walks that fine line between a show like ROCKFORD and something more serious like HAWAII FIVE-O or STREETS OF SAN FRAN. Which I guess makes sense since Harry is a former cop. So in some ways it plays out more like a cop show than ROCKFORD does (which is a true quirky PI show). It's a nice balancing act that I like. Already I saw 2 episodes involving troubled serial killer types - something you're more likely to see on FIVE-O than on ROCKFORD.
Question - Henry Darrow or Anthony Zerbe? Who do you prefer? I know Zerbe won an Emmy and I know that most prefer the earlier episodes with Darrow, but as characters -- which one do you prefer? Personally I need to see more episodes with Zerbe but he appears to be more animated (and more involved in the cases) than Darrow. But I always liked Darrow as an actor. So it would be a tough call.
I suppose I prefer Manny over Trench because I prefer those early episodes over late ones, but Harry and Trench eventually develop an entertaining rapport that I’ve seen so much more of as he was in many more episodes. His exasperation with Harry is fun to watch, but they do develop an actual friendship.
You do get the sense that Manny and Harry are better friends as well as former coworkers by the way they tease each other. One of my favorite scenes is when they have breakfast together and Manny orders for them in Spanish to the waitress. Before he leaves, Manny says something else to her and she looks alarmed. Harry asks her what Manny said and it was something about being careful because Harry is a dangerous person. Manny also messes a bit with his other colleagues especially Tom Atkins’ character, and of course Harry does so with Manuel, as he often calls him.