FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: HAWKINS (1973-1974)

HAWKINS (1973-1974) – Before Matlock, there was Hawkins! The iconic Jimmy Stewart starred as Billy Jim Hawkins, an aw-shucks country lawyer who was really shrewd and calculating behind his stammering, Good Ol’ Boy facade.

Billy Jim wound up acting as a detective for his clients as much as their lawyer as he solved mysteries to prove his clients’ innocence. Hawkins was part of a CBS attempt to establish their own set of rotating 90-minute detective shows in the tradition of Columbo, McMillan and Wife, Banacek, The Snoop Sisters, and so many others on competing networks.

Hawkins rotated with Shaft, which starred Richard Roundtree reprising his big screen role as private detective John Shaft (but a John Shaft who couldn’t be as violent or profane as he was in the movies, of course).

Strother Martin co-starred with Stewart as his private investigator cousin R.J. Hawkins. The pair, despite being based in West Virginia, were hired by big-name, big money clients from around the country. AND despite the fact that not all lawyers are credentialed to practice law in all other states. This was made for TV lawyerin’, bubba!   

THE EPISODES:

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN aka HAWKINS ON MURDER (March 13th, 1973) – Pilot movie for the Hawkins series. Unlike today, when outfits like Disney spend hundreds of millions of dollars on new streaming series without even knowing if there’s a strong enough audience for them, the legacy networks tested the waters with productions like this.

In this mystery, Billy Jim and R.J. are hired by an heiress (Bonnie Bedelia) who is charged with murdering her father, stepmother and step-sister over her alleged impatience to inherit a fortune. Guest stars included Robert Webber, Kate Reid, David “Hizzoner” Huddleston, Antoinette Bower, Dana Elcar and Margaret Markov.

*** POINTLESS PERSONAL ANECDOTE: Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know I love really obscure or at least off the beaten path television shows, movies, etc. Several years ago I happened to see actor David Huddleston in public.

           Huddleston has shown up in just about everything, but I was in a mischievous mood, so I hollered “Hey, it’s the guy from The Kalikaks!” (Like Hizzoner, a failed sitcom that David had starred in.). Politely overlooking my youth and taking my good-natured joke in stride, Huddleston replied with that old show-business rejoinder regarding a star’s failed efforts, “So YOU’RE the one who saw it!” Very amiable and tolerant guy. 

MURDER IN MOVIELAND (October 2nd, 1973) – The success of Death and the Maiden got Hawkins picked up for the CBS fall schedule, alternating, as stated above, with Shaft in the 9:30pm to 11:00pm time slot on Tuesday nights.

In this murder mystery, Hawkins is hired by former Hollywood glamour girl Debbie Lane (Sheree North) to defend her Hollywood big shot husband Jake Parkins (Cameron Mitchell). Jake admits to bludgeoning a man to death but insists he did it to stop the victim from raping his daughter.

Guest stars included Kenneth Mars, Maggie Wellman, William Smithers and future Soap Opera star Thaao Penghlis.   

DIE, DARLING, DIE! (October 23rd, 1973) – Julie Harris portrays the wife of a wealthy man dying in agony from an incurable disease. When he perishes, she admits withholding his medicine but maintains that it was a mercy killing.

Ambitious prosecutor Luther Wilkes (SAM ELLIOTT) likes headlines and high-profile cases, so he puts the wealthy widow on trial for murder. She hires Billy Jim Hawkins and, substituting for Strother Martin this time around, his investigator nephew Jeremiah Stocker played by Mayf Nutter, who I’m assuming had to go through life saying “No, that’s not a typo. My first name’s Mayf.”

(And when in England, I’m assuming he would add “… and yes, I am a Nutter.”)

Among the guest stars were Murray Hamilton (like Stewart, from Anatomy of a Murder), Diana Douglas, Henry Jones, Noble Willingham, and Balladeer’s Blog’s old friend Iggie Wolfington! I swear to God I’ve just happened to cover nearly everything that guy appeared in at this point.

A LIFE FOR A LIFE (November 13th, 1973) – The client this time – a grieving father (William Windom) who blames his son’s suicide on two psychologists who were using the son as a subject in one of their experiments. He threatens to make them pay during a newscast, and shortly afterward the doctors are driven off the road, leaving one dead and the other insisting Windom was the driver of the other car.

F-Troop‘s James Hampton, playing Billy Jim’s law clerk, replaced Strother Martin in this episode as our detective-lawyer’s sidekick. Others in the cast were Tyne Daly, John Ventantonio, Jeanne Cooper and Noam Pitlik (if you needed your pits licked in the 70s, he was your go-to guy). 

BLOOD FEUD (December 4th, 1973) – Strother Martin is back as Hawkins’ P.I. for this mystery which takes the Hawkins men back to their West Virginia home – Bogan County. A man was killed by live ammunition during the reenactment of a Civil War battle and a member of the Hawkins clan is accused of the slaying.

The reason? The dead man is from a family with which the Hawkinses long ago had a Hatfields & McCoys style feud. Also starring Jeanette Nolan, Diana Ewing, Lew Ayres, Frank Bonner and James Best himself as Sheriff John Early. No Duke boys, though. 

MURDER IN THE SLAVE TRADE (January 22nd, 1974) – Hawkins is summoned to Chicago to defend a fading pro football star (James Luisi) who is accused of murdering the team owner in his whirlpool bath. Guest stars included Warren J. Kemmerling, Dick Gautier, Robert Sampson, Peter Mark Richman and Byron Morrow.

MURDER ON THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR (February 5th, 1974) – Billy Jim is hired to defend the son of an old flame (Signe Hasso) when he is accused of murdering his drug addict girlfriend in a room on the 13th floor of the hotel run by his mother. Also starring Andy Parks, Albert Paulsen, Jeff Corey, Teresa Wright, Russell Johnson, Harvey Lembeck and Herb Edelman.

CANDIDATE FOR MURDER (March 5th, 1974) – The client – the campaign manager (Paul Burke) of presidential candidate Senator Griffith (Pernell Roberts). The campaign manager is accused of murdering a political columnist (John Larch. John … Larch.) who seemed to be on to a Senator Griffith scandal.

This final Hawkins murder mystery guest-starred Andrew Prine, Jean Allison, Diana Hyland “and Gregory Sierra.” (See what I did there?) This episode was co-written by Earl Hamner of The Waltons fame.   

FOR MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION ENTRIES CLICK HERE.