Word on the Street
What's new in the P.I. world...
On television, radio, the web & podcasts....
....
...
...
.
- CURRENT SERIES & SHOWS
- Burn Notice (USA Network)
Jeffrey Donovan plays Michael Weston, a former spy fired by the agency and forced to live in Miami with no funds and is forced to use his skill to help make a living as an unofficial PI in this USA network original series. He is helped and hindered by his once and maybe again girlfriend Fiona, an ex-IRA operative played by Gabrielle Anwar, his best friend, and alcoholic informant to the FBI Sam Axe played with aplomb by Bruce Campbell, and his manipulative mother played by Sharon Gless (New season starts June 2008).
- Monk (USA Network)
The popular USA Network series with the eccentric, obsessive-compulsive Monk is currently into its sixth season. (New season starts summer 2008)
- Psych (USA Network)
See what Monk hath wrought? With so many inept cops out there, thank God the USA Network has an apparently unlimited supply of quirky, not-quite P.I.s. in this case, The hero in this one is Shawn Spencer, a slacker con artist who gets himself hired as a "psychic consultant" by the local cops. (On hiatus)
RECENT SHOWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (OR WISHED YOU HAD)
- Veronica Mars
In this recently cancelled UPN weekly series, a seventeen year-old helped her private eye dad solve cases in the snooty seaside community of Neptune, California, where the rich and powerful more or less own the town, and would definitely prefer that their dirty little secrets remain secret. Imagine Peyton Place with beaches, and a lot of really good-looking teenagers.
- The Dresden Files
Torn between helping the innocent and watching his own back, wizard turned P.I. Harry Dresden battles Chicago's true dark side to crack shocking cases the cops can't handle and science won't explain. Uh-huh. Cancelled..
Andy Barker Private Eye
Accountant by day, P.I. by accident. Yeah, it's an old gag, but a great cast and sharp-but-subtle wit made this short-run series work. Starring Conan O'Brien's old sidekick Andy Richter, and co-created by Mr. Late Night himself, the most subversive thing about this show may just be how good it is. The best P.I. show in years? Ran March-April 2007.
- America's Top Sleuths
The fledgling cable/satellite network's 90-minute special on America's favourite dicks from television and film, based on an online poll held last summer. Chockfull of clips and plenty of pontification and nostalgic ramblings from a mob of pontificators and ramblers. I made the final cut, but don't let that scare you away. (in rotation -- check the schedule).
.
- Shock to the System
Second TV flick from the here! Network ("Gay television. No apologies.") featuring hard-boiled Albany P.I. Donald Strachey, based on the popular series of novels by Richard Stevenson. In this one, Strachey looks into the alleged suicide of a client, an apparent victim of aggressive "gay conversion therapy."
- Vintage Radio Shows.com
For all of you griping that I talk about OTR detectives but don't do anything about it, try this out. Vintage Radio Shows.com charges a mere $6.95/month to access tens of thousands of your favorite vintage radio shows from the 30s, 40s and 50s, including plenty of private eye serials from way back, such as Adventures Of Philip Marlowe, Broadway Is My Beat, the great Candy Matson, YUkon 2-8208, I Love A Mystery, Richard Diamond and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, among others. In fact, we've even got a few links scattered through the site so you can listen to specific episodes. Or just go here, to see what goodies they're offering for free.
TVNow Presents: Detectives on TV
I just discovered this link, but it's well worth the click for TV buffs. It lists the American TV schedule of detective films and TV shows for the current month, including The Mystery Channel, TCM, A&E, etc.
- The Equalizer
The latest? It was announced in early 2007 that Terrill Lee Lankford and Michael Connelly are currently writing the screenplay for The Equalizer, a big budget update of the popular TV show from the eighties. The Weinstein Company and Mace Newfeld Productions are producing.
- Odd Jobs
Tim Broderick's acclaimed series of graphic novels (and web comics that have run on this site for years), starring a man who earns his living doing odd jobs, sometimes extremely odd...if not downright life-threatening, has been optioned to Warner Bros. Television, by Brendan Deneen at Objective Entertainment. Wooo-hooo, Tim!!!
- The Tower
(April 2008) It's just been announced that Cole Hauser will star in a pilot for CBS/Paramont. The executive producer is Meredith Stiehm and Davis Guggenheim will bedirecting the pilot, reports Variety. Hauser will play Sean Castleman, a crime reporter at a paper where journalists investigate and solve crimes.
