Spenser: For Hire was an action show about a tough yet smart and classy P.I. named Spenser. First name? Last name? Who knows. It was his only name. Played by man of a thousand series Robert Urich (SOAP, Gavlin, Vegas, Love Boat The Next Wave...) Spenser worked the city of Boston.

   Spenser's primary ally was quite literally a man called Hawk. Again, just Hawk. Hawk was played by Avery Brooks later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame. Hawk was a dangerous wild card. He was of the street and was a good guy but more of the anti-hero variety. If he pulled a gun on you and you had it coming, he might actually kill your ass. He looked cool and like trouble too: shaved head, dark sunglasses, goatee... Oh and for those not familiar with Avery Brooks he was black. There was just no good way of slipping that info into the above description without it sounding wrong. "Oh, so he's 'of the street' cause he's black?" "Oh so because he's black he's a 'dangerous wild card????' " Uh no. He's just those things and coincidentally black. Okay?

   Anyway, in 1988 Spenser: For Hired became Spenser: You're Fired and the show was history (although some Spenser TV movies popped up later on Lifetime). So 1989 found Hawk picking up stakes and moving to his home town of Washington, D.C. in A Man Called Hawk. He wasn't an official P.I. or anything, he was just there to help anyone who might need his particular and sometimes violent services and who could find him. Think of him as a one man A-Team: if you're in trouble and if you can find him, maybe you can hire A Man Called Hawk.

   Apparently character's with even one name were just too much for these shows to bear since the only other regular on A Man Called Hawk didn't even have ONE name. Moses Gunn played Hawks confidant who he just called "Old Man". The real funny part is that on his next next series, Deep Space Nine, Avery Brooks' character had a female officer working for him named Dax. Dax was sort of a reincarnation of an old friend of his (that's not entirely accurate but the accurate version would take too damn long to tell). Given their previous relationship he would always called her "Old Man". Okay it wasn't all that funny but it is kinda weird.

   Well anyway, Hawk busted heads in D.C. for about half a season before the show was cancelled and Avery Brooks was looking for work.

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