Charlie de Salvo - Character Development

Character Development

Executive Producer Bill Panzer explains, "We realized that Alexandra Vandernoot, who played Tessa wanted to return to Europe for personal reasons, and we thought MacLeod needed another mortal to talk to and to interact with. And (...) Charlie DeSalvo's character was a very good foil for Mac."

Actor Adrian Paul says about Philip Akin that Akin studied martial arts a lot and had a different style than his own. There also are several occurrences of MacLeod throwing Charlie hard on the mat in the series, and Paul comments that Akin "never liked the idea of me throwing him".

The dojo is described in the script of "Turnabout" as "spare but clean : a testosterone-shop in the old style". MacLeod is supposed to buy the dojo in this episode, according to the script, but a "sold" sign is seen on screen only in the next episode Charlie appears, "Eye for an Eye", in which the dialogue makes clear that MacLeod is the new owner as he asks Charlie to stay and run the dojo for him.

Creative Consultant David Abramowitz says that he likes "Brother in Arms": "I liked that one because I thought it was a great story. It was vivid emotionally and it was wonderful." Abramowitz comments about "The Fighter" though, ""The Fighter" was a take off on the old Cinderella story, where a character is in love with a beautiful young woman, and can't find the words to speak to her, to speak of his love. So we had Phil Akin, who played Charlie DeSalvo, talk to Bruce Weitz who played the fight manager who's in love with the young girl, and to watch the two of them together (they aren't exactly the slickest characters in the world), was like the blind leading the blind."