Spenser
Created by Robert B. Parker (1932-2010)
Love him or hate him, everybody who reads detective fiction seems to have an opinion about Robert B. Parker's immensely popular (and in my estimation, highly influential) series about Boston P.I. SPENSER (no first name).
Including more than a few less than affectionate nods from some of his fellow detective fiction writers. Sour grapes?
The first four books in the series made a strong impression
on those hungry for a successor to the Hammett-Chandler-Macdonald
trinity. The books are certainly strong, if somewhat derivative,
particularly of Chandler. Not surprising, though -- Parker wrote
his doctoral dissertation at Boston U. on the three of them. But
they're damn good reads, and introduced an intriguing new gumshoe,
one whose success and popularity is still reverberating through
the genre.
Spenser's a real piece of work. A gourmet cook who pumps iron, an ex-boxer who quotes poetry, a sensitive guy who enjoys getting physical. A guy who goes enjoys a fine gourmet meal and a cold mug of beer, preferably
in the same place.And he certainly isn't shy about violence. A
true romantic who considers himself a thug for hire and whose
closest friend, HAWK, is a former leg breaker for the mob.
Born in Laramie, Wyoming (where Chandler was supposedly conceived),
Spenser was delivered by C-section; his mother died in childbirth.
He was raised by his dad and his mother's two brothers, all three
of them carpenters. He eventually left, and ended up in Boston
as a private detective. Along the way, he was a boxer, a serviceman
in Korea, and a Massachusetts State Trooper, assigned to the DA's
office in Suffolk County. But it seems he had , as he puts it,
a bit of problem with authority. Or, as his pal Captain Healy
of the State police puts it in Bad Business: "they
canned your ass for being an insubordinate fucking hot dog."
And then, in God Save the Child, he met Susan Silverman, and detective fiction was never the same.
Eventually, Parker's success (books on the bestsellers list and a hit TV show) and his own literary pretensions got in the way. After the overblown A Catskill Eagle, several of the books in the late eighties were little more than padded novellas, and in the nineties, Spenser, always a bit smug, was frequently an unbearable, infuriatingly smug wiseass. And his pithy back-and- forth with Susan can be insufferingly cute. Still, when Parker and Spenser are in stride, there aren't many that can touch them. As Frederick Nolan says, in 100
Great Detectives, "Spenser is. Take it or leave it."
And Parker is such a great stylist, that even a mediocre Spenser
novel is a joy to read....
The television show, at least for Spenser fans, was disappointing.
Robert Urich, though likable enough as Dan Tanna in VEGA$,
was woefully miscast. In the shows, Spenser was just a run of
the mill TV dick, a bit smugger than most, and his literacy seemed
to consist mostly of reading quotation books. Susan was a cardboard
character, easily replaced by another actress. Yet, every now
and then, an attempt was made to incorporate the novel's sensibilities
into the series, usually with dreadful results.
One of the more ambitious episodes, from the third (and final)
season, Child's Play, scripted by executive producer Yates,
had Spenser in pursuit of a hit man. In the course of the inevitable
gun battle, Spenser shoots and kills an innocent boy. The issues
of gun control and escalating urban violence are touched upon.
They're just not touched upon enough to matter. And of course,
Spenser walks. And the next week, he was blasting away as usual.
"I had killed a child and it would be a long time before
the pain and hurt would go away. Not now, but later, in some quiet
place I would lay down my gun and grieve for the child who'd never
grow old."
Please!
Still, there were some nice touches. Spenser's "neat, TV dick car" was a dark, ivy green 1966 Mustang, and the on-location shooting in Boston was a nice change of pace. The one thing the shows got right was Hawk. Big, black and menacing, he had more edge in one episode than Urich had in a season. After the series ended in 1988, Avery Brooks reprised his role of Hawk in A Man Called Hawk
in 1989, a disappointing use of a good actor and a great role.
