This TV show had regulars Robert Vaughn as Harry Rule, Nyree Dawn Porter as Contessa Caroline di Contini and Tony Anholt as Paul Buchet, attractive, professional "artists" (as actors on this show are always styled), who wore stylish (for the early seventies) clothes and appeared to be in an exotic European locale in every episode. John Hough's commentary on the pilot episode for the DVD instructively informs us that Gus, as Harry's Dog, just wouldn't hit his mark when cued, and he ended up mainly in the opening credits. It was just as well. With only 25 minutes to tell a story, Harry had no time for a love life let alone a dog. He may not always have had time to change outfits, either: at the beginnings of episodes five and six, Vaughn appears to be wearing the same yellow turtleneck and sport coat.
Vaughn and his co-stars apparently wished they could development their characters' personal lives more, but it was rightly more important to focus on the action. Not that I feel that I missed very much by not seeing any of this series until recently. Now, having watched the first six episodes, I will probably never watch another episodes. This might be unfortunate since somebody thinks the 19th episode of the first series is especially good. I'll have to survive. But that does remind me that the actor—sorry—artist, Derren Nesbitt, who appears in both the 19th episode which I haven't seen as well as the 4th episode, which I have, had me going with his accent. I thought his character, Brad, was British, although I wasn't sure, until two things happened at once: he asked a French garage attendant for "gas" instead of "petrol" at the same time that a radio report—in English—announced that police were looking for an American fitting Nesbitt's physicals description. The attendant, who didn't seem to speak English, understood the news report and the description. Hmmm. At least we found out that Brad was supposed to be American.
Vaughn and his co-stars apparently wished they could development their characters' personal lives more, but it was rightly more important to focus on the action. Not that I feel that I missed very much by not seeing any of this series until recently. Now, having watched the first six episodes, I will probably never watch another episodes. This might be unfortunate since somebody thinks the 19th episode of the first series is especially good. I'll have to survive. But that does remind me that the actor—sorry—artist, Derren Nesbitt, who appears in both the 19th episode which I haven't seen as well as the 4th episode, which I have, had me going with his accent. I thought his character, Brad, was British, although I wasn't sure, until two things happened at once: he asked a French garage attendant for "gas" instead of "petrol" at the same time that a radio report—in English—announced that police were looking for an American fitting Nesbitt's physicals description. The attendant, who didn't seem to speak English, understood the news report and the description. Hmmm. At least we found out that Brad was supposed to be American.