Mike Hammer - Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (TV Series) (1984)

TV Series (1984-1987). Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, starring Stacy Keach as Detective Pat Chambers, was produced for CBS from 1984 to 1987. Unlike the previous series -produced in the late 1950s-, Spillane was closely involved with, and quite proud of, this incarnation. Initially this show was about as brutal as its predecessor, and criticized as being extremely sexist, with almost every female character adorned with a push-up bra and a costume that emphasized clevage, but nonetheless found something of a large audience. However, production was interruped when Keach was arrested in England for possession of cocaine while there for the production of the film Mistral's Daughter. Production was suspened while Keach served six months in prison, and when the series returned as The New Mike Hammer, the sexist elements of the program were somewhat downplayed (although the violence certainly was not). An interesting continuing element in this series was the presence of the "The Face", a beautiful woman whom Hammer saw briefly in each episode but who would vanish before he could meet her. One of the most popular elements of this program was its theme music, "Harlem Nocturne" by Earle Hagen. Keach's version of Hammer was revived with 26 more syndicated episodes produced in 1997-1998 under the title Mike Hammer, Private Eye, but this revived version never found particularly wide distribution or much of an audience.