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IN MEMORIAM
Robert Urich: For hire
BY ROBERT DAVID SULLIVAN

It’s hard to tell who was more persistent: Spenser, the Boston private eye with only one name, or Robert Urich, the guy who played him on TV. Urich, who died of cancer this week at the age of 55, starred in 14 prime-time series, beginning with the sit-com flop Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1973 and ending with the sit-com flop Emeril last fall. The last item on his résumé was something of a breakthrough. Now a character actor in a supporting role, Urich brought a touch of class to the ill-conceived comedy, and for once he couldn’t be blamed for its quick demise.

Urich’s most successful series was the serial comedy Soap, but his character was killed after only a few episodes. As a leading man, his most popular show was the cheesy private-eye drama Vega$, on which he drove a red Thunderbird and strutted around in blue jeans; his character’s name, Dan Tanna, suggested soft-core porn. But Urich gained some critical respect and a large fan base in New England with Spenser: For Hire, which ran on ABC from 1985 through 1988. Spenser, based on a series of mystery novels by local author Robert B. Parker, was not the first TV series set in Boston, but it was highly unusual in that it was filmed almost entirely on location. Urich bought a house in Andover, and he could be seen with his family hanging out at Crane Beach, or standing in line at the Clam Box in Ipswich. (Co-star Avery Brooks, who played Spenser’s taciturn sidekick, Hawk, was more likely to be spotted at Boston nightclubs.) Bostonians were thrilled to stumble upon the Spenser crew setting up lights on city streets. Soon we were even more thrilled to be bored with the whole thing, as if film crews were just part of daily life here.

With a literate central character, Spenser: For Hire offered hope that we were finally past the mindless, oversexed, sun-drenched crime dramas of the 1970s. Playing a hero who’d rather talk things through than throw a punch (though he could still do that), Urich showed some promise as a younger and less cynical version of TV veteran James Garner. Unfortunately, Spenser never connected with a lot of Robert Parker fans (who felt that the TV series dumbed down the books), and less-discriminating viewers thought the show was just dull. (The hot crime drama in 1985 was Miami Vice.) It attracted a small but loyal audience for three seasons, in eight time slots, before ABC pulled the plug. A few years later, the Lifetime cable channel produced a series of Spenser movies, but the network cut costs by filming in Toronto instead of Boston. Urich moved back to Hollywood and had some success with roles in TV-movies, but he may have hit a career low by starring in a revival of the 1970s comedy The Love Boat. He must have missed Andover then. We sure missed seeing Red Line trains on national TV.

Issue Date: April 18 - 25, 2002
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