As well, the "Play It Again, Sammy" (January
30, 1988) and "McAllister" (April 3, 1988) episodes
served as pilots for proposed spin-off series, but neither was
picked up. Sammy, played by Sal Viscuso, was a con-man
turned sleazy private eye (written by Lee Goldberg and William
Rabkin) and McAllister, was a federal prosecutor (Steve
Hattman and William Robert Yates wrote that one).
A few years later, Spenser For Hire was brought back, in fourfull-length TV movies, bringing back the original cast, but they only served to tarnish Spenser's television image further. This go 'round, they didn't even bother to film in Boston, settling for Toronto instead.
Whether his detractors admit it or not (and they're numerous),
author Robert B. Parker is one of the most popular and influential
private eye writers of all time, and has perhaps come closer than
most of being spoken of in the same breath as Hammett, Chandler
and Macdonald. Certainly few authors have managed to match the
opening salvo of his first four books. And Parker has continued
delivering the goods, in the Spenser series, several excellent
non-series thrillers, and even two new series, one featuring Jesse
Stone, an alcoholic California cop trying to make a new life
for himself as chief of police in a small Massachusetts town,
and one originally sparked by movie deal with Helen Hunt and Columbia
Pictures, which saw him create a female private eye, Sunny
Randall. And he must have realized a dream when he was
asked to complete Raymond Chandler's last novel, Poodle Springs
(1989), and then penning a sequel to Chandler's The Big Sleep,
called Perchance To Dream (1990).
A few years back, he signed a project deal with A&E to do five Spenser movies and five Jesse Stone movies. There have been three TV movies starring Joe Mantegna as Spenser so far. Mantegna was potentially a good choice -- he certainly seemed a better choice than the affable, but miscast future Love Boat captain Robert Urich. According to Steven Bucci on rec.arts.mystery "[Parker] said that while originally he couldn't see Spenser being played by Joe Mantegna, he was truly pleased with the final results. He said Joe Mantegna did a very good job in the role, that he felt the movie proved to be the best version of Spenser to date." I'm less convinced, mostly because despite Mantegna's acting chops, the TV films with him were so lame they might as well have cast Woody Harrelson for all the difference it would make. I found Mantegna marginally better than Urich, but by that point, who cared?
Thank God, then, that through it all, Parker kept writing the Spenser series, and the last few years have seen him once again putting Spenser through his paces, keeping him active and vital, ticking off bad guys and fighting the good fight, entertaining his multitudes of fans..
Parker makes it look effortless and easy, but trust me -- writing that well isn't easy.
THE EVIDENCE
- "It was like talking to a pancake." (Widow's
Walk)
.
- In Bad Business, a client Spenser, Hawk and Vinnie are protecting, gets frustrated by the guys' smug confidence in each other and, exasperated, turns to Susan, and asks "What is this... Some sort of secret society?"
.
"Yes, that's exactly what it is. Full of unsaid rules and
regulations which none of them will ever admit to knowing,"
Susan replies, and when asked who else is a member, starts to
list them:
.
"Okay," Susan said, "Well, there's some cops. Quirk, Belson, a detective named Lee Farrell; the state police person, Healy... and a man named Chollo from Los Angeles, and a man named Tedi Sapp from Georgia. Bobby Horse, the Native American gentleman." Hawk adds "Bernard J. Fortunato, the 'little dude' from Vegas."
- "You love her... more than I ever seen anybody love anything."
-- Hawk summarizes Spenser's relationship with Susan in Now and Then.
UNDER OATH
- "Last week I had the opportunity to spend a good deal
of time listening to some of the best contemporary crime writers
discuss their work at a conference in the Bahamas. Parker's Spenser
novels were mentioned repeatedly as a major influence on many
of these writers (it was also frequently stated, to be fair,
that the early books were far superior to the more recent ones.)
My opinion is that the countless imitations of the Spenser books--and
there are many--have tarnished our perception of the originals.
We're tired of Spenser's sons so we're tired of Spenser. Put
it in another context: a young person looking at Bullitt or
The French Connection today might yawn at "just another
car chase," but those car chases were groundbreaking and
mind-blowing at the time of their release."
