He was an established character already on "Barney Miller" so you probably would've had the built in audience already. He was more a leading man than Abe Vigoda was. So why not? Thoughts?

In my not-so-biased opinion, I think Chano would have been the better character to spin off. I think he would've made a better lead character than Fish. It would've been interesting to see where they would've moved Chano - and if he would've stayed a detective sergeant or maybe become a PI or something.

I agree that Chano would have made a better lead character than Phil Fish.

In my not-so-biased opinion, I think Chano would have been the better character to spin off. I think he would've made a better lead character than Fish. It would've been interesting to see where they would've moved Chano - and if he would've stayed a detective sergeant or maybe become a PI or something.


:lol:

I agree, in all seriousness though, I really think it would've been at the very least a modest hit.

:lol:

I agree, in all seriousness though, I really think it would've been at the very least a modest hit.
Plus, with the timeslot immediately following Barney Miller - it could've done very well!!

A fun bit of trivia I found while looking up Gregory Sierra a while back in the Google News Archives - his character in AES was named for a real life M.D. The real Dr. Antonio Menzes was Gregory's dentist. :D

A fun bit of trivia I found while looking up Gregory Sierra a while back in the Google News Archives - his character in AES was named for a real life M.D. The real Dr. Antonio Menzes was Gregory's dentist. :D
Cool! Although i thought that Dentists had the initials DDS rather than MD?

Cool! Although i thought that Dentists had the initials DDS rather than MD?
Oops - you're right. :o

Honestly, I liked the character of Chano (and Gregory Sierra) but I'm not sure there was a strong enough character there (at least not yet) for a successful spinoff.

The character was only on the show for the first year and a half, and in that time there weren't many episodes devoted soley to Chano. Admittedly, what few "Chano" centric episodes there were were good, particularly the one where he shot the perp. But I think it may have been a little premature to spin him off.

Good points. But Gregory definitely was a strong enough actor to pull it off - Chano was a character with a lot of untapped potential.

Here are some AES Hudson Street photos: