Vega$

Great, breezy show whose best feature is that it was filmed on location in fabulous Las Vegas. Created by Spelling-Goldberg productions in the same vein as its previous heavyweight crime series Starsky & Hutch and Charlie's Angels, it featured the same types of plots, music, action and parade of beautiful people and period heavies only now in a much more exciting locale!

Robert Urich was perfectly cast as private detective and Vietnam vet Dan Tanna, replete with a showgirl secretary, Beatrice and bumbling guy Friday, Binzer. Tony Curtis was really only present during the first season as casino owner Philip Roth, whose retainer to watch over his various Vegas hotel holdings basically allowed Dan to do a lot of pro-bono detective work. After appearing in the pilot, Greg Morris didn't join the regular cast as Lt. Dave Nelson until season 2 and then stayed through the series' end effectively replacing Tony Curtis' Roth as the authority figure in Dan's world. And no one could forget Tanna's amazing drive-in pad.

While there seemed to efforts to try and make Tanna a deeper character with complex emotions, we're talking seventies TV, so it was unfulfilled. Things had to be wrapped up with a neat, little bow in an hour with no time wasted on a character's personal struggles. Same thing with the plots which were great on the surface but rarely fully developed. But it was escapism at it's best given the setting and the setup.

Robert Urich played Dan Tanna on this very popular 1970's -80's television show, "Vega$".. The whole show was pretty entertaining, however, Robert Urich was by far and away, the greatest part of the entire series!! I think that the character Robert Urich played was so smooth and assertive!! His superiority was very evident,and everyone around him was always yearning to be just like Dan Tanna; The great looking hot shot detective!! Robert Urich was SO!! Handsome!! I do not know any women who were my contemporaries who were not just totally in love with the Vega$ character, Dan Tanna (Robert Urich)!! He was such a hot and incredibly gorgeous stud!! I thought in the sitcom "Soap" Robert Urich was cute, but in "Vega$" he had to be one of the all time prime time television studs!! Robert Urich was spectacular in "Vega$" and he is the primary reason why I loved the show!! Wow!! Robert Urich was so great!! What an absolute and total hunk!! He was oone of the first all time television hunks and probably one of the best too!!

I am very surprised that there are not several comments already on here about this show! Vega$ is one of the many, many, many Spelling Drama's. I don't know what it is with him, but the magic he makes when he creates a show is incredible! This particular show had most of what the rest of his hits & non-hit shows have...Style! Its simple, take a detective in Nevada, all the casinos, showgirls, the bad guys, & the late70's early 80's & you have Vega$. The show lacked in speed. It ran dry often. All & all though, it is a fun show. I look at it now & compare Vega$ to Vegas now. Anytime it airs give it a try. 1-10 (7)

Before I begin this commentary of the classic Aaron Spelling series,I wanted to point out that its star actor Robert Urich(who recently passed away of cancer on April 15,2002)who was in several detective/private eye series before premiering on this show which ran from four seasons on the ABC network(from 1978-1981),and to me this one stands out from all the rest. Hard hitting,fast paced with all of the lights,crooks,serial murderers,showgirls,and hard money with a lot of rockem sockem action. Also in this series were Antonio Fargas(aka Huggy Bear on another Aaron Spelling series "Starsky and Hutch")as Urich's right hand man,and also featured Greg Morris(aka Mission:Impossible) as Urich's boss. I like the first three seasons of the show,but when the show got to the fourth and final season,it completely dried up. Great premise and with such style! Urich however,hwo has a knack of solving crimes his own way,and always got the bad guy would reprise that role again in the 1980's with Spenser:For Hire which also starred Avery Brooks that also ran on the ABC network as well(from 1985-1991). Kudos to Robert Urich,one of the coolest,toughest detectives ever to grace the TV screen. He will be truly missed.

To the person who commented last...he had one big thing on the series totally backwards. Naomi Steven's character was throughout the 1st season only, at the very end of the 1st season..Greg Morris became the main police friend/help character for the rest of the series and Naomi Stevens was gone after only 1 season...for the better too. Greg Morris appeared only once before his reg role and that was in the pilot episode.

This was def a great series all around. The first season was kinda silly and lame (but watchable). But as the 2nd season started, and major changes were made (in writing, production etc), by the show's final episode in late 1981, it should have had many seasons to go. But of course, like all quality TV...the masses only like crap, and Vega$ was everything but...so it was gone just as it was hitting its peak.

This series def deserves a true DVD release...stop releasing a zillion editions of garbage like "My So Called Life", "Friends" and all this reality TV garbage thats killed television and get this example of what once was quality prime time TV out there!