(George Pelecanos, author
of A Firing Offense,
Right As Rain,
etc., from a post to Rara-Avis,
dated12/14/2000)
.
- "It's hard to believe such sharp and smart books like
God Save the Child, Mortal Stakes and Early
Autumn could inspire such a dumb, pedestrian, cliche-ridden
show. I mean, a black classic Mustang, and he lives in a firehouse?
Ah, well, at least it wasn't a red Ferrari and a Hawaiian beachhouse...Mind
you, the later Spenser books ain't no great thang, either...kill
the stupid dog, and let Hawk and Susan elope!"
(Duke Seabrook)
.
- "Several years ago I asked Robert B. Parker, creator
of the novels from which this show sprang, who he would ideally
have cast in the series. He said, "Robert Mitchum, but it
would have had to have been done 30 years ago." He further
went on to assert that Avery Brooks' portrayal of Hawk was dead
on, and that star Robert Urich's only real flaw was that he wasn't
about 30 pounds heavier. (It might have been that Parker wasn't
30 pounds lighter, but let's not go there.)"
(Thane Tierney, from the liner notes to Crimestoppers:
TV's Greatest P.I. Themes)
.
- "I wonder if there's anybody out there as tired as I
am of reading gripes about Parker's novels. If you don't like
him, don't read him. I don't mind wearing out my declining eyesight
skimming through effusive praise of Carroll John Daly
or any number of, ah, writers of dubious stylistic value. They've
made their contributions to the genre and deserve a little overpraise
every now and then. Nobody ever seems to cut Parker any slack,
even though he kept the private eye novel going through the roughest
period of its history, never mind that he has influenced several
of today's heroes of the hardboiled and created what has become
a genre staple -- the sociopathic sidekick. Okay, so he insists
on sticking in all that crap about Susan Silverman and the dog
and he allows his hero a smugness that can set one's teeth on
edge. With all of that, his books -- and this year he's published
at least three -- are never less than entertaining and, every
now and then, deliver a scene or set piece (usually a confrontation
with a powerful adversary) that reminds you of what drew you
to crime fiction in the first place."
(Dick Lochte on
Rara-Avis,
dated 11/11/2001)
.
- "I stopped reading Parker over a decade ago. However,
last year I read Perish Twice in preparation for writing
a "things to do this week" blurb for a local booksigning
of his...but I was reminded of just how readable Parker is. The
man's got flow. (And) I respect the man's major contribution
to the genre. As Dick noted, the man kept it going during a pretty
bleak time for PI fiction, and he did it with style. Plus I recognize
he set the standards for much of the PI fiction I like and do
still read. He wrote the rules for the contemporary PI genre.
And, as Dick also noted, his splitting the PI into two persons,
one honorable, one psycho, was absolutely brilliant."
(Mark Sullivan on
Rara-Avis,
dated 11/11/2001)
.
- "Robert B. Parker, through his Spenser novels,
is responsible for my writing career. Back in high school, I
wanted to be a comic book artist, and I spent a lot of time writing
and drawing my own comics. The "writing" part was only
because I had no one else to write them. If I wanted to draw
comics, I had to write them, too. Then one night in 1987, in
my sophomore year of high school, I happened to catch an episode
Spenser: For Hire, and I noticed the "Based on characters
created by Robert B. Parker" line in the opening credits.
I think around that time, there was also an article in TV
Guide written by Parker, in which he talked about the differences
between his Spenser, and the TV Spenser. And I guess right here
is as good a place as any to say that Robert Urich is twice the
Spenser that Joe Mantegna could ever hope to be. And after Avery
Brooks' performance, no one should ever even attempt to play
Hawk....Anyway, this got me into a library, where I checked out
Ceremony, my first Spenser novel. This literally changed
my life. Up until that point, novels were frequently dull books
they made you read in English class. Things you suffered through,
wishing you were reading comics. But Parker's novels opened my
ears, and mind. I realized that novels don't have to be stuffy
and boring. These books were fun. And funny! I laughed out loud
- and still do."
