Actor G.W. Bailey plays Lt. Thaddeus Harris in Police Academy 1, 4, 5, 6 & 7. However, in parts 2 & 3 he is replaced by Art Metrano who plays Lt. Mauser, a similar character to that of Lt. Harris. Does anyone know reason for G.W. Bailey´s absence in the 2nd and 3rd parts?
shareI'm not 100% sure about why Harris didn't return. On the one hand, the story for part 2 didn't quite allow it. Harris was the #2 guy at the Academy, and the second movie didn't take place at the Academy, it took place at a precinct where some of the graduates were stationed. So they kind of needed to find a new heavy. It would have seemed weird for Harris, who hated this group as cadets, would follow them from the Academy to their new assigment to continue harrassing them. Same with Copeland & Blanks, probably, which is why they brought in Proctor as the new lackey.
It may have been story driven, or it may have been G.W. Bailey just not wanting to sign on for the sequels. They push Mauser as the new rival in PA 2 and 3.
Now if you didn't know this, Art Metrano (Mauser) suffered an accident of some kind after PA3 which landed him in a wheelchair, which is probably why they scrambled to get G.W. Bailey back for PA4 and folded Proctor in as Harris' lackey without much of a segueway.
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Huh. It's just that I saw Art Metrano on "The Roseanne Show" and he was saying that the accident had kept him from doing a lot of movies and I thought he mentioned the Police Academy movies among them. He seemed to be somewhat regretful that he didn't get to make more of them after #3. So if it wasn't the accident or his own choice that kept him from being in #4, it must have just been the producers wanting G.W. Bailey back.
He was doing other films at the time. I guess he came back in 4 because Art Metrano (Mauser) left.
shareweird how not many read the trivia section, it says G.W Bailey actually was in this movie, but only for a short moment,
watch the ending scene when Larvelle Jones bumps into the camera man, the camera man takes a picture of Harris.
So in conclusion, the only Police academy movie G.W Bailey wasn't in on was PA3
Theo, you asked for a miracle, i give you the F B I
Just a side issue, but despite being the prominent 'heavy' Mauser and Harris were very different characters. Harris was a good cop, who wanted to train the best Police officers he could, and because Mahoney did everything he could to disrupt the training and get himself thrown out, Harris did his best to achieve the same goal, thus allowing him to complete the training of the others. Where as Mauser was a bent cop! Who was willing to break any rule and put dangerous criminals back on the street just to pull forward his own promotion.
Unfortunately the writers got confused after the third film and put some of Mauser's traits into the Harris character.
To add another little point, it was explained in one film how the character of Proctor jumped from serving Mauser to Harris. It turned out that Proctor was related to Harris, and Harris had been cajoled by family pressure to pull some strings and improve Proctors career opportunities.
I'm not really me. Thats me there- that pile of albino mouse droppings!
PA 5 - while Harris and Proctor were on the 'private plane' together. Classic moment.
Also I dont think the characters got mixed up...I simply think Harris started to get power hungry after becoming a Captain somewhere between the 1st and 4th movies.
As mentioned in another subject, GW Bailey, who played Harris, was doing other films at the time, like Rustler's Rhapsody, which was directed by Hugh Wilson (he did the first film). Also, I have the feeling that his character would be back at the academy training another group of cadets, hopefully better ones.
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