TV Boy

I was nine when "The Avenger" episode aired in '78 and it wasn't until this Christmas, when I got the complete series on DVD, that I was able to see it again. Harry's raspy "You!" has haunted me for the last 40 years. Love this episode and the gritty handheld aesthetic it employs.

My dad and I are both huge fans of the Spenser novels, TV show, telepics, et al. Because we both agree, Robert Urich's cast a long shadow over the role of everyone's favorite Boston P.I., he (dad) didn't buy Joe Mantegna as Spenser at all - too ethnic, he said. "Small Vices" was the first of three TV movies with Mantegna. My dad couldn't get past it. I, though, think Mantegna nailed Spenser's dry wit and sense of humor. "Small Vices" certainly was the best of the A&E trilogy - just try watching Eric Roberts as Police Chief DeSpain in one of the others without cringing. But in a world where Warner Bros. has left "Spenser: For Hire" to languish on its AOL site, and all we have on DVD are the Lifetime TV movies, my investment in a region-free player has paid off again - "Small Vices" was released in Australia on home video and I picked up a copy from Amazon.

Made up of a half dozen of California's toughest law enforcement officers, the Strike Force handled those cases too difficult for mainstream justice to solve. I was 11 or 12 when "Strike Force" aired and loved it. After watching rather tame procedurals as "Emergency!" and "Adam-12," "SF" was the first cop show I watched that seemed "grown-up." The first episode had a mother and father decapitating members of the jury that sentenced their son to prison. Tough stuff. In fact, I remember "SF" being named one of the most violent shows on television by one of those citizen groups. Probably no money in it, but it'd be great to see this show's very few episodes on DVD. It was a Spelling Production, so maybe in the wake of Aaron's death ... but I doubt it.

PS - Yup, on Sunday nights, ABC also ran "Today's FBI," starring Mannix himself, Mike Connors.

PPS - I actually had a "SF" gun and target set, you know - with those plastic suction cups. And the gun was modeled after Stack's own hand cannon from the show. Wish I still had it ... hello, Ebay!! Oh well.