Harry "O" Orwell
Created by Howard Rodman

HARRY "HARRY O" ORWELL is one of television's most memorable private detectives, made all the more engaging by David Janssen's extremely downbeat and weary portrayal of Orwell, a man with very little in life to care about, who nevertheless cares very much. For once, first person voice narration works. I guess it helped that Harry had something to say.

A bullet lodged near his spine has forced former police officer Harry Orwell to seek new employment as a private detective to supplement his disability pension. As he is frequently in pain, it also limits his ability to engage in the usual hand-to-hand combat and jumping around like Batman that are part and parcel of the genre on the tube. And since his car, a beat-up old Austin MG, is usually in the shop, waiting until he can afford a new transmission, he usually pursues his investigations by bus or taxi, or on foot. I remember one episode where Harry, realizing he's being followed, decides to take the bus home. The two would-be tails are not amused.

Harry is a loner who lives in a beach house in San Diego and likes to spend his time re-building his boat The Answer in his yard. He has an ex-wife but no steady relationships until he moves from San Diego to Santa Monica about midway through the first season, after which he has a fair number of gorgeous flight attendants as neighbors, including Farrah Fawcett and Loni Anderson (back before they were, uh, big).

The Answer was never completed.

UNDER OATH

• "Harry-O was the most believable presentation of world-weariness I've seen due to a combination of David Janssen's presence and the best use of first-person voice-over narration in television history. As I recall (it's been a few years), the scripts were generally good and the direction, especially by Jerry Thorpe and Richard Lang, was first rate. And, if you'd had a Best Sidekick/Police Contact category, Anthony Zerbe's Lt. Trench would have been dueling Joe Santos' Dennis Becker from The Rockford Files for first place."
  (Ted Fitzgerald)
  .
• "Harry-O is possibly TV's only truly successful interpretation of the Chandler/Macdonald/Spillane first-person narrative."
  (Max Allan Collins and John Javna, The Best of Crime and Detective TV)
  .
• "The first-person narrative in Harry-O was some of the best in television writing ever; in fact, it was poetic...the (voice-overs) presented non-narrative information. They discussed how Harry was feeling, how he viewed the world--and not what was going on in the story...I was amazed to see a guy on a popular TV show talking poetry." (Stuart Kaminsky, creator of Toby Peters)

TELEVISION

• SMILE, JENNY, YOU'RE DEAD
  (February 3, 1974; two-hour pilot)(1974, ABC)
  Made-for-Television movie
  A Warner Bros Television Production
  Starring David Janssen as HARRY ORWELL
  .
• SUCH DUST AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON
  (March 11, 1973; one-hour pilot)
  .Made-for-Television movie
  A Warner Bros Television Production
  Starring David Janssen as HARRY ORWELL
  
• HARRY O
  (1974-76, ABC)
  2 120-minute episodes, 43 60-minute episodes
  Creator: Howard Rodman
  Writers: Robert C. Dennis, Herman Groves, Stephen Kandel, Howard Rodman, Michael Sloan, Norman Strum, Gene Thompson
  Directors: Richard Lang, Jerry London, Joe Manduke, Russ Mayberry, Jerry Thorpe
  Theme by Billy Goldenberg
  Performed by The John Gregory Orchestra
  Producers: Robert E. Thompson, Robert Dozier, Buck Houghton, Alex Beaton
  Executive Producer: Jerry Thorpe
  A Warner Bros Television Production
  Starring David Janssen as HARRY ORWELL
  With Henry Darrow as Manny Quinlan (season one)
  Anthony Zerbe as KC Trench (season two)
  Les Lannom as Lester Hodges
  Farrah Fawcett-Majors as Sue Ingram
  Paul Tulley as Sgt. Don Roberts
  Tom Atkins as Sgt. Frank Cole
  Hal Williams as Clarence
  Also starring Keye Luke
  Guest stars: Jim Backus, Cab Calloway, Broderick Crawford, Margot Kidder, Sal Mineo, Robert Reed, Kurt Russell, Martin Sheen, Craig Stevens
  

• First Season
• "Gertrude" (September 12, 1974; nominated for Edgar)
• "The Admiral's Lady" (September 19, 1974)
• "Guardian at the Gate" (September 26, 1974)
• "Mortal Sin" (October 3, 1974)
• "Coinage of the Realm" (October 10, 19)
• "Eye Witness" (October 17, 1974)
• "Shadows at Noon" (October 24, 1974)
• "Ballinger's Choice" (October 31, 1974)
• "Second Sight" (November 7, 1974)
• "Material Witness" (November 14, 1974)
• "Accounts Balanced" (November 21, 1974)
• "Forty Reasons to Kill" (two-part episode; December 5 and 12 1974)
• "The Last Heir" (January 9, 1975)
• "For the Love of Money" (January 16, 1975)
• "The Confetti People" (January 23, 1975)
• "Sound of Trumpets" (January 30, 1974)
• "Silent Kill" (February 6, 1975)
• "Double Jeopardy" (February 13, 1975)
• "Lester" (February 20, 1975)
• "Elegy for a Cop" (February 27, 1975)
• "Street Games" (March 13, 1975)
  
  
• Second Season
• "Anatomy of a Frame" (September 11, 1975)
• "One for the Road" (September 18, 1975)
• "Lester Two" (September 25, 1975)
• "Shades" (October 2, 1975)
• "Portrait of a Murder" (October 9, 1975)
• "The Acolyte" (October 16, 1975)
• "Mayday" (October 16, 1975
• "Tender Killing Care" October 30, 1975)
• "A.P.B. Harry Orwell" (November 6, 1975)
• "Group Terror" (November 13, 1975)
• "Reflections" (November 20, 1975)
• "Exercise in Fatality" (December 4, 1975)
• "The Madonna Legacy" (December 11, 1975)
• "Mister Five and Dime" (January 8, 1976)
• "Book of Changes" (January 15, 1976)
• "Past Imperfect" (January 22, 1976)
• "Hostage" (February 19, 1976)
• "Forbidden City" (February 26, 1976)
• "Victim" (March 4, 1976)
• "Ruby" (March 11, 1976)
• "The Mysterious Case of Lester and Dr. Fong" (March 18, 1976)
• "Death Certificate" (April 29, 1976)

NOVELISATIONS

• Harry-O (1975, by Lee Hays)
• Harry-O #2: The High Cost of Living (1976; by Lee Hays)

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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