IMDB (Series Info) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096646/


A Man Called Hawk Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/TV-Show/A-man-called-Hawk-TV-Series-169096293301485/


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Video Description: A Man Called Hawk Intro


A Man Called Hawk

This series features the character Hawk (Avery Brooks) from Spenser: For Hire from 1985-88. This time he is the star. We find Hawk now in Washington, D.C., and there he is called upon to help those who need his help or whose lives may be in danger. Also people from his past come calling to settle old scores or to collect or settle old debts. Hawk has a mentor in a character known as Old Man (Moses Gunn) whom he often seeks advice from.

Spinoffs are not always created for the best creative reasons. Spenser: For Hire was cancelled largely, according to Robert B. Parker, because a new network executive came on board and the executive stood to personally benefit financially from creating a new series rather than continue a successful older one. Someone at the network thought, however, that a new series starring Hawk would be a good way to capitalize on the great job actor Avery Brooks had done embodying the character.

A Man Called Hawk ran for only 13 episodes in 1989. The series relocated Hawk to Washington, D.C., where he shifted focus slightly from "intimidating enforcer/hitman for hire" to "intimidating good guy". Although many critics dismissed Brooks' portrayal in the series as stiff and one-dimensional, Brooks himself described Hawk as "a contemporary, mythological brown hero". Although steeped in mystery, Hawk was clearly very proud of his heritage as his home was filled with African sculptures and artifacts. We also learn that Hawk is a Vietnam War veteran, a former boxer and is skilled at playing jazz piano.

Most critics agree that the series didn't work. It's been called one of the worst TV spinoffs. However, some have praised the show, and Avery Brooks' performance in particular. A few have argued that prime time wasn't ready for a strong black male lead in a gritty show. Almost everyone agrees that Hawk, and Brooks, deserved better. Thrilling Detective has a good overview of the show and more details https://thrillingdetective.com/2021/01/04/hawk-a-man-called-hawk/ .

Notable Guest Stars


Angela Bassett
Keith David
Joe Seneca
Chris Noth
Joe Morton
Troy Byer
Frankie Faison
Lorraine Toussaint
Charles S Dutton
Mary McDonnell
Wendell Pierce
Michelle Thomas
Anthony LaPaglia
Suzzanne Douglas
Samuel L Jackson
Karen Malina White
Delroy Lindo
Valerie Simpson
Joseph C Phillips
Dick Anthony Williams
Thomas Hearns
Wesley Snipes
Tatyana Ali
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Paul Guilfoyle



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Season 1 Episode Guide


Episode 1: The Master's Mirror (Saturday Jan 28, 1989)

In the series pilot, Hawk renews acquaintances with old friends and a former employer, who asks his help in locating a rogue Government agent.


Episode 2: A Time And A Place (Saturday Feb 4, 1989)

Hawk goes a few rounds with a determined cop when a vengeful ex-con fingers him for the murder of a policeman.


Episode 3: Hear No Evil (Saturday Feb 11, 1989)

A deaf Gallaudet University student witnesses a murder and Hawk is hired to protect him and his roommate (Josh Hamilton), who's having a hard time adjusting to worsening hearing impairment.


Episode 4: Passing The Bar (Saturday Feb 18, 1989)

Hawk aids an old friend, an aging lawyer who's defending a young man accused of beating another man to death.


Episode 5: The Divided Child (Saturday Feb 25, 1989)

Worried parents hire Hawk to protect their family after a kidnap attempt on their son (Herbert Duarte), who remains emotionally troubled as he comes to understand the motives of his South American pursuers.


Episode 6: Vendetta (Saturday Mar 4, 1989)

Hawk's cousin needs help when a jealous mobster puts out a contract on him for romancing his girlfriend.


Episode 7: Choice Of Chance (Saturday Mar 11, 1989)

A family gets caught in the cross-fire when gunmen attack a neighbor, a federal witness.


Episode 8: Poison (Saturday Mar 25, 1989)

Hawk repeatedly crosses paths with a determined reporter while tracking the source of some strychnine-laced heroin.


Episode 9: Never My Love (Saturday Apr 1, 1989)

A tale of two violent brothers: one shows a temper; the other is gunning for Hawk.


Episode 10: Intensive Care (Saturday Apr 15, 1989)

When Hawk and Old Man's ailing sister are among those taken hostage inside a hospital, Hawk attempts to give the gunmen a taste of their own medicine.


