The Law & Harry McGraw is a spin-off show from the long-running mystery series, Murder, She Wrote. The show featured the character of Harry McGraw, played by Jerry Orbach, who had appeared in a number of Murder, She Wrote episodes prior to this series and would appear again after the cancellation of The Law & Harry McGraw.
History[]
Premise[]
The character of Harry McGraw was created by Peter S. Fischer and first seen in "Tough Guys Don't Die", an episode from the first season of Murder, She Wrote. Harry was a down-on-his-luck private investigator. He struck a friendship with mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher while investigating the murder of his partner. Harry appeared twice more in an episode in the second season and again in the third season. Harry was so popular that CBS commissioned a spin-off series featuring this character. The series was to follow the numerous cases that Harry would investigate. Peter S. Fischer created the series and took on a role of executive producer.
Cancellation[]
The series premiered on the CBS network on September 27, 1987 with a two-hour pilot movie, Dead Men Don't Make Phone Calls. However, despite a small fan following, the show's ratings were not what CBS were expecting, and as such cancelled the series in early 1988. The character of Harry McGraw would, however, go on to re-appear on Murder, She Wrote three more times.
Summary[]
Harry had been fairly well-developed as a character in three episodes of Murder, She wrote prior to the start of this series. The spirit of his character was continued in The Law & Harry McGraw: he was usually strapped for cash and driving a wrecked car. He often used his niece E.J. as his receptionist and research assistant.
In the series, Harry's primary client was Ellie Maginnis, who was a criminal lawyer that often needed Harry's services to assist her cases. Her law office was just across the hall from Harry's. The two first met in the two-hour pilot movie Dead Men Don't Make Phone Calls, in which Ellie hires Harry to look into a murder case where the former was defending the accused. Ellie would, however, give up her private practice and join the District Attorney's office under Tyler Chase, though she would still require Harry's services to tie up some loose ends in her cases.
Starring[]
Regular Cast[]
- Jerry Orbach as Harry McGraw
- Barbara Babcock as Ellie Maginnis
- Shea Farrell as Steve Lacey
- Juliana Donald as E.J. Brunson
- Peter Haskell as Deputy DA Tyler Chase
- Marty Davis as Cookie
- Earl Boen as Howard
Notable Guest Stars[]
- Ron Masak as Lieutenant Paul
Episodes[]
| No. | Title | Prod. code | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Dead Men Don't Make Phone Calls" | 62811 | September 27, 1987 |
| Harry McGraw, the seedy, abrasive, loud, and messy private detective based in Boston, has just opened shop across the hall from criminal attorney Ellie Maginnis, who hires McGraw to look into a publishing partner's death. | |||
| 2 | "Murder by a Landslide" | 62801 | October 6, 1987 |
| E.J.'s roommate, who was also employed as a campaign worker, is murdered. Harry suspects a cover-up involving the rich candidate, whom supposedly slept with the roommate. | |||
| 3 | "Mr. Chapman, I Presume?" | 62806 | October 13, 1987 |
| Based on a tip from Walter Chapman, Special Agent Eckstein launches a raid to recover stolen plutonium that is about to be shipped out of the country. | |||
| 4 | "The Fallen Arrow" | 62804 | October 20, 1987 |
| McGraw sees Ellie become personally involved with a client, a gigolo she is defending who is charged with killing his rich wife. | |||
| 5 | "Rappaport is Back in Town" | 62805 | October 27, 1987 |
| While Harry plays poker with a well to do restaurant owner and renowned card player, the man's cheating wife is murdered. | |||
| 6 | "She's Not Wild About Harry" | 62807 | November 3, 1987 |
| Harry becomes a babysitter for a bookie's granddaughter, while the man is off getting involved with counterfeiting, bogus franchising, and death. | |||
| 7 | "Angela's Secret" | 62808 | November 10, 1987 |
| Harry is hired by the wife of a mob boss to find her missing brother, only now Harry gets tied up in rough business, including the killing of an enforcer. | |||
| 8 | "Solve It Again, Harry" | 62809 | November 17, 1987 |
| Harry gets himself shot and it makes great changes in his life. He's now neat, polite, and organized. Unfortunately, the wound also has erased his memory completely of the case he's working on. | |||
| 9 | "State of the Art" | 62810 | November 24, 1987 |
| An old ex-con friend of Harry's was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is now accused of stealing art, and Harry now has to compete with a hot shot insurance investigator to find the real thief. | |||
| 10 | "Yankee Boodle Dandy" | 62802 | December 1, 1987 |
| Strange things are happening in Harry's world. Ellie's client is a rich kid who is in jail for assault on his girl friend, and he doesn't want to leave. And then there's the body that is sometimes in Harry's trunk, and sometimes not. | |||
| 11 | "Old Heroes Never Lie" | 62814 | December 8, 1987 |
| Harry's friend asks for help when his gambling dad is accused of murdering a loan shark. | |||
| 12 | "Gilhooley's is History" | 62817 | January 13, 1988 |
| Harry is down in the dumps because a hard nosed developer is about to raze the detective's favorite pub. | |||
| 13 | "Beware the Ides of May" | 62812 | January 20, 1988 |
| What should be a joyous event, a birthday, is turning out to be a not so happy day for Ellie, who has become the target for someone who wants her dead. | |||
| 14 | "Waiting Game" | 62822 | January 27, 1988 |
| It looks like Harry will miss his poker game to help Ellie sway a split jury at the retrial of a case her late husband lost. | |||
| 15 | "Harry Does the Hustle" | 62820 | February 3, 1988 |
| Harry gets help out-hustling a pool shark from a broke student, while equally broke Ellie puts the little money she has into what sounds like a scam. | |||
| 16 | "Maginnis for the People" | 62824 | February 10, 1988 |
| Ellie is enlisted by the prosecution in a murder trial, while Harry goes to work for the defense attorney who has trouble believing their defendant didn't commit the crime. | |||
DVD Release[]
The complete series boxset of The Law & Harry McGraw was released in Australia in a 5-disc DVD collection.
See also[]
- The Law & Harry McGraw Crew