I first saw the pilot movie in the 80’s and saw many episodes years later in a brief run on a cable channel I now forget. I eventually bought the series direct from Warner Bros. and have enjoyed a run through all the episodes about five times now. It initially ran for two seasons beginning in 1974, debuting just one day from The Rockford Files. In fact, Harry’s beach house in the pilot and later episodes was just down the beach from the Paradise Cove parking lot where Rockford had his trailer.
Harry is a different kind of private investigator. He’s an ex-cop pensioned off the force because of a bullet in his back. He supplements the pension by taking cases when and if he wants. He rides the bus frequently as his car is often in the shop and avoids many chases and brawls because of his back. David Janssen’s world-weary performance is spot on for those who enjoy neo-noir and the use of voice-over has been described as amongst the best ever in episodic television. Rather than simply advancing the plot, his narration provides insight into Harry’s thoughts and feelings about what’s going on.
The series actually began filming in San Diego, and these are some of my favorite episodes, but was moved back to LA to lower the budget. This necessarily brought about some cast changes, but also led to a new police contact played by Anthony Zerbe, who won an Emmy for his performance. This also leads to an excellent episode that deals with Harry’s former police contact in San Diego called Elegy for a Cop.
I’ll shut up for now, but I think many members of this forum will find the series unique and interesting, if not as much as myself. Perhaps it’s blasphemous to say on this forum, but MPI ranks third among my favorite series behind The Rockford Files and Harry-O.
