On Amazon Prime. Based on Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels, mid ‘80s TV show version. Robert Urich.

Fun stuff.

Saw that when new episodes ran and felt it was very like the books. Urich used a Beretta or Taurus 9mm, unlike Spenser's guns in the books.

Parker died and someone's writing the books with Joan Parker's approval, but I haven't read any of those.

I hope the new books are better than the Bond books written after Ian Fleming's death.

The new Mark Wahlberg 'Spenser Confidential' is worth watching, if only for the performance of Iliza Schlesinger as his brassy girlfriend.

I watched the show when it aired originally and then got hooked on the books.

Robert Urich wasn’t exactly how you would have pictured Spenser if you read the books first, but he did a good job.

Avery Brooks as Hawk was absolutely PERFECT.

I remember watching the show when I was a kid. I always thought Hawk was awesome.

Don't think I've read any of the books.

The new Netflix movie is in my queue.

Ditto....... remember trying to get the author's name (Robert Parker) off the credits...... no pause on your TV in those days!!!

I used to love that show. One of the few shows of the '80s worth watching.

Did not know about the Netflix movie. Look forward to it.

I don’t think I ever saw the show when it ran on TV in the mid-80s. I got into Parker’s Spenser series as a reader in the ‘90s, and have, over the years since, become aware of the show. Probably through YouTube, although when I have checked back on YouTube these past few years only clips have been available.

I thought Robert Urich made a good Spenser, and fit well with my own conception of the character from reading. Ditto the guy who plays Hawk. I find the actress who plays Susan, Spenser’s love interest, a little disappointing.

Urich, by the way, is the Jake Spoon character in the Lonesome Dove TV series, which is a little jarring if you’re accustomed to thinking of him as Spenser. (I saw Spenser before I saw Lonesome Dove, probably because I was living abroad during those years..)

While I like the show, I like the Spenser books better. Those of you who have not read the original Robert B. Parker series are in for a treat if you try it. (I feel the same way about Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove, though I admit the TV series is outstanding.)

Just a quick FYI. Urich was in another western series, The Lazarus Man. He digs himself out of a grave with no memory and tries to figure out who he is and how he ended up in the grave. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember liking it. I don't know if it's streaming anywhere, though.

Found this promo video:

Robert Urich IIRC was in about 10 TV series.... and a dozen movies

Spencer for Hire
Vegas
SWAT
Lonesome Dove
Soap
Magnum Force

Several Spencer TV movies

Spenser, with an “s,” like the English poet, author of The Faerie Queen, Edmund Spenser.

(That’s an inside joke for readers of the series, wherein Spenser often corrects people who misspell his name by citing the English poet. It’s part of his thuggish looking, but smart, well read, and sophisticated schtick that he uses regularly to discombobulate snobs he encounters who assume he is a lowbrow.)

You got me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the things that strikes you as a bit odd after a while once you think about it is that the entire Boston Police Department detective force seems to have only one Lieutenant and one Sergeant ...

Not the whole department. Just homicide.

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I always take precautions

Yep. For the entire city of Boston, which size-wise has one of the 20 largest PDs in the country. In one episode Sgt. Belson even takes over as the lead hostage negotiator because, as he charmingly explains, he “took the course” ...

If it is on Amazon Prime I may have to watch it. We are running out of things to watch as they are postponing the Osman series in Turkey.

Not on Amazon except through IMDB tv. Has ads. So I will skip until it is on amazon with no ads.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Watching episode 2 now.

Ace Atkins is writing the Spenser novels and doing a credible job of it.

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Watched this, the new Netflix Spenser movie, tonight. I s’pose it’s an okay B movie, but it has little in common with either the novels or the 80s TV show.

It’s an effort to make the story more 21st century and appealing to today’s young people, I guess.

Spenser, Hawk and Susan... All are out of whack with the originals.

I think the movie reshaped the original so much as to be unrecognizable.

(“But, other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”)

I was a huge fan of just about everything Robert B. Parker wrote. I was a fan of Urich since Vegas.

I don't know if I can stomach the Spenser movie based on just how far the characters are from their literary development (based solely on the commercials).

I realize you probably have to modernize Spenser from the Korean War vet he was in the novels, but it looks like the names are the only thing retained.

I have tried to read some of the novels written since his death and they are not the same. Not bad. Just not the same. After all, Robert B. Parker wrote the character for 40 years.

I think Robt. B. Parker was actually an advisor on the original series. Probably why the show was like the books.

He was sometimes confused with the Robert Parker who writes about wine. But their middle names differed.

I did come across the trailer. It does look mildly entertaining and I’ll probably watch it at some point.

It appears indeed to be directed primarily at folks looking for something to watch after “Fast and Furious Part 68” or such. Slick, loud, and hectic.

PS: Another Spenser that was closer to the original, but didn’t really work for me either, was Joe Mantegna, who played him in a few made-for-TV adaptations in the late 1990s. I don’t remember much, may have to look those up again.

Even though made made by Hallmark, Tom Sellick did a great job as Jesse Stone. R B Parker did work as an adviser there too.

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Yeah, I like those Jessie Stone, Tom Selleck made-for-TV movies, too. I’ve read a couple of the Parker Jessie Stone novels, too. Quite good.