Trivia / Mike Hammer

• Money, Dear Boy: Mickey Spillane stated that his primary motivation for writing Mike Hammer novels was the lucre and that he only wrote a new one when he needed more.
• The Other Darrin: Lindsay Bloom and Shannon Whirry as Velda in the Stacy Keach series.
• Real-Life Relative: Stacy Keach's wife Malgosia Tomassi guest-starred as one of the villains in the New Mike Hammer episode "A Blinding Fear" and later was a regular on "Mike Hammer, Private Eye" as Maya, a dance instructor who had a studio in the same building as Hammer's office.
• Referenced by...:
  • John Zorn devoted a Concept Album to the novels, simply called Spillane.
  • Deep Space Nine. Constable Odo is a fan of Mickey Spillane, and Quark catches him reading I, The Jury.
  • M*A*S*H. In "Operation Friendship", Klinger has Winchester read from I, The Jury while he's recovering from an injury received while saving Winchester's life. The pompous Winchester isn't happy at having to read what to him is a trashy novel.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: The initial run of the 1980s version was halted when Stacy Keach was arrested in England for cocaine possession; with Keach serving 6 months in prison after pleading guilty.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In "Mike Hammer, Private Eye", Captain Skip Gleason (Peter Jason) takes over for Captain Pat Chambers (Don Stroud), who appeared in the 1980's series.
• Un-Cancelled: After Keach's release from prison, a Soft Reboot for the third season of the show was greenlit, and began airing a 18 months after the second season ended.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ralph Bakshi tried to produce an animated film based on the Spillane novels. It fell through.
  • A musical about Mike Hammer was written in the late 1960s, with songs by the Oscar-winning songwriter Johnny Mercer, but it was never produced.
  • After Stacy Keach was arrested, there was talk of hiring his brother James Keach to replace him.

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