A Man Called Hawk

I enjoy watching Ving Rhames and I am excited that he has journeyed into TV land with the new series remake, "KOJAK" -- but no one, and I mean NO ONE tops Avery Brooks as HAWK! Avery Brooks did what very few blacks in TV during the 80's could do - he played an "afrocentric," pro-black, take no prisoners everyman, without being a narrow minded, uptight militant. Militancy has its place in history but that's not what AMCH was about.

I long to see that engaging snarl of Hawk's with the quintessential growling "ahhh" that he often followed up with. Only Mr. Brooks could give life to something that had no meaning.

It's a shame to see that Avery hasn't gotten his due props in movies and TV. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was cool, but I wanted to See Avery in action---HAWK in action.

Maybe someday someone will think hard about putting Hawk on DVD for the masses -- not just for Africn Americans. I hope that times have changed just enough for the powers-that-be to factor in the huge crossover appeal of AMCH and of Avery Brooks.

What would be awesome would be to see Avery in action again, as Hawk, in a revival of the series. Surely there's a cable station or network out there that could truly give this show the chance it deserves to find its audience.

And hopefully, Mr. Brooks would WANT to do it.

Someone made the comment that with all the stuff out on DVD that there should be some release of "Hawk's" 13 episodes. I wish I'd known the show would be yanked off the air so quickly. I had an old front-loading VCR and could have -- should have -- videotaped it. As it is, I have one episode on tape somewhere, and I'm rummaging through my old VHS tapes to find it. If they EVER rerun "A Man Called Hawk" on TV again, I won't make the same mistake. However, my fear is that the show will never make it on usual roundup of "old-show" viewing such as "TV Land" or "Nick at Night" or any of the other cable networks. "BET" ran it for a hot minute but it didn't last long; they are too stuck on comedies and music videos. "USA" recently flipped the script on the old "Kojak" series and updated the Telly Savalas character with Ving Rhames. Although it's a stretch to hear Ving say "Who loves you baby?" while smacking on a lollipop, some of the same qualities that made "Hawk" memorable are also evident in this show: smooth, intelligent, in charge,smart dresser, and smart dialogue. You can bet that this time I'm videotaping the new "Kojak," but man I'd like to get my hands on a "Hawk" DVD collection.

THE HAWK was then and still is now THE BEST. The only reason I actually enjoyed SPENSER: FOR HIRE was just so I could see THE HAWK in action, doing his thing as only he could. Avery Brooks will always be one of my favorite actors simply because of his portrayal of this unique character - which I refer to as my #1 Superhero. HAWK had it all - the look, the style, the dialogue, the weapon, the Street Savvy, and the cool to handle ANYTHING that came his way. I grew up during the late 70's and early 80's so I wasn't a part of the 70's blaxplotation that made Shaft a star. But to me THE HAWK will always be my Shaft. I only got to watch A Man Called HAWK once and I hope one day I'll be able to get a chance to see Mr. Brooks in action as THE HAWK either on Video or DVD release.

I have watched all of (Spenser: For Hire) episodes. It was nice. Yes, not quite (Magnum), but it got its own good - not too long - time. And most of the attraction came from that formula of the lead (Spenser) and his very strange friend (Hawk); where one is a private detective and the other is an ex-killer! And one (Robert Urich) is romantic intellectual guy, and one (Avery Brooks) is rough violent man whose coming from the streets.

It was similar to an angel and a devil that fight together for the noble case. Or it was some kind of metaphor for the forever discrepant; good and evil sides in the human being, through a show that teamed them up for the realization of one ideal purpose, where every side helps the other by using its own special way. So the irony between the 2 different men and their styles was captivating. However, the way how their friendship went despite their differences was even more captivating.

The secret of how Hawk stole the show was simple, due to the spirit of the role itself, and its distinguished disposition. I mean his way of talking, famous words (naughty naughty ah ha!), preferred style in clothing, sunglasses, long silver pistol.. etc. And I mean also the way he was appearing from the shadows suddenly to save Spenser in so many memorable ways; that rare kind of the bodyguard trained in hell, or that angel who looks more like a devil; all of that made Hawk one of its kind partner, the tough protecting friend that any one dreams of, and the powerful guardian angel that everybody wants.

Hawk was no Dirty Harry; he wasn't a cop or loves any, and he was less funnier. Hawk was dark, mysterious, and not predictable at all. Put in that mix the strong performance of (Avery Brooks), and how original the character was in the 1980s, and you'll easily understand the lasting magic of this character after nearly 20 years of its appearance for the very first time.

It made also its own mark on other shows. For example, you can clearly notice that with the relationship between agent Mulder (David Duchovny) and Mr. X (Steven Williams) in the second season of (The X Files) 1994, 9 years after the beginning of Spenser.

So, surely, there were some good reasons to make an independent show for Hawk one year after (Spenser) was canceled. But the formula this time wasn't the same!

Mainly, the other half is not here; Spencer is in Boston and Mr. Hawk went to Washington! I know life goes on, but not that way, because here you won't find any friend for The Good Old Friend. Yes, Hawk is that loner, but I think the writers didn't compensate the absence of Spencer being not here or there. That was a shock, maybe a slight one.

But despite whatever it might have had of whatever defects, the real shock was that the producers didn't give the time for such a show to progress. And I believe, like everybody else, that there was plenty of potential in it.

Was it bad luck? Well, I don't believe in luck. So it could be the foolishness and the rashness of the bossy producers who gave a lot to nonsense shows, with absolute nothing to show, putting them on air, for years and years, to present the same nothing, or the bad nothing, over and over again. And the list of that kind is endless.

After that, (Avery Brooks) got some wonderful roles in TV and cinema. But I think none was as exceptional or popular as Hawk which I call the most evil good hero ever, even if he lasted for 3 seasons in a show, 13 episodes in another, and appeared in all the 4 Spenser TV movies from 1993 till 1995.

PS: I'll never ever forget his line in one episode of (A Man Called Hawk) when he was telling a young man who he was watching over: "Wherever, whenever, I'll be there for you" WAW.. honestly, who needs more?!.. And he wasn't even a superhero!!

I don't buy the theory that Hawk was canceled because white audiences "weren't ready for a strong, serious black lead". As a white teen in the late 80's/early 90's, I liked the show a lot. Unfortunately, history tells us there were also plenty of "white" shows which suffered cruel treatment at the hands of clueless, egotistical TV executives who wouldn't know a good show if it came up and bit them on the ass.

"Hawk" had great potential, and certainly was on a par with a number of other similarly-themed detective/police shows of the time. Avery Brooks portrayed the hard-edged, scowling Hawk with just the right balance of menace and charm.

You look at some of the garbage on TV today and wonder why a show of this caliber got an early hook. Fortunately, the very underrated TVOne station is re-running episodes of this show.