Mike Hammer

I wish they would properly convert these into a box set. The 90's series (tango)are horribly done. The ones with Velda had some great chemistry. Even the sound and lighting (brighter) is better in the 84-89' series. The scripts were written much better and it shows. A few episodes are lighting in a bottle to view they were that good.

Stacy Keach was the definitive Hammer. The sadistic Ralph Meeker, the only Hammer to not pack a gun, was the next best in the awesome Kiss Me Deadly. This series was loaded with punchouts of the antiseptic kind and lots of buxom babes in low cut tops coming on to Keach. For some reason, none of Spillane's stories were adapted for the series. Don Stroud, Kent Williams, Lindsay Bloom and other supporting players were very good. Why isn't this series on DVD when so much junk made years later gets fast releases? Why isn't this series in reruns at least with all the broadcast stations like H&I popping up. It's a crime. The final, disconnected Hammer series made in Canada in 1997 is worthless.

One of the new breed "Old School" detective shows, Mike Hammer was one of my favorite shows ever. The tough, hardboiled tough-as-nails detective that actually had to DO detective work to get his man! He wasn't afraid to pull out the fistcuffs, and he wasn't superhuman and invulnerable. They just don't make shows like this anymore!

One could only dream to be a P.I. like the Mikey himself. Semi-Classic noir-style work. One could hate watching this series first time around. But surely, after some viewing you'll back for more. Okey, the dialog are Z-class, the acting are so-so and women might felt male chauvinism is on the prowl. Heck, where can you find a guy who's seems could dodge bullet when he's slower than a jumping hare? How about those one-liners reply when bashing up the bad guys or flirting up a chick? Speaking of chicks, Mikey does his best to have the right enjoyment with different lady (or sometimes ladies) every different week. And yet he's fantasizing about the Face. Sigh, he could even live another day without getting paid at the end of the story. Yeah, I might be freaking weirdo who like this series. Just like the other 80's stuff being replayed on TV like The A-Team, MacGyver & Santa Barbara (duh). Then again, I always wait for the appearance of Velda on the show. (p.s. anybody knows her whereabouts nowadays?)

The girls had Terms of Endearment, Places In The Heart and One Life to Live; we had Mike Hammer. Fair swap. Fast and silly and tongue firmly planted in cheek, this series must've decimated Hollywood's supply of uplift bras and clinging tops and was just the thing for a twentysomething bloke with lots of hormones.

OK, it wasn't rocket science, but it's Spillane, not Shakespeare. Mike was cool, there was enough plot to see you through to the next starlet and there were some genuinely funny moments. Unfortunately, it was all cut short by Keach's arrest in England on drug charges; but even before that the politically-correct brigade had managed to dilute it of most of the things we watched it for to begin with.

Pity. I still want to know who the Face was.