Another vote for The Rockford Files. Having re-watched the lot fairly recently I’d say that the first series was disappointing but it gets much better later. The pacing is very slow by modern standards but the stories hold up (and you can laugh at the clothes).
More recently I like Monk, Psych and definitely Sherlock.
Hutton’s Nero Wolfe
Rockford Files
Cannon
Dated by today’s standards, but I vote Peter Gunn for the music alone. Not to mention suavisity of the star.
Both of the currently running modernized Sherlock Holmes shows have been pretty good. They’re different enough takes on the character that neither really suffers from watching the other one concurrently either.
My wife loves the Cumberbatch incarnation of Holmes. I watched the premiere episode, and Cumberbatch does a great job of portraying Holmes as brilliant and flaky. Also, I like the way the Cumberbatch Holmes series borrowed a meme from the Nero Wolfe series and made Holmes consciously aware that he needs Watson to keep it together in the real world, just as Nero Wolfe knows he needs Archie to prod his lazy ass into working.
Timothy Hutton’s father, Jim Hutton, played Ellery Queen in the one-year 70’s series. Probably the best-written fair-play detective series of all. He was close to a perfect Queen, even though he was the fourth or fifth Queen on television alone. The Ellery Queen radio show was supposed to have been among the best radio detective shows, but they had Ellery Queen himself writing them for much of the run, a luxury few other shows ever had.
Harry O was a fascinating show, Fear Itself. One of my favorites. And Chuck, I got a DVD of the first 16 episodes of Burke’s Law. That was a wild, like far-out, man, show for 1963. Burke was L.A.'s Captain of Homicide, who was a millionaire and went to his cases in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, with a telephone and dictation machine and a bar in the back seat. Harlan Ellison wrote several episodes that have to be seen to be disbelieved. The suspects were a collection of every name from Hollywood’s present and past they could squeeze in, a pattern that Ellery Queen followed very successfully. (Take a look at the names in the credits - both the real names and the character’s names. And yes, that’s the Michael Fox that forced Michael J. Fox to add a phony initial.)
In other old news, there was the Thayer David tv movie of Nero Wolfe. Intended to be the pilot for a series, it was run once because David up and died before broadcast. I remember him, though, as the perfect Wolfe, far better than the William Conrad or Maury Chaykin versions.
I used to like The Outsider with Darren McGavin, but it didn’t last very long.
I caught this one a few years ago on an oldies channel, and it does a great job of visually capturing the noir feel of the 40s and 50s detective movies. The bad guys, especially the lower-level ones, were sometimes gritty and interesting, but the plotting and characterization had a certain fifties TV patness to them that worked against the noir theme.
I will agree that the series’ music was great … the theme song to my mind remains the iconic detective theme music. Though I think the Emerson Lake and Palmer cover (skip to the 50 second mark to get past the intro stuff) of the Mancini version is a VERY nice update that would make a great theme for a series about one of William Gibson’s techno tough guys … Johnny Mnemonic, maybe.
Ever heard Peter Gunn played on a tuba?
Well … now I have. Though I was really more impressed by the female vocalist. She did a great job. The tuba sticks out like a sore thumb, really. More of a novelty than anything else.
Hmm, all my favorites have already been mentioned - Hutton/Chayken’s Nero Wolfe, Brett’s Sherlock Holmes, particularly once Edward Hardwicke took over as Watson, Cumberbatch/Freeman Sherlock, and Suchet’s Poirot.
I own all of those series too, so it is very hard to choose between them.
And she’s easy on the eyes. Plays a mean washboard, too.
The wife says I have to answer Monk. Since I agree, I will.
I read that in Tony Shalhoub’s voice.
Can somebody tell me how Magnum [legally] carried a handgun? Was there something written into the plot?
§16-97-17 of Hawaii state statutes