(Jay Faerber, creator of
Dodge's Bullets)
- "One of the great series in the history of the American detective story."
(The New York Times)
NOVELS
SHORT STORIES & OTHER BITS'N'PIECES
See also Spenser's Shorts
- "Surrogate" (1982, also New Crimes #3)
The only "real" short story in the bunch.
- Spenser's Boston (1988; Spenser's Boston)
Japanese Spenser fan Kasho Kumagai's loving homage to Spenser's hometown includes this short piece by Parker, which features Spenser and Susan showing Rachel Wallace some local sites of interest.
- "There's No Business " (February 10, 2003, Audiobooks Today)
- "Spenser" (2009, The Line-Up)
Not really a short story -- more a vignette of Susan and Spenser being interviewed by a Harvard professor friend of Susan's for a book called Men Who Dare.
TELEVISION
- PROMISED LAND (1985, ABC)
2-hour pilot for series
Based on the novel by Robert
B. Parker
- SPENSER FOR HIRE (1985-88,
ABC)
64 one hour episodes
Based on characters created
by Robert B. Parker
Writers: Daniel Freudenberger,
Robert Hamilton, Stephen Hattman, Robert B. and Joan H. Parker,
John Wilder, William Robert Yates, Lee Goldberg, William Rabkin,
Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa, David Carren, Steve Hattman, Michael
Fisher, Bob Bielak, Juanita Bartlett
Directors:
Richard Colla, Harvey Hart, Winrich Kolbe, Virgil Vogel,
David M. Whorf, William Wiard, John Wilder
Developed for television by John Wilder
Consultant:
Robert B. Parker
Executive Producers: John Wilder, Juanita Bartlett, Stephen
Hattman, William Robert Yates
Theme by Steve Dorff &
Friends
Starring Robert Urich as
SPENSER
and Avery Brooks as HAWK
Also starring Barbara Stock,
Ron McLarty, Richard Jaekel, Carolyn McCormick
Guest Stars:
Chuck Connors, Spaulding Gray, Lauren Holly, Jimmy Smits,
D.B. Sweeney, Jay Thomas, Sal Viscuso
- Season One
- "Spenser: For Hire" (September 20, 1985)
- "No Room at the Inn" (September 27, 1985)
- "The Choice" (October 4, 1985)
- "Discord in A Minor" (October 11, 1985)
- "Original Sin" (October 15, 1985)
- "Children of a Tempest Storm" (October 22, 1985)
- "The Killer Within" (October 29, 1985)
- "Autumn Thieves" (November 12, 1985)
- "Blood Money" (November 19, 1985)
- "Resurrection" (December 6, 1986)
- "Internal Affairs" (December 31, 1985)
- "Death by Design" (January 7, 1986)
- "A Day's Wages" (January 14, 1986)
- "A Madness Most" Discreet (January 21, 1986)
- "Brother to Dragons" (February 4, 1986)
- "When Silence Speaks" (February 11, 1986)
- "In a Safe Place" (February 18, 1986)
- "Angel of Desolation" (March 4, 1986)
- "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not" (March 11, 1986)
- "At the River's Edge" (March 25, 1986)
- "Rage" (April 1, 1986)
- "Hell Hath No Fury" (April 8, 1986)
.
- Season Two
- "Widow's Walk" (September 27, 1986)*
- "An Eye for an Eye" (October 4, 1986)
- "Rockabye Baby" (October 18, 1986)
- "White Knight" (October 25, 1986)
- "And Give Up Show Biz" (November 1, 1986)
- "The Long Hunt" (November 8, 1986)
- "Home is the Hero" (November 22, 1986)
- "One if by Land, Two if by Sea" (November 29, 1986)
- "Shadowsight" (December 13, 1986)
- "The Hopes and Fears" (December 20, 1986)
- "Among Friends" (January 7, 1987)
- "I Confess" (January 17, 1987)
- "Murder and Acquisitions" (January 24, 1987)
- "Personal Demons" (February 7, 1987)
- "Mary Hamilton" (February 14, 1987)
- "Trial and Error" (February 21, 1987)
- "One for My Daughter" (March 7, 1987)
- "My Brother's Keeper" (March 14, 1987)
- "The Road Back" (March 21, 1987)
- "If You Knew Sammy..." (April 15, 1987)
- "The Man Who Wasn't There" (May 2, 1987)
- "The Song of Orpheus" (May 9, 1987)
.
