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Mike Hammer
TV Show Overview
Mickey
Spillane's Mike Hammer, with Stacy Keach in the title role,
is a television series that originally aired on CBS from
January 28, 1984 to January 12, 1985. The series was 24
sixty minute episodes. The show followed the adventures of
Mike Hammer, the fictitious private detective created by
crime novelist Mickey Spillane, as he hunts down criminals
on the mean streets of New York.
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Mike Hammer, Private Eye - The
Complete Series
Amazon.com DVD Review - Not to be confused with
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, which aired in the
mid-'80s, or the several made-for-TV movies produced
during that same decade, Mike Hammer Private Eye
offers all 26 episodes (totaling more than twenty
hours and four double-sided discs) from the single
season (1997-98) in which Mickey Spillane's pulp P.I.
was revived for a syndicated series.
What all of the above have in common is Stacy Keach
in the title role; and despite the many Mike Hammers
(including Armand Assante, Brian Keith, Ralph
Meeker, Darren McGavin, and even author Spillane
himself) who preceded him, Keach makes the part his
own. He was in his mid-fifties by then, not exactly
light on his feet anymore, and sporting a hairpiece
that does him no favors. But in Keach's hands,
Hammer is an appealing hero, flawed but likable.
This time around he's dealing with computers,
Internet porn, tobacco company whistle blowers, talk
radio blowhards, and other funky features of the
late 20th Century, along with the usual whores,
junkies, and assorted lowlifes. But Hammer is still
a tough-talking, hard-punching lug, engaging in
macho repartee ("What're you, drunk?" "Nah, just
thirsty"), dispensing world-weary voice-overs ("Art?
I couldn't tell a fresco from a Fresca"), and
remaining fiercely loyal to his friends and helpers
(including Shannon Whirry as sexy secretary Velda
and Shane Conrad as kid sidekick Nick) as he
doggedly seeks and destroys the bad guys ("I'm not a
killer, Mike. I'm a pervert!").
Too bad the rest of Mike Hammer Private Eye (whose
meager bonus features include a recent interview
with the star) doesn't quite measure up to Keach's
engaging performance. The budget for this series was
clearly lacking; production values are pretty poor
(with cheesy interiors that bring to mind Jack
Webb's Dragnet, produced some thirty years earlier),
and a good number of the supporting actors are less
than stellar. But whereas one could never quite be
sure if Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday was as square as he
seemed, there's no doubt that Keach and everyone
else involved have their tongues planted firmly in
cheek, which makes Mike Hammer Private Eye a genuine
hoot. At the very least, any show that uses "Harlem
Nocturne" for a theme song has got to be worth
checking out. --Sam Graham |
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