Archer

I remember this show, and it died a well-deserved death after only a few episodes, none of which caught any of the flavor of Macdonald's novels (perhaps not surprisingly). Brian Keith was miscast as Archer, and the plots were basic TV private eye stuff. The show spun off from a rather good TV-movie based on The Underground Man. Peter Graves was a good, subdued Archer, and Paul Wendkos directed the film. All in all, it served Macdonald better than did this series and better than either of the Paul Newman Harper movies (Harper and The Drowning Pool). Ultimately, Harry O, the David Janssen TV series from the same era as Archer, came rather closer to the Macdonald spirit than anything based on Macdonald's own novels.