Farrah Fawcett introduced in detective series
You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: I hope you can shed some light on a TV series in the ’80s that starred David Janssen as a private detective. I can’t remember the name of it, but I believe it introduced Farrah Fawcett as a minor character.
A: You are remembering Harry O, a detective show that aired on ABC in 1974-76. Janssen, famous as the man on the run in The Fugitive, played Harry Orwell, a rumpled and less-than-successful private eye in San Diego and later Santa Monica.
The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows notes that “infrequently seen, but highly visible on those occasions when she did appear, was Harry’s girl-next-door, Farrah Fawcett.” Not long after Harry O ended, she made the leap to Charlie’s Angels.
The two seasons of Harry-O have been released on DVD, along with a pilot film, Smile, Jenny, You’re Dead.
Q: Assuming the current virus, COVID-19, is new, why did the coronavirus appear in an episode of Law & Order from 2003? The virus was found in a container in a car driven by an employee from a lab.
A: “There are many coronaviruses,” says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “including some that commonly cause mild upper-respiratory tract illnesses” as well as scarier forms such as SARS and COVID19. The term “coronavirus” dates back to 1968.
For you science students, it is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “any member of a group (formerly a genus) of enveloped, single-stranded RNA viruses which have prominent projections from the envelope and are pathogens of humans, other mammals, and birds, typically causing gastrointestinal, respiratory, or neurological disease.” COVID-19 is an abbreviation of the World Health Organization’s official name: coronavirus disease 2019, after the year it was first identified.
Q: In the late ’50s or early ’60s I watched a movie called Vanity Fair, which I believe was an adaptation of the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray. Recently, I had the pleasure of reading the novel and am wondering if there is a recent movie that better presents the novel.
A: There are about a dozen TV and movie versions of the novel, spanning decades.
Myrna Loy was Thackeray’s main character, Becky Sharp, in a 1932 version. Miriam Hopkins was nominated for an Oscar for the 1935 film Becky Sharp.
Susan Hampshire won an Emmy as Becky in a 1967 British miniseries after it aired on Masterpiece Theater in 1972. Reese Witherspoon was Becky in a 2004 big-screen production.
Even more recent is a 2018 mini-series starring Olivia Cooke; it has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Cooke was much praised, and it takes seven parts to tell the story. So that may be the best place for you to look.
Q: Alexander Calvert (Jack on Supernatural) bears a remarkable resemblance, both in appearance and mannerisms, to Ruby Rose (the title star in Batwoman). I can’t help thinking they must be related. Twins, perhaps?
A: As far as I can find, they are not related. And, in case you missed it, Ruby Rose is not returning to Batwoman next season, setting up major changes (and speculation) about what Season 2 will be like when it arrives in 2021.