- Season Three
- "The Homecoming" (September 27, 1987)*
- "My Enemy, My Friend" (October 4, 1987)
- "Heart of the Matter" (October 11, 1987)
- "On the Night He Was Betrayed" (November 1, 1987)
- "Sleepless Dreams" (November 8, 1987)
- "Consilum Abditum" (November 15, 1987)
- "Thanksgiving" (November 29, 1987)
- "Gone Fishin'" (December 6, 1987)
- "Child's Play" (December 20, 1987)
- "Skeletons in the Closet" (January 3, 1988)
- "The Siege" (January 10, 1988)
- "Arthur's Wake" (January 16, 1988)
- "To the End of the Line" (January 23, 1988)
- "Play It Again, Sammy" (January 30, 1988)
- "The Big Fight" (February 6, 1988)
- "Substantial Justice" (March 5, 1988)
- "Company Man" (March 12, 1988)
- "Water Colors" (March 19, 1988)
- "Hawk's Eyes" (March 26, 1988)
- "McAllister" (April 3, 1988)
- "Haunting" (May 7, 1988)
TELEVISION MOVIES
- After the "hit" series was cancelled, ABC/Lifetime produced four full-length movies starring the late Robert Urich and Avery Brooks reprising their roles as the wisecracking Boston detective and his bad-ass sidekick, taking their plots -- for once -- directly from the best-selling novels. Included in this boxed set are "Ceremony," "Pale Kings and Princes," "The Judas Goat" and "A Savage Place."
In 1999, A&E took a whack at the franchise, as well, casting Joe Mantegna for three further movies, also all based on Parker novels.
SPENSER: CEREMONY...Buy this video....Buy this on DVD
(1993, Lifetime)
Teleplay: Joan Parker and Robert B. Parker, based on his novel "Ceremony"
Director: Andrew Wild
Producer: Ray Sager
Creative Consultant: Joan
Parker
Executive Producers: Peter
R. Simpson, Fred B. Tarter, AlanWagner
A Norstar Entertainment Production
Filmed in Toronto
Starring Robert Urich as
SPENSER
with Avery Brooks as HAWK
and Barbara Williams as Susan Silverman
Also starring J. Winston Carroll,
Dave Nichols, Tanya Allen,Jefferson Mappen, Lynne Cormack, Lili
Francks, Alexa Gilmour, Janet Bailey
.
- SPENSER: PALE KING AND PRINCES...Buy this video....Buy this on DVD
(1993, Lifetime)
Based on the novel by Robert
B. Parker
Screenplay by Robert P. Parker & Joan H. Parker
Starring Robert Urich as
SPENSER
with Avery Brooks as HAWK
and Barbara Williams as Susan Silverman
Also starring Alex Carter, Matthew Ferguson
.
- SPENSER: THE JUDAS GOAT....Buy this on DVD
(1994, Lifetime)
Based on the novel by Robert
B. Parker
Starring Robert Urich as
SPENSER
with Avery Brooks as HAWK
and Wendy Crewson as Susan Silverman
It's bad enough trying to pretend Toronto is Boston, but to replace Montreal with Ottawa? Ughhhh!!!!
.
- SPENSER: A SAVAGE PLACE....Buy this on DVD
(1995, Lifetime)
Based on the novel by Robert
B. Parker
Written by Carol Daley, Donald Martin, Monte Stettin and Nahum Tate
Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan
Starring Robert Urich as
SPENSER
with Avery Brooks as HAWK
Wendy Crewson as Susan Silverman
and Cynthia Dale as Candy Sloane
Also starring Tyrone Berskin,
Neil Crone, Richard Fitzpatrick, Jerry Levitan, Douglas Miller,
Daniel Parker, Ross Pelty, Natalie Radford, Michael Ricupero,
David Spooner and Hayley Tyson
.