Episode 11: If Memory Serves (Saturday Apr 29, 1989)

Hawk uses muscle, not magic, to protect a Haitian historian from the voodoo shaman trying to unlock a secret from his psyche.


Episode 12: Beautiful Are The Stars (Saturday May 6, 1989)

A hit man wants to put Hawk on ice when Hawk comes into possession of stolen South African diamonds. Singer Valerie Simpson performs in a cameo.


Episode 13: Life After Death: (Saturday May 13, 1989)

A friend's death compels Hawk to help a young man prove that he didn't shoot his pregnant girlfriend. Boxer Thomas Hearns has a cameo.

Washington Post (1988) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1988/11/17/lights-camera-hawk/a5d71593-ea49-4072-94c0-cd800a834160/

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LIGHTS! CAMERA! 'HAWK'!

On a picture-perfect day, J.B. Lavigne and his companion Eileen Herschberger sit on a blanket at the edge of the water on the north side of the Jefferson Memorial to gaze at what should become a familiar sight in Washington: the filming of the new television series "Hawk."

The couple wave to star Avery Brooks, yelling an invitation for him to join them for lunch -- corn chowder and corned beef sandwiches. Brooks, in his signature dark glasses, his bald head shining at the sun, smiles and waves back, but keeps his position on the set.

"Quiet, please!" the director yells.

Tuesday was the first day of filming for the ABC action drama in which Brooks re-creates the role he played on the network's defunct "Spenser: For Hire." In the new series, scheduled to debut in January, Hawk still sports long leather coats, still carries an unforgettable revolver, still uses his baritone voice sparingly, usually to cut right to the point but sometimes to quote Shakespeare.

The biggest change for Hawk, besides not being summoned by Spenser (Robert Urich), is that he has moved from Boston and returned to Washington, his hometown. Brooks wanted the black character located in a city with a significant black population.

"Washington is a brown town and the capital of the country," Brooks says. "There's two great reasons for the move."

Mayor Marion Barry greeted Hawk and Co. at a special press conference Monday. Crystal Palmer, director of the District's motion picture and television development office, is still celebrating.

"This is the first time in the 76-year history of motion picture {and} TV production in Washington that a television series has been filmed here on location," notes Palmer. "We've got '227' and 'Scarecrow and Mrs. King' set here, but this will be the first program filmed entirely on location here."

Palmer estimates the filming will boost the city's economy by $10 million and create quite a number of jobs. Brooks, she says, has also set up some production positions that will provide on-the-job training.

The actor is no stranger to the city, having worked at Arena Stage and the Folger. He occasionally visits to work on projects, including assisting Bernice Reagon, a curator in the National Museum of American History, with programs on black culture.

Brooks, who teaches drama at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is steadfast in his determination to play characters he considers worthy of his talent and to remain true to those creations. An accomplished musician and singer, he has played Othello and Paul Robeson on stage, sung the lead of "X," an opera about Malcolm X, and played the lead in "Solomon Northrup's Odyssey" on PBS.

For "Hawk," Brooks hired Calvin Hernton, a friend from Oberlin College, to serve as a consultant on the series -- to catch oversights that might be seen as negative images, black stereotypes or traits Brooks believes are not true to Hawk.

"We don't want what happened to Shaft to happen to Hawk," says supervising producer Travis Clark, referring to the character in the hit film about a black detective, which CBS turned into a series in 1973. "In the movie, Shaft interfaced with black people," says Clark. "CBS put him on the air and put him in a white world. Those things that worked in the movie weren't used. Whenever you have a richness of {cultural} experiences, you should utilize that to the best of your ability."

In the upcoming series, Hawk is a hired gun, or helps someone each week. The cast of regular characters includes a wise old man from Hawk's past and a young female schoolteacher who looks upon Hawk as a brother.

As in "Spenser," the mythic enforcer will exude mystique. When asked where the hired gun will live, Clark says, "In our minds, he may live in a penthouse in Washington, D.C. He may call a country estate in Virginia home sometimes."

"Or he may live in a basement," interjects Hernton, laughing.

Television networks have made few attempts at building dramatic series around black characters. Clark and his cowriter and producer Steve Duncan point to programs such as "Sonny Spoon," starring Mario Van Peebles, as another example of a black character in a white environment.

