# TV Shows with Private Investigators **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707 "2009-02-06T15:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/1 "2009-02-06T15:27:47Z")
Writers apparently love PIs. From Andy Richter (_Andy Richter Controls the Universe_) to Dixon Hill (_Star Trek: The Next Generation_). Feel free to give other examples. Yet, for my entire life, I have yet to need to hire or interact with a private detective in any way, shape, or form. Is that unusual, or do most people use PI services? (This last part would’ve gone in IMHO, but I get tired of being mod-slapped for doing that) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/2 "2009-02-06T15:46:35Z")
I think _Moonlighting_ had a few. _Remington Steel_ too. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/3 "2009-02-06T15:51:02Z")
For PI shows, there’s **The Rockford Files** and everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/4 "2009-02-06T15:53:28Z")
Magnum PI Hart to Hart (?) A-Team (sort of) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/5 "2009-02-06T15:57:32Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I think _Moonlighting_ had a few. _Remington Steel_ too. Steel **e**. Are you counting shows that are specifically ABOUT PIs or not? Because we could populate a pretty long list just with those. Peter Gunn Magnum, P.I. The Rockford Files Simon & Simon Banacek Cannon Mannix Spenser: For Hire ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/6 "2009-02-06T16:07:58Z")
Does Ellery Queen count? He made his living as a mystery writer rather than from his investigating. But any excuse to mention the Ellery Queen TV show and I’ll do it. Wish they hadn’t cancelled it after one season. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/7 "2009-02-06T16:16:36Z")
Nero Wolfe (there have been, to my knowledge, two different series) ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/8 "2009-02-06T16:18:46Z")
I’ve never needed a P.I. personally, but I used to know a guy, a few apartments down from me, who was a P.I. Every now and again we’d have a few beers out by the pool and shoot the breeze. No cool name like “Remington Steele”; I believe his name was Gary Somethingreallycommon. Apparently, about 95% of his business was people, both men and women, who believed their spouses were cheating on them. Gary’s main duty was to keep tabs on the suspected spouse’s comings (cummings?) and goings. He did this glamorous, exciting job by sitting in his car with a camera for hours on end and eating a ton of fast food and snacks. Ol’ Gary was about 5’7" and weighed an easy 350 lbs. I’m sure with the easy access to decent writers in the television industry you could make the lifestyle of a janitor seem like a glamorous, adventurous, non-stop thrill ride. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/9 "2009-02-06T17:28:11Z")
I also once had a chance to chat with a retired PI. He laughed at a reference to a “Simon & Simon” episode where the brothers stated that they didn’t do any divorce work. This guy claimed that 90% of his work was divorces, and that any PI who refused divorce work would be out of business overnight. (The other 10% was tracking down bad checks and other deadbeats.) ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/10 "2009-02-06T17:44:26Z")
**Pushing Daisies.** ☹ Now I’ll never know if Emerson finds his daughter. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/11 "2009-02-06T17:56:10Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > **Pushing Daisies.** ☹ Now I’ll never know if Emerson finds his daughter. :smack: How could I have missed THIS show?! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/12 "2009-02-06T17:59:10Z")
Face it, **jayjay**. You suck. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/13 "2009-02-06T18:15:28Z")
Veronica Mars. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/14 "2009-02-06T18:33:26Z")
No TV PI does anything like a PI in real life. Their cases are usually catching cheating spouses, finding missing persons, making background checks, serving subpoenas, performing surveillance for insurance companies and all types of mundane tasks. I read a book a few years ago describing the life of a real PI. The most memorable thing was that he had to keep empty jars in his car because he couldn’t take bathroom breaks when staking out a house. Of course, a PI makes for good drama, but even back in the 1940s the writers knew they were creating a fantasy (Raymond Chandler once said that his Philip Marlowe would never be a PI in real life). The closest thing to an accurate portrayal was the PI in **House**. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/15 "2009-02-06T18:45:15Z")
Well, in a huge city like NYC, in the 30’s, with corrupt PD and all, I could see one PI making a living off murder and high profile “must be kep quiet” theft and kidnapping cases. So, I can buy Nero Wolfe. That’s a historical series, today. But I know a lot of cops, and today, any PI or “concerned private citizen” messing around a lot in real crime would find his ass in jail and his license pulled. They mostly do divorce, missing persons, insurance work, and _maybe_ industrial espionage. The whole thing is that people like watching shows about crime and foiling crime. The police are constrained and some people don’t like the Police. So it is PIs. We also have: Monk & Psych. Retired PD or not, the SFPD would never use Monk. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/16 "2009-02-06T18:51:12Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > Magnum PI What did the “PI” stand for? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/17 "2009-02-06T18:51:36Z")
> [@The\_Controvert](#): > > Writers apparently love PIs. > > From Andy Richter (_Andy Richter Controls the Universe_) You mean _Andy Barker, PI_? I forget what he did in _Controls the Universe_, but I don’t think he solved any mysteries. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/18 "2009-02-06T18:52:07Z")
Heck, Jessica Fletcher doesn’t go _looking_ for murders to solve, they just happen all around her. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/19 "2009-02-06T18:52:17Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > What did the “PI” stand for? Pretty Impressive. It refers largely to his mustache. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707/20 "2009-02-06T18:59:11Z")
Richie Brockelman, Private Eye (Rockford Files spinoff) The Hawaiian Eye Encyclopedia Brown! (3 episodes) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-with-private-investigators/484707.md?page=2)