An even stronger connection than her appearance in Harry O -- she was the
star of the TV movie Criminal Behavior, an adaptation of a Ross Macdonald
stand alone. (I think it was The Ferguson Affair, but I'm too lazy to dig
out the info to make sure.) I am sure that the part was given a sex-change
to accommodate Fawcett.
I try to stay out of the minor quibbles that pop up from time to time on
this list, but in the Harry O vs. Rockford Files matter, I feel I have to
jump in. Over the last two years, I've seen most of the Harry O's (on
cable). As I'd remembered them, they were pure private eye. What the years
had filtered out were the sticky sentimentality and peachiness of the first
seasons. Those are the ones where Harry winds up looking out at the dark
Pacific or doing his half-limp jog along the beach, while in voice-over, he
explains the deeper significance of the events we've just seen. Once
Anthony Zebra became the friendly-enemy police contact, things lightened up
a little. By the time Fawcett moved in as Harry's next-door neighbor, the
show had become almost as good as the one I'd remembered. Rockford, on the
other hand, is, if anything, better than it's memory. Since it's been
available all over the dial -- and on DVD -- it's easy to see that it was
smart TV right from the jump. Clever plots, witty dialogue, great
characters. And not one pretentious moment. If Rockford jogs along the
beach, it's because somebody with a gun is chasing him. The final two-hour
movies may show their padding but the original run, IMO, is a small screen
private eye saga that has never been equaled.
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