Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1958 TV series)

Main • Darren McGavin as Mike Hammer • Bart Burns as Captain Pat Chambers Recurring • Vito Scotti as Geta • Johnny Seven as Carl Pate • Dale Van Sickel as Blackie Davis • James Westerfield as Bill 'Murph' Murphy • Patricia Huston as Mary Otto • Walter Reed as Fred Rankin ==Production and casting==

Darren McGavin played the title role. McGavin would go on to play another hard-boiled private detective in the short-lived 1968 series The Outsider. Bart Burns played Captain Pat Chambers, Hammer's main ally in the Police department. ==Episodes==

Season 1 (1958) Season 2 (1959) ==Home media==

On September 20, 2011, A&E Home Video released ''Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer: The Complete Series'' on DVD in Region 1 for the first time. The 12-disc set featured all 78 episodes of the series. ==Reception==

Public and critical reaction to the show was mixed. While TV Guide referred to it as "easily the worst series on TV", McGavin said that the show was "instantly successful". Some reviewers were critical of the show for its use of excessive and gratuitous violence. However, McGavin made a point of playing the role of Hammer with a hint of tongue-in-cheek satire – against the wishes of Universal Studios executives. Unlike the series that appeared in the 1980s, Mickey Spillane had minimal involvement in the production of the 1950s program. "I just took the money and went home," Spillane said of the show. "Believe me, I had bigger fish to fry, namely, that darn elusive Batmanfish." ==References==