The Law & Harry McGraw

The Law & Harry McGraw is an American mystery crime drama television series created by Peter S. Fischer and a spin-off of Murder, She Wrote that aired on CBS from September 27, 1987, to February 10, 1988.^[1]

The Law & Harry McGraw
Genre	Crime drama Police procedural Mystery
Created by	Peter S. Fischer
Starring	Jerry Orbach Barbara Babcock
Composer	Richard Markowitz
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executive producer	Peter S. Fischer
Producer	Tom Sawyer
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	Universal Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 27, 1987 (1987-09-27) – February 10, 1988 (1988-02-10)
Related
Murder, She Wrote

Harry McGraw had been a recurring character in Murder, She Wrote, having appeared in six episodes, beginning with "Tough Guys Don't Die" (season 1, episode 16).^[2]

Plot

The series stars Jerry Orbach as a loudmouthed, uncouth, old school private detective who continually finds himself solving mysteries on behalf of the prim and proper attorney (played by Barbara Babcock), who has an office across the hall. The attorney, Ellie Maginnis, finds McGraw's methods somewhat hard to digest, albeit effective, and a romantic attraction between the two is suggested although the series didn't last long enough for such a subplot to fully develop.

Cast

• Jerry Orbach as Harry McGraw^[3]
• Barbara Babcock as Ellie Maginnis^[3]
• Earl Boen as Howard^[4]
• Juliana Donald as E.J. Brunson^[5]
• Shea Farrell as Steve Lacey^[5]
• Marty Davis as Cookie^[6]
• Peter Haskell as Tyler Chase^[6]

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Viewers (in millions)
1	"Dead Men Don't Make Phone Calls"	Peter Crane	Peter S. Fischer	September 27, 1987 (1987-09-27)	15.20[7]
2	"Murder by Landslide"	Peter Crane	Peter S. Fischer	October 6, 1987 (1987-10-06)	9.4 rating[8]
3	"Mr. Chapman, I Presume?"	Sigmund Neufeld Jr.	Steven Long Mitchell & Craig W. Van Sickle	October 13, 1987 (1987-10-13)	15.40[9]
4	"The Fallen Arrow"	Allen Reisner	Robert E. Swanson	October 20, 1987 (1987-10-20)	14.80[10]
5	"Rapaport's Back in Town"	Jackie Cooper	Peter S. Fischer	October 27, 1987 (1987-10-27)	12.70[11]
6	"She's Not Wild About Harry"	Seymour Robbie	Janice Fishman	November 3, 1987 (1987-11-03)	13.30[12]
7	"Angela's Secret"	Nick Havinga	Arthur David Weingarten	November 10, 1987 (1987-11-10)	15.40[13]
8	"Solve It Again, Harry"	Jackie Cooper	Marvin Kupfer & Peter S. Fischer	November 17, 1987 (1987-11-17)	12.40[14]
9	"State of the Art"	Allen Reisner	Tom Sawyer	November 24, 1987 (1987-11-24)	13.00[15]
10	"Yankee Boodle Dandy"	Seymour Robbie	Tom Sawyer	December 1, 1987 (1987-12-01)	17.40[16]
11	"Old Heroes Never Lie"	Walter Grauman	Walter Brough	December 8, 1987 (1987-12-08)	13.40[17]
12	"Gilhooley's is History"	Sigmund Neufeld Jr.	Story by : Joe Goldberg Teleplay by : Richard Stanley & Ralph Meyering Jr.	January 13, 1988 (1988-01-13)	12.50[18]
13	"Beware the Ides of May"	Seymour Robbie	Peter S. Fischer	January 20, 1988 (1988-01-20)	12.90[19]
14	"Waiting Game"	Allen Reisner	Peter S. Fischer	January 27, 1988 (1988-01-27)	12.30[20]
15	"Harry Does the Hustle"	John Llewellyn Moxey	Peter S. Fischer	February 3, 1988 (1988-02-03)	13.10[21]
16	"Maginnis for the People"	Allen Reisner	Peter S. Fischer	February 10, 1988 (1988-02-10)	11.10[22]

Cancellation

After the show's fast cancellation (it lasted a little more than a half-season), Orbach reprised the role of Harry McGraw in a few episodes of Murder, She Wrote before a few years later moving on to play NYPD Senior detective Lennie Briscoe on fellow Universal Television series Law & Order.^[23][24]

Home media

The complete series was released in Australia by Madman Entertainment in 2012 as a 5-Disc (PAL Format) box set for region 4.^[25]