Hagen is an American legal drama miniseries. It originally aired on CBS from March 15 to April 24, 1980. The series stars Chad Everett as Paul Hagen, an outdoor enthusiast employed by a San Francisco-based law firm headed by lawyer Carl Palmer (played by Arthur Hill). CBS and producer Frank Glicksman created the series for Everett, who was seeking a more action-oriented role after the cancellation of Medical Center. The series was met with general negative reception, with many critics panning the show's writing.
Paul Hagen, an outdoor enthusiast from Idaho, is hired as an investigator for San Francisco-based lawyer Carl Palmer and his law firm. Hagen uses his expertise of nature and hunting to serve as an investigator for the firm and track down criminals.
Hagen was initially developed in 1980 by CBS and producer Frank Glicksman. Chad Everett wanted to star in a series with more "action" than his previous roles, such as Dr. Joe Gannon on Medical Center, which had ended in 1976. Network executives offered Everett input in creating a series with Glicksman, who created Medical Center. Both Glicksman and Everett wanted a "strong" supporting character and conceptualized the character of Carl Palmer. Both of them initially expressed concern over this role, as they had previously conflicted with actor James Daly on Medical Center due to his concerns that he was not receiving enough screen time relative to Everett. Arthur Hill chose the role because he found the concept appealing, and thought the relationship between the characters was more important than the amount of lines spoken by either. The network created a pilot episode which was previewed for television critics in the Los Angeles area. Due to negative reception of the pilot episode, CBS retooled a number of elements such as Hagen's use of "backwoods" slang. Despite the retool, the pilot episode aired on CBS on March 15, 1980.
Hagen was met with generally negative critical reception. Lee Winfrey of Knight Ridder news service, in an article republished in The Boston Globe, criticized the pilot for having "farfetched" scenes, as well as Hagen's use of slang. Although he found the main episodes "mundane", he praised Zapata's role as Mrs. Chavez. Earle Copp of The Free Lance-Star criticized the episodes' plot lines as "cliché-ridden". Writing for the Hartford Courant, Owen McNally praised Everett's "easy-going" role as the title character, but also found the series' dialogue and plots to be uninspired. All three also thought the character of Carl Palmer was under-used.