Ohara (1987)
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Debuting January 17, 1987. ABC, 9/8pm Central
A one-hour police procedural, Ohara was a starring vehicle for the post-Karate Kid Pat Morita in the title role. Lieutenant Ohara was a Japanese-American police officer in Los Angeles who used spirituality and meditation in his home shrine to solve crimes. He initially did not use a gun but would use martial arts if necessary. Morita was involved in co-creating the show along with Michael Braveman and John A. Kuri. The series was notable for being one of the first television shows to feature an Asian-American actor as series lead. The show had a relatively large initial cast, including Catherine Keener as Lt. Cricket Sideris, Richard Yniguez as Det. Jesse Guerrera, Jack Wallace as Sgt. Phil O’Brien, Kevin Conroy as Capt. Lloyd Hamilton, and Madge Sinclair as Gussie Lemmons.
The show was renewed for a second season, but along with that came the dreaded (say it with me now) NETWORK RETOOLING. The original introspective Japanese-inspired Bill Conti theme instrumental was gone in favor of a flashy Miami Vice-style opening with theme by Joel Goldsmith (son of Jerry). Ohara was now a federal officer paired with a conventional partner, Lt. George Shaver (Robert Clohessy). The cast was pared down quite a bit to four key roles. By episode 14, the opening theme changed again, now with rock lyrics (!!) and Ohara and Shaver were now private detectives. By now, Ohara used a gun, and virtually all the original concept was watered down to be unrecognizable.
The progression of the theme song is jarring, and well worth a watch.
The episode count seems up for debate…Wikipedia and IMDB cite 30 episodes, but fellow TV blogger Murder, She Watched disputes this, noting that the episode “Eddie” is in actuality the pilot, which would bring the first season ep count to 10. She also indicates the final episode “Hot Spell” was actually the episode of China Beach from that week, somehow being added to these lists (which were all originally entered by TV enthusiasts anyway and become accepted ‘Internet fact’ after a while). I’ve found the same types of inaccuracies and ‘invented episodes’ for several series I’ve done deep dives on and am not going to contest her research. This would bring season two to 18 eps for a total count of 28. The show has never been released on home video, but a few eps can be found online.
