KOOL TV WANTS ON DVD: "MICHAEL HAYES"

Serving and protecting New York: the cast of MICHAEL HAYES. L-R: Ruben Santiago Hudson, Rebecca Rigg, David Caruso, Hilary Danner and Peter Outerbridge. Images: CBS/SONY.

In between his starring role in the first season (and a bit of the second) of the controversial but equally ground breaking police drama created by Steven Bochco, NYPD BLUE (where he played the fiery abut vulnerable Irish-American Detective John Kelly) and his later stellar turn as the like him or hate him sun glasses wearing, cool demeanoured criminal tracking lead of Horatio Caine in CSI: MIAMI, now in its ninth worldwide highly popular series, actor David Caruso was the star of a sadly one season only "oddity" from 1997/98 called MICHAEL HAYES. Created by the talented, later Oscar winning, screenwriter Paul Haggis (who helped bring James Bond back to the big league for Daniel Craig's CASINO ROYALE in 2007), and John Romano (of MONK and HILL STREET BLUES work), the CBS shown series (later transmitted in the UK on Channel 4) was of a very high quality that should have  gone the distance seasons-wise (and probably would if it was made in today's TV environment), The show centred on former Detective Michael Hayes (Caruso) going into the legal system and, against all odds and hateful rivals, becoming Acting Deputy Prosecutor for the hustling and bustling individual universe that is New York city. Helping him in his complex and dangerous job (which completely dominates his time and will also go on to shatter what little he has of a personal life) is a core team of hand picked colleagues including CASTLE's Ruben Santiago-Hudson as streetwise Prosecution Court Detective Eddie Diaz, Hilary Danner as researcher/prosecutor-to-be Jenny Nevins, Rebecca Rigg as compassionate but determined prosecutor Lindsay Strauss, and 24/MILLENNIUM actor Peter Outerbridge as John Manning, who, at first, is Hayes antagonistic rival in the Prosecutions office, feeling he should have been the primary choice in the centre seat Hayes now occupies.

Fighting the odds, a pre-CSI: MIAMI David Caruso as Michael Hayes. 

With such a terrific locale as New York and its varying landscapes and peoples, backed up with gritty direction (from the likes of Thomas Carter, Allan Coulter, actor Peter Weller and Felix Alcala) and stylish cinematography, great guest casts (including Philip Baker Hall, ex-SUPERGIRL Helen Slater, and Dina Meyer), and some fine scripts (including contributions from NYPD BLUE's Gardner Stern) that covered a wide range of topics, mixing action with political intrigue, big and small time crime and fascinating legal/police procedurals in a step up from what had been seen in NYPD BLUE, Caruso, in his performance Michael Hayes, was almost like a prototype Horatio in many ways, especially in the way he trusted his team and was totally dedicated in the pursuit of justice-full of integrity, courage and honour as he faced off against some heavy hitting baddies and proving totally sympathetic to the victims whose rights and lives he's defending. Later episodes saw Hayes and his close circle of family (in his spare time he helps his widowed sister and her disabled child) and friends in danger from a shocking series of revelations that will affect both him and his position in the department, later putting him in the firing line of a lethal assassin in a season cliff-hanger that was sadly never resolved. MICHAEL HAYES proved to be a continuing series that US audiences didn't quite get into the way it was hoped they would by the show's makers...

Hayes and his Detective girlfriend, Rebecca Klein (Dina Meyer) survive a car bomb blast on the New York streets in one of the series opening episodes.

With the aforementioned success of CSI: MIAMI and David Caruso as Horatio Caine, now firmly front and centre in a strong and comfortable lead series that has captured TV audiences hearts and minds, I'm completely bewildered and surprised that MICHAEL HAYES hasn't been officially released on worldwide DVD by SONY TELEVISION (why not???!!) or repeated, as far as I'm aware, since 1999 by any UK digital satellite channels. You'd think someone out there would be shrewd enough to show it and catch on to the prior coat-tails of the Jerry Bruckheimer produced series and its now TV icon. I definitely think its about time MICHAEL HAYES 22 episodes got a much deserved re-run somewhere out there...