- SMALL VICES...Buy this video
(July 18, 1999, A&E)
2 hour made-for-television movie
Based on the novel by Robert
B. Parker
Teleplay by Robert B. Parker
Directed by Robert Markowitz
Starring Joe Mantegna as
SPENSER
with Shiek Mahmud-Bey as HAWK
and Marcia Gay Harden as Susan
Also starring Eugene Lipinski
Cameo by Robert B. Parker
as CIA Agent Ives, and his son, Dan Parker as Lee Farrell.
.
- THIN AIR...Buy this video
(September 2000, A&E)
2 hour made-for-television movie
Premiere: September 12, 2000
Based on the novel by Robert
B. Parker
Directed by Robert Mandel
Starring Joe Mantegna as
SPENSER
and Marcia Gay Harden as Susan
Also starring Eugene Lipinski,
Jon Seda, Yancy Butler
Cameos by Robert B. Parker
as a sleeping cop; his son Dan as a priest; and Joan as a doctor.
.
WALKING
SHADOW...Buy this video
(2001, A&E)
2 hour made-for-television movie
Premiere: August 26, 2001
Based on the novel by Robert
B. Parker
Teleplay by Robert B. Parker
and Joan Parker
Directed by Po-Chih Leong
Executive Producer: Michael
Brandman
Co-executive Producer: Joe
Mantegna
Producer: Steven Brandman
Associate Producers: Joan
Parker, John Albanis
Starring Joe Mantegna as
SPENSER
and Marcia Gay Harden as Susan
and Ernie Hudson as HAWK
Also starring Eric Roberts,
Christopher Lawford, Christina Moore, Tamlyn Tomita, Mackenzie
Gray, Au, Ronin Wong, Marcus Sim, Chang Tseng, Henry Mah
Mantegna and Harden are back as Spenser and Susan, and Ernie "Ghostbusters" Hudson takes over as Hawk. Shot in Vancouver. Director Po-Chih Leong is a British-born Hong Kong horror specialist. Lots of gimmicky (and pointless) special effects in this one. Painful -- possibly the worst Spenser TV movie yet. And the last.
ALSO OF INTEREST
The Robert B. Parker Companion (2005)....Buy this book
Edited by Dean James and Elizabeth Foxwell
Everything you always wanted to know about Robert B. Parker's novels -- from Spenser to Jesse Stone to Sunny Randall -- but were afraid to ask. Includes plot summaries, cast of characters, Boston locations, a omprehensive biography of Parker, his stand-alone fiction, memorable quotes, an inclusive bibliographyand a new interview with Parker himself.
RELATED LINKS
- Robert B. Parker
Finally, Parker gets an official web site.
- Spenser and Hawk: A Study
of Good and Evil in the Fiction of Robert B. Parker
An essay by our own Gerald So.
.
- Bullets and Beer:
The Spenser Home Page
Raise a glass to Bob Ames, who's has done us all a favour, and revived Mike Loux's missing-in-action web site, devoted to all things Spenserian. "Some of you may remember this site from its past incarnations on Mirkwood or NEKANet, Bob explains in the intro. "Mike fully intended to move it to his new server, and had in fact been in the process of converting it to a more exciting design when fate got in the way. The man went and got a life." A labour of love, Bob spent over half a year, re-reading every book, and spending countless hours tracking down the references Parker loves to sprinkle through the text. All of Mike's original pages, plus the results of Bob's research are here. Bob calls it "six months of total dedication." I just call it great.
....
-
- The Beers of Spenser
This site's valiant effort to trace the Spenser series through
his brews of choice.
- Arlo, Janis & Spenser
A little mutual backscratching gets graphic.
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin
Burton Smith. Thanks to Gerald
So and Bob Ames
for kicking up a bit of enlightenment on this one, and keeping
me posted on all manner of things Spenserian. Also, much thanks
to our automotive expert, Jason,
for helping us spot the Mustang.
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