Well, the good news is that a series can't possibly keep up with individual books (or, at least, not for long :^), so what is left is a general impression of how the television character jives with the one in print.

For some reason, for the longest time, I avoided watching Spenser for Hire for the same perceived reason: I figured the show'd be a cheap knockoff of the original. And while there are some weak epidsodes, overall, once I started to watch the show (home sick from work), I felt that Robert Urich and Avery Brooks - and the writers, natch - did enough justice to the concept to become a fan.

Cheers...