by Hoppy Uniatz on Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:12 am
It was a combination of not having the right actor in the role plus not wanting to saddle the Saint with too much of a gang. Although Percy Herbert didn't do a bad job, you couldn't really portray the Hoppy of the book on TV in the 60s.
So the producers made the choice to ditch the character and create one of their own who wasn't totally dissimiliar--Marco de Cesari.
Hoppy