Mike Hammer, Private Eye

This show is probably one of the best incarnations of the great Spillane novels. Tough and gritty with plenty of lovely ladies for the men. This show had a nice edge which although could be hard was also lose enough not to fall into self parody. Good turns by the cast of regulars. Especially Shannon Whirry as Velda. Its hard to see why this show only lasted one season. Considering the following and the syndication market this should have been on at least three seasons. But if you want to see a good Mike Hammer incarnation that has good stories along with being faithful to the character watch this one. Only complaint seeing Stacey get all these women. I am not going to dispute Mike Hammer having a beautiful girlfriend but him walking into a room and having women make sexual innuendos to him is just not believable but oddly appropiate for the show. Also I think we can fairly say that the lady in red is a hallucination that Hammer has and not a real women. Great show check it out!

I must disagree with TC-4. The "grittiness" he describes, I would call "cheap".

I think the original CBS series of 1983-87 was superior to this one. With Don Stroud as Pat Chambers, Donna Denton as "The Face" Lindsay Bloom as Velda and the other regular supporting actors, it was a class act all around.

While Shannon Whirry makes a tasty Velda, the rest of this production was just a bargain-basement attempt at bringing back a good series. Obviously, it didn't work, with so few episodes shot.

Stacy Keach was good as always, but I miss his previous co-stars.

I must respectfully disagree with Jimbo. This series is indeed grittier than the original. I'm a huge fan of the 80's Mike Hammer series starring Stacey Keach and I never missed a episode. I found out about the '97 reprise only after it had ended and wished for years that I could check it out somehow. Thank GOD for DVDs! Mike Hammer, Private Eye is now available on DVD and it's definitely grittier and a step closer to the vengeful Hammer of Mickey Spillane. Jimbo calls the show "cheap" because this Hammer series obviously didn't have the same network budget that the original series did. I find that the lower budget feel of Private Eye really works in it's favor. This production makes Hammer's world seedier and that makes Hammer all the more nobler in his efforts to take out the trash.

Mike Hammer, Private Eye is a very enjoyable series. I like Keach even more this time around. The older Hammer is more vicious and hard boiled. The older the bull, the stiffer the horn. His flaws and foibles also add to the fun. I've watched all of the episodes in the DVD set and each one highly entertained me. It's all good fun. I'm damn glad Keach came back for this show. I'm also damn glad somebody put this series out on DVD. Mike Hammer, Private Eye delivers!

A good detective can spot a fugazy in his sleep. That suit at the bar with the phony Rolex might fool that blonde with the big eyes, but guess what, pal, she's no blonde. And those big eyes? Well, let's just leave it at that.

There once was a pretty good series called. "The New Mike Hammer"(1984-89). It was good, sometimes very good. I liked the cast. I liked the plots. I liked the witty dialogue. OK, maybe at times it was only half-witty, but I liked it. And I looked forward to watching it. Sure it was filled with eye candy, but so what. I like candy, see, and lots of it. Keep it coming!

Which brings us to this piece of ... sure, it's called "Mike Hammer, Private Eye", but if you look closely, you'll see "Roleks" written all over it! It's got it all - crummy acting, ridiculous dialogue, non-existent sets, and all the production value of a student film. Yeah, OK it's got eye candy. Well, somewhat.

And geez, Stacy, I know she's your wife, but why do we have to suffer?

Stacy Keach is the only reason this 2nd incarnation of him as Mike Hammer is watchable.

I was a huge fan of the original Stacy Keach Mike Hammer series. Along with a lot of TV movies he did with the same character, he created a pretty good little franchise for himself. That being said, this 2nd incarnation of this great detective is just not that great. It has quite a few earmarks of a low budget and the first is the actors. All of em except Shannon Whirry are just plain bad. Shane Conrad is an absolute joke in this. You can tell he got the job just by who his father was. Worse than the acting is the script writing. The dialogue is so bad it's not even borderline laughable or believable, it's just laughable and unbelievable.

Regardless of the fact that this show pale's in comparison to Stacy Keachs' original series, he's the reason this show is still worth a look. He plays the same character with the same flair. It's petty obvious that Keach brought this character back to make a buck. It was successful the first time so why not try again. It just wasn't as good this time around.

Most know when they hear "Mike Hammer" they think of Mr. Keach himself. There's a reason for that, he is Mike Hammer(sorta).