[1] David Janssen starred as the title character Harry Orwell, a San Diego cop forced into retirement when he is shot in the back.

Henry Darrow (formerly of the 1967–71 NBC hit Western series The High Chaparral) originally starred as Lt. Manny Quinlan, Harry's friend and police contact.

[2] The retooling consisted of more than just a location change; a revised theme song and incidental music were composed and new supporting characters were added, notably the irascible Lt. Trench of the Santa Monica Police Department, who became Orwell's new foil/contact.

Recurring characters included Farrah Fawcett-Majors, as Harry's attractive next-door neighbor and sometime girlfriend Sue Ingram/Ingham; Paul Tulley as Sgt.

Roberts, Lt. Trench's assistant; Les Lannom as Lester Hodges, a bumbling private-eye wannabe; Tom Atkins as Sgt.

Harry's small Austin-Healey, which spent almost all of the first season in non-running condition, later had more time on the road as the series progressed, though it was never entirely reliable.

Allen Glover noted in TV Noir: Dark Drama on the Small Screen (2019) "how thoroughly Janssen 'laid the bone-weary but persevering tally of his own life right on the counter, like a bar tab covered with too many cigarette burns and glass rings'."