You're Just Wild About Harry

harryo

Well, some of you are. They ran the 42 episodes of the 1974-1975 detective series Harry O on Decades this past weekend and quite a few of you wrote to thank me for alerting you it was there.

The show starring David Janssen debuted on ABC the day before NBC debuted its series about a private eye who lived on the beach, The Rockford Files. The latter was the bigger hit, running six seasons compared to two for Harry O but I thought Harry O was by far the better of the two. I liked The Rockford Files but I loved Harry O.

And three of you wrote to say you caught episode #10 of Harry O and noticed that its opening scenes, which saw a man being murdered in the streets of San Diego, were shot outside the El Cortez Hotel. In 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1981, the El Cortez was the site of the San Diego Comic Convention. You can see that episode — not one of the series' best — on YouTube.

It'll probably be a while before any channel runs these shows again. In the meantime, you can order the two volumes of Harry O on DVD here and here but they ain't cheap. The price seems to fluctuate but it doesn't fluctuate far from around $42 each.

Right now, you can buy all six seasons (120 episodes) of The Rockford Files on 22 DVDs for thirty bucks. I already own the two Harry O DVDs but if I didn't, I'd still think they were the bigger bargain.