Darren McGavin was TV's original Mike Hammer in the 50's, before Stacy Keach, Jr. revived Mickey Spillane's iconic detective in the 80's. While most folks will remember McGavin for either "A Christmas Story", the original Night Stalker, or playing Adam Sandler's dad in "Billy Madison", the actor had hard luck landing a series that lasted beyond a year.
The Outsider began with a 2-hour TV-movie in 1967, which aired earlier today on Grit, a digital channel now available in my home district (check listings). NBC thought enough of it to make it into a series the very next season, despite McGavin's track record (Riverboat, which co-starred future icon Burt Reynolds, also may have gone one year and no further. I'll have to look into that one.). Unfortunately, yep, Outsider, because of the glut of crime dramas, lasted just the 1 season. Universal, the studio behind Outsider, was responsible for a good chunk of that glut.
The Rap Sheet provided the intro:
McGavin played ex-con-turned-private eye David Ross, and if the entire idea of a reformed ex-con going on the other side sounds familiar, well, Universal went to the well again a few years later with James Garner and The Rockford Files, which was much more successful. Go figure.
No rating.
4 comments:
There was a time McGavin was considered a viable leading man in Hollywood. He ended up being more of a character actor as he got older, but he never disappointed in his roles.
Believe it or not I often remember him as Officer Damon, who befriends and later partners with Sidney Pythias (played by Jerry Lewis) in The Delicate Delinquent (1957). He was quite good as the straight man in that.
Yes, his role as "The Old Man" in "A Christmas Story" is also memorable, as was his turn as Murphy Brown's father.
It's a shame he didn't do well on series TV - sometimes it's all in the timing and it just wasn't in the cards for him.
The role in Delicate Delinquent was originally intended for Dean Martin before he & Lewis broke up their act. Found that out as I was doing research.
The last film role I remember him having was in Dead Heat with Treat Williams & Joe Piscopo.
Roy Huggins created The Fugitive, Maverick starring James Garner, The Outsider starring Darren McGavin and The Rockford Files with Stephen J. Cannell starring James Garner. Huggins wrote the stories for most of Season 1 of The Rockford files before being kicked off the production for to trying to rewrite a script during filming and causing delays. As to how one person could do this, if you look at the synopses for Maverick, The Outsider and The Rockford Files you will find more than a few similarities. After Cannell started Barette, David Chase (Story Consultant and writter on Kolchak) and Chas Floyd Johnson were brough in to continue running The Rockford Files with Meta Rosenberg and Juanita Bartlet from Garner's Cherokee Productions. So you can see why all of these shows have similar elements.
McGavin reportedly asked to be released from his contract for Kolchak when the ratings droped, contributing to Universal's decision to cancel it. As pointed out McGavin did movies and guest spots, and it seems preferred that to the grind of network TV. Chris Carter gave McGavin spots on Millenium and The X-Files as a nod to Kolchak.
Thank you.
Post a Comment