Cody McMahon
Created by John Byrum and Stan Rogow

This Eagle didn't fly...

The dearth of private eye shows on television has been going for a long time.Once upon a time the airwaves were inundated with private eyes, but by the autumn 1993 season, there were exactly two shows featuring P.I.s.on American television: Moon Over Miami, a frothy romantic comedy with only tentative claims to being a P.I. show, and South of Sunset, a more traditional offering, featuring former-Eagle Glenn Frey,cashing in on the thespian "skills" he had displayed in a few episodes of Miami Vice, as CODY MCMAHON, a Paramount studio security chief trying to make it as a Hollywood dick.

Cody had the prerequisite TV private eye cool car, a bright yellow vintage GTO ragtop. He had the snappy wardrobe-jeans (VEGA$!) and Armani suits (Miami vice) And he had a suitably tough line of patter right out of a million Bruce Willis and Nick Nolte action flicks. In fact, the whole premise of this show seems to have been lifted from Nolte's 48 Hours, complete with Aries Spears doing his best Eddie Murphy as Ziggy Duane, a young, mouthy (and black) former gangbanger out of South Central who ended up as Cody's assistant.

Cody also had a secretary/receptionist/gal Friday in the guise of Gina, a young, pretty, aspiring actress who's convinced "men are pigs." Together they made up the entire staff of The Beverly Hills Detective Agency, which is only technically in Beverly Hills -- it's on the townline, and, as one character remarks, they're definitely "south of Sunset."

In the show's debut/pilot, Cody -- as always hungry for bucks -- has sunk to doing matrimonial work, and in a bit right out of 48 Hours, springs Ziggy from the hoosegow in an attempt to track down bigger prey, in this case a gang leader wanted for grand theft auto who's jumped bail. Of course, middle-aged "ofay" Cody and would-be homeboy Ziggy don't exactly get along, and the predictable sparks, comedic and otherwise, allegedly fly, but deep down, they hold a, what else?, grudging respect for each other.

So, by the end of the episode, Cody decides to hire Ziggy as his assistant, claiming he's "been looking for some sleaze bag to help (him) with the matrimonial work." Ziggy jumps at the chance. And so we have the beginning of a beautiful friendship, between two men who "almost trust" each other.

Ziggy got off a few mildly amusing bits, and Frey managed to avoid embarrassing himself too much. And he wrote and performed the opening and closing themes, and they were pleasant, instantly forgettable Eaglesque ditties about being P.I.s. Not that any of it amounted to a hill of beans -- the show was cancelled after one episode.

OUCH! Scheduled against Home Improvements and featuring an almost totally unknown cast, and premiering well into the new season (CBS waited until after the World Series was over), the show never had a chance. It ranked 85th in that week's U.S. ratings. Not since 1969 had a show been yanked after just one airing. Evidently there are seven more episodes sitting in the can.

TELEVISION

• SOUTH OF SUNSET (1993, CBS)
  8 60-minute episodes; one aired
  Premiered October 27, 1993
  Created by John Byrum and Stan Rogow
  Writers: John Byrum, Stan Rogow
  Director: Andy Tennant
  Producer: Artie Mandelberg
  Executive Producers: John Romano, Stan Rogow, John Byrum
  A Paramount Television Production
  Starring Glenn Frey as CODY McMAHON
  and Aries Spears as Ziggy Duane
  with Maria Pitillo as Gina
  Guest stars: Season Hubley, Nicholas Surovy
  

• "Satyricon" (October27,1993)

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.