Brooks is not oblivious of past failures. "I come from the place of knowing -- and having challenge is where I enter," he says, speaking in measured words in a soft, melodic baritone.

"I understand the history of this medium, especially in relationship to black people and brown people. I am acutely aware of all of the possibilities of failure; thus I rarely entertain it."

The show's writers promise to show seldom-seen parts of Washington, yet on this day the crew is at the familiar Jefferson Memorial, shooting a scene with a stand-in for Brooks named Greg McKinney. McKinney is dressed in black leather, standing by a pay phone.

"I do everything Hawk does ... when the front of the face is not important," says McKinney, a 32-year-old local actor in his first year of performing commercially. "I had to shave my head to prepare for this role, but it wasn't a hard thing to do. You just do whatever is necessary."

Lavigne and Herschberger watch the scene, the real and the make-believe, while munching on their lunch and drinking apple cider from wine glasses.

"She said, 'Meet me for lunch at the Jefferson Memorial,' " says Lavigne. "And when I got here, she pointed to the Hawk and the crew and said, 'See what I've done for you.' "

Occasionally, joggers on their runs along the river pass a few feet from the cameras. A fisherman, who dropped his line into the Potomac before the production crew arrived, stares at the television set-up in disbelief before packing up his gear and disappearing.

U.S. Park Police flag down large groups of tourists, but families and couples trudge up the 39 marble steps to take pictures of Thomas Jefferson and then to turn and click their cameras at Hawk.

"This is more exciting than seeing the Jefferson Memorial," says Cindy Gossett, a visitor from Orlando, Fla., who photographed the monument and the film crew. "I mean, Jefferson is just sitting there -- and will be sitting there -- but it's not every day you watch a television show being made."

Cool opening. Too bad it didn't get a long run.

I loved this show. I hated that it didn't last longer.

Shadow And Act https://shadowandact.com/remembering-a-man-called-hawk-the-coolest-brother-on-tv

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Tonight I got into a conversation with some friends about old TV shows from the past that we really liked, and I brought up A Man Called Hawk. You remember him don't you? A brother so cool that he could literally drive a car at night with tinted windows with shades on. Now, THAT'S one bad mutha'.

For those you youngsters out there, you who don't know what I'm talking about, Hawk was a spin-off series from the ABC Network popular detective TV show Spencer For Hire. Hawk, who was played by Avery Brooks, was Spencer's sort of friend and occasional partner.

Yet, thankfully, he was his own man, and never took risks or sacrficed his own safety for Spencer. No devoted servant was he. Spencer was his friend, but only up to a point. He looked out for No. 1 and if Spencer needed him, which seemed to be all the time, he would help him out. Maybe. If he had the time.

But Hawk was so charismatic and became so popular that ABC gave the character his own show, which premiered in January 1989. Unfortunately, it only ran for 13 episodes.

In the show, Hawk had relocated from Boston, where Spencer was based, back to his hometown of Washington D.C. Once settled there he became a kind of do-gooder helping out desperate people in trouble who had nowhere to turn. It was full of action and had a certain gritty vibe to it. It was sort of like a 70's blaxplotation movie every week.

But with the show centered on Hawk, Brooks gave him some depth. He was a jack-of-all-trades and a Renaissance man to boot. He collected African art, played the vibes and chess, and was skilled in martial arts. He was a man's man, and a real genuine black masculine presence on TV when they were so rare (even today).

And when you look at the talent who appeared on various episodes, you'll be amazed. Aside from Angela Bassett, who played Hawk's girlfriend in a few episodes, other guest stars included people such as Charles S. Dutton, Wendell Pierce, Keith David, Deroy Lindo, Kasi Lammons, Wesley Snipes, Joe Morton and, oh yes, some unknown by the name of Samuel L. Jackson.

Of course after Hawk went off the air, Brooks later became the lead on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for several seasons. But I still think A Man Called Hawk was his best role.

Since the show was produced by Warner TV, perhaps there's a chance that the Warner Archive DVD-on-demand label, which has been releasing old Warner Bros TV shows from the 70's and 80's, will release a complete Hawk series multiple DVD set sometime soon. It would be fun just to revisit them again. Maybe we need Hawk more than ever now.

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I been waiting on somebody to reboot/remake this show.