In Pursuit of Spenser (24 page)

Still working backward, the third and final entry in the Mantegna/Spenser trilogy was
Walking Shadow
, based on the twenty-first Spenser novel. Investigating a murder in Port City, Spenser and Hawk—this time played by an unmenacing Ernie Hudson (
Ghostbusters
)—have to deal with the Chinese underworld as well as Police Chief DeSpain, played by Eric Roberts (
King of the Gypsies
).

Although there are fans of these movies—including Dean James and Elizabeth Foxwell in their fine
Robert B. Parker Companion
—the Mantegna tele-trio seems little more than a blip on the Spenser radar. Mantegna, it should be noted, is a much admired narrator on a number of Spenser audio books.

Maybe the best way to explain Spenser on screen is to recall the words Parker put in Spenser’s mouth in
Promised Land
:

I try to be honorable. I know that’s embarrassing to hear. It’s embarrassing to say. But I believe most of the nonsense that Thoreau was preaching. And I have spent a long time working on getting myself to where I could do it. Where I could live life largely on my own terms.

Parker and Spenser both had that going for them—they lived life on their own terms.

So did Robert Urich.

(1985, ABC)

TWO-HOUR PILOT FOR SERIES BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ROBERT B. PARKER

(1985–88, ABC)

64
ONE-HOUR EPISODES BASED ON CHARACTERS CREATED BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Writers
: Daniel Freudenberger, Robert Hamilton, Stephen Hattman, Robert B. and Joan H. Parker, John Wilder, William Robert Yates, Lee Goldberg, William Rabkin, Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa, David Carren, Steve Hattman, Michael Fisher, Bob Bielak, Juanita Bartlett

Directors
: Richard Colla, Harvey Hart, Winrich Kolbe, Virgil Vogel, David M. Whorf, William Wiard, John Wilder

Developed for television by
: John Wilder

Consultant
: Robert B. Parker

Executive Producers
: John Wilder, Juanita Bartlett, Stephen Hattman, William Robert Yates

Theme by
: Steve Dorff & Friends

Starring
: Robert Urich as Spenser and Avery Brooks as Hawk

Also starring
: Barbara Stock, Ron McLarty, Richard Jaekel, Carolyn McCormick

Guest stars
: Chuck Connors, Spaulding Gray, Lauren Holly, Jimmy Smits, D.B. Sweeney, Jay Thomas, Sal Viscuso

SEASON ONE

“
Spenser
: For Hire” (September 20, 1985)

“No Room at the Inn” (September 27, 1985)

“The Choice” (October 4, 1985)

“Discord in a Minor” (October 11, 1985)

“Original Sin” (October 18, 1985)

“Children of a Tempest Storm” (October 25, 1985)

“The Killer Within” (November 12, 1985)

“Autumn Thieves” (November 19, 1985)

“Blood Money” (November 26, 1985)

“Resurrection” (December 3, 1986)

“Internal Affairs” (December 17, 1985)

“Death by Design” (January 7, 1986)

“A Day’s Wages” (January 14, 1986)

“A Madness Most Discreet” (January 21, 1986)

“Brother to Dragons” (February 4, 1986)

“When Silence Speaks” (February 11, 1986)

“In a Safe Place” (February 14, 1986)

“Angel of Desolation” (March 4, 1986)

“She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not” (March 11, 1986)

“At the River’s Edge” (March 25, 1986)

“Rage” (April 1, 1986)

“Hell Hath No Fury” (April 8, 1986)

SEASON TWO

“An Eye for an Eye” (September 27, 1986)

“Widow’s Walk” (October 4, 1986)

“White Knight” (October 18, 1986)

“Rockabye Baby” (October 25, 1986)

“And Give Up Show Biz?” (November 1, 1986)

“The Long Hunt” (November 8, 1986)

“Home is the Hero” (November 22, 1986)

“One if by Land, Two if by Sea” (November 29, 1986)

“Shadowsight” (December 13, 1986)

“The Hopes and Fears” (December 20, 1986)

“Among Friends” (January 10, 1987)

“I Confess” (January 17, 1987)

“Murder and Acquisitions” (January 24, 1987)

“Personal Demons” (February 7, 1987)

“Mary Hamilton” (February 14, 1987)

“Trial and Error” (February 21, 1987)

“One for My Daughter” (March 7, 1987)

“My Brother’s Keeper” (March 14, 1987)

“The Road Back” (March 21, 1987)

“If You Knew Sammy” (April 4, 1987)

