Q: I hope you can shed some light on a TV series in the '80s that starred David Janssen as a private detective. I can't remember the name of it, but I believe it introduced Farrah Fawcett as a minor character.
A: You are remembering "Harry O," a detective show that aired on ABC in 1974-76. Janssen, famous as the man on the run in "The Fugitive," played Harry Orwell, a rumpled and less-than-successful private eye in San Diego and later Santa Monica. "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows" notes that "infrequently seen, but highly visible on those occasions when she did appear, was Harry's girl-next-door, Farrah Fawcett." Not long after "Harry O" ended, she made the leap to "Charlie's Angels." The two seasons of "Harry-O" have been released on DVD, along with a pilot film, "Smile, Jenny, You're Dead."
Frightening creatures
Q: I am looking for the name of an older movie (mid- to late '70s). I do not remember much of the movie but what I do remember is the setting is in a house and there are monkeys that live in the fireplace and hide around the house. There is a dinner party in the house, and the monkeys take the wife of the homeowner and push her in the fireplace, which really is an open pit.
A: That was "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," a 1973 TV movie starring Kim Darby and Jim Hutton, though some details differ from what you remember. The monkeys, for example, are more commonly referred to as demonlike or goblin-like creatures. The movie is still admired, is on DVD and inspired a remake of the same name with Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce in 2010.
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