Page "Spenser: For Hire" Paragraph 10

Robert Urich played Spenser.

The other major characters were Hawk, played by Avery Brooks, and Susan Silverman, played by Barbara Stock.

Stock was replaced in the show's second season by Carolyn McCormick as ADA Rita Fiore, whom at first abhores Spenser, but eventually falls for his charms.

Stock then returned for the final season, her character having been in San Francisco for a year to try to get over Spenser.

The character Rita Fiore just vanished without explanation ( the show could not afford both characters financially or story-wise ) as her predecessor, Susan Silverman, nearly had at the end of the previous season.

Spenser alludes to Susan's disappearance in the opening VO to episode 2 of season 2, and covers it completely — in almost the same terms as in the novel Valediction — in the final scene of the episode.

The role of the " leading lady " declined after season 1 — season 2 has 3 episodes without Rita, and season 3 has 2 episodes without Susan — as the show focused more on Spenser as detective.