“The Man Who Wasn’t There” (May 2, 1987)

“The Song of Orpheus” (May 9, 1987)

SEASON THREE

“The Homecoming” (September 27, 1987)

“My Enemy, My Friend” (October 4, 1987)

“Heart of the Matter” (October 11, 1987)

“On the Night He Was Betrayed” (November 1, 1987)

“Sleepless Dreams” (November 8, 1987)

“Consilum Abditum” (November 15, 1987)

“Thanksgiving” (November 29, 1987)

“Gone Fishin’” (December 6, 1987)

“Child’s Play” (December 20, 1987)

“Skeletons in the Closet” (January 3, 1988)

“The Siege” (January 10, 1988)

“Arthur’s Wake” (January 16, 1988)

“To the End of the Line” (January 23, 1988)

“Play It Again, Sammy” (January 30, 1988)

“The Big Fight” (February 6, 1988)

“Substantial Justice” (March 5, 1988)

“Company Man” (March 12, 1988)

“Water Colors” (March 19, 1988)

“Hawk’s Eyes” (March 26, 1988)

“McAllister” (April 30, 1988)

“Haunting” (May 7, 1988)

(1993, Lifetime)

Teleplay
: Joan Parker and Robert B. Parker, based on his novel
Ceremony

Director
: Andrew Wild

     Creative Consultant: Joan Parker

Starring
: Robert Urich as Spenser, with Avery Brooks as Hawk and Barbara Williams as Susan Silverman

Also starring
: J. Winston Carroll, Dave Nichols, Tanya Allen, Jefferson Mappen, Lynne Cormack, Lili Francks, Alexa Gilmour, Janet Bailey

(1993, Lifetime)

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Director
: Vic Sarin

Screenplay
: Robert P. Parker and Joan H. Parker

Starring
: Robert Urich as Spenser, with Avery Brooks as Hawk and Barbara Williams as Susan Silverman

Also starring
: Alex Carter, Matthew Ferguson

(1994, Lifetime)

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Director
: Joseph L. Scanlan

Starring
: Robert Urich as Spenser, with Avery Brooks as Hawk and Wendy Crewson as Susan Silverman.

(1995, Lifetime)

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Director
: Joseph L. Scanlan

Starring
: Robert Urich as Spenser, with Avery Brooks as Hawk, Wendy Crewson as Susan Silverman, and Cynthia Dale as Candy Sloane

Also starring
: Tyrone Berskin, Neil Crone, Richard Fitzpatrick, Jerry Levitan, Douglas Miller, Daniel Parker, Ross Pelty, Natalie Radford, Michael Ricupero, David Spooner, Hayley Tyson

(July 18, 1999, A&E)

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Teleplay
: Robert B. Parker

Director
: Robert Markowitz

Starring
: Joe Mantegna as Spenser, with Shiek Mahmud-Bey as Hawk and Marcia Gay Harden as Susan Silverman

Also starring
: Eugene Lipinski

Cameo by
: Robert B. Parker as CIA Agent Ives, and his son, Dan Parker, as Lee Farrell

(September 2000,
A&E
)

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Director
: Robert Mandel

Starring
: Joe Mantegna as Spenser and Marcia Gay Harden as Susan Silverman

Also starring
: Eugene Lipinski, Jon Seda, Yancy Butler

Cameos by
: Robert B. Parker as a sleeping cop; his son Dan Parker as a priest; and Joan Parker as a doctor.

(2001,
A&E
)

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Teleplay
: Robert B. Parker and Joan H. Parker

Director
: Po-Chih Leong

Associate Producers
: Joan Parker, John Albanis

Starring
: Joe Mantegna as Spenser, Marcia Gay Harden as Susan Silverman, and Ernie Hudson as Hawk

Also starring
: Eric Roberts, Christopher Lawford, Christina Moore, Tamlyn Tomita, Mackenzie Gray, Ronin Wong, Marcus Sim, Chang Tseng, Henry Mah

Thanks to Kevin Burton Smith of the Thrilling Detective website for sharing the above information.

| REED FA RREL COLEMAN |

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be . . .

—T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

MUCH AS ELIOT’S
Prufrock is not meant to be Hamlet, Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone is not meant to be Spenser. In a 2005 interview, Mr. Parker stated, “I invented Jesse Stone so I could try my hand at third-person narration, and a guy who was nowhere near as evolved as Spenser. Jesse has problems with alcohol and his ex-wife, Spenser is complete. Jesse is a work in progress. I also liked writing about a cop and small-town police force.”