Ohara (TV series)

*Ohara*
Ohara
	Pat Morita as Ohara
Genre	Police procedural
Created by	Michael Braveman; John A. Kuri; Pat Morita;
Developed by	Ronald M. Cohen
Starring	Pat Morita; Kevin Conroy; Jon Polito; Rachel Ticotin;
Composer	Bill Conti
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	30
Production
Executive producers	Brian Grazer; Hal Sitowitz; Tony Wharmby; Roderick Taylor;
Producers	Skip Ward; Ralph Riskin;
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	Imagine Entertainment; Hal Sitowitz Productions; Kurissama Productions; Warner Bros. Television;
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	January 17, 1987 –; May 7, 1988

Ohara is an American police procedural television series that first aired on the ABC television network from January 17, 1987, until May 7, 1988, starring Pat Morita in the title role of Lt. Ohara. Morita also co-created the series along with Michael Braveman and John A. Kuri. Kevin Conroy, Jon Polito, Rachel Ticotin, and Robert Clohessy also starred in supporting roles. The series was notable for being one of the first television series to have a Japanese-American actor in the leading role.

Premise

The series focuses on an unconventional Los Angeles-based Japanese American police lieutenant named Ohara (Pat Morita) who uses spirituality methods such as meditation in his home shrine to solve crimes without the use of a gun or a partner, although he would use martial arts if necessary. He often talked in the form of epigrams. He was later paired with a partner named Lt. George Shaver (Robert Clohessy) who was a more conventional cop.

Main cast

Pat Morita as Lt. Ohara
Robert Clohessy as Lt. George Shaver-season 2.
Kevin Conroy as Capt. Lloyd Hamilton-season 1.(episode 1-7)
Jon Polito as Capt. Ross-Season 1.(episode 8-11)
Madge Sinclair as Gussie Lemmons.-Season 1.
Catherine Keener as Lt. Cricket Sideris.-Season 1.
Richard Yniguez as Det. Jesse Guerrera. Season 1.
Rachel Ticotin as Asst. U.S. Atty. Teresa Storm-Season 2.(episode 201-214)
Meagen Fay as Roxy-Season 2.(episode 201-212).

Notable guest stars

Brandon Lee appeared in the Season 2 episode "What's in a Name" which first aired on January 23, 1988 as Kenji, the evil son of a yakuza godfather. This was Lee's first and only appearance in a television series and his only acting role as a villain, although in Kung Fu: The Movie, his character was possessed and forced to be evil for most of the movie.
Other guest stars in the series included Michael Des Barres, Nana Visitor, Mitch Pileggi, Benicio del Toro, and Shannon Tweed.

Episodes list

Season 1 (1987)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"Pilot"	Unknown	Unknown	January 17, 1987 (1987-01-17)
2	2	"Eddie"	E.W. Swackhamer	Richard Danus	January 24, 1987 (1987-01-24)
3	3	"Darryl"	E.W. Swackhamer	Bill D'Arvay	January 31, 1987 (1987-01-31)
4	4	"Will"	E.W. Swackhammer	Paul L. Edwards & Howard Friedland & Ken Peragine	February 7, 1987 (1987-02-07)
5	5	"Toshi"	Jackie Cooper	Unknown	February 14, 1987 (1987-02-14)
6	6	"Terry"	Jerry Jameson	Richard Danus & Daniel Freudberger & Hal Sitowitz	February 21, 1987 (1987-02-21)
7	7	"Louie"	Jerry Jameson	Hal Sitowitz	March 7, 1987 (1987-03-07)
8	8	"Laura"	E.W. Swackhamer	Bill Bleich	March 14, 1987 (1987-03-14)
First episode with Jon Politto.
9	9	"Jesse"	Jerry Jameson	Michael Marks	March 21, 1987 (1987-03-21)
10	10	"Frannie"	Unknown	Unknown	March 28, 1987 (1987-03-28)
11	11	"Brian"	Unknown	Unknown	April 4, 1987 (1987-04-04)

Season 2 (1987–88)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
12	1	"Y' Wanna Live Forever?"	Tony Wharmby	Ronald M Cohen	October 3, 1987 (1987-10-03)
13	2	"Artful Dodgers"	Unknown	Unknown	October 10, 1987 (1987-10-10)
14	3	"The Sparrow"	Bruce Kessler	Linda Elstad	October 24, 1987 (1987-10-24)
15	4	"Fagin All Over Again"	Unknown	Unknown	November 7, 1987 (1987-11-07)
16	5	"Take the Money and Run"	Unknown	Unknown	November 14, 1987 (1987-11-14)
17	6	"The Intruders"	Unknown	Unknown	November 21, 1987 (1987-11-21)
18	7	"Hot Rocks"	Unknown	Unknown	December 5, 1987 (1987-12-05)
19	8	"And a Child Shall Lead Them"	Unknown	Unknown	December 12, 1987 (1987-12-12)
20	9	"Silver in the Hills"	Unknown	Unknown	December 19, 1987 (1987-12-19)
21	10	"They Shoot Witnesses, Don't They?"	Unknown	Unknown	January 2, 1988 (1988-01-02)
22	11	"You Bet Your Life"	Unknown	Unknown	January 16, 1988 (1988-01-16)
23	12	"What's in a Name?"	Tony Wharmby	Jerome Lew	January 23, 1988 (1988-01-23)
Brandon Lee appears in this episode.
24	13	"Sign of the Times"	Dale White	Unknown	January 30, 1988 (1988-01-30)
25	14	"The Light Around the Body"	Tony Wharmby	Roderick Taylor & Bruce A Taylor & Jeff Mandel	February 6, 1988 (1988-02-06)
Last episode to feature Rachel Ticotin and Meagen Fay. Ohara and Shaver quit the force to become private eyes at the end of the episode.
26	15	"X"	Richard C. Sarafian	William Mickelberry and Roderick Taylor	March 5, 1988 (1988-03-05)
27	16	"Last Year's Model"	Bradford May	Roderick Taylor& Bruce A.Taylor and Jeff Mandel	March 12, 1988 (1988-03-12)
28	17	"Open Season"	Richard C. Sarafian	Jeff Mandel & Bruce A.Taylor/Story by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor & Jeff Mandel	March 26, 1988 (1988-03-26)
29	18	"Seeing Something That Isn't There"	Bradford May	Jeff Mandel & Bruce A.Taylor/ Story by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor & Jeff Mandel	April 30, 1988 (1988-04-30)
30	19	"Hot Spell"	Unknown	Unknown	May 7, 1988 (1988-05-07)

Format changes and cancellation

Following its premiere, the show was not attracting the audience ABC had hoped for. They put it through several format changes to increase the ratings. The first major change was to change title character Ohara from a lieutenant to a federal police officer; he was also paired with a partner. Later on in the season Ohara became a more conventional cop using a gun to assist him in his investigations. The second season had a final format change in which Ohara and his partner were turned into private investigators. These changes failed to improve the show's declining ratings and the show was cancelled after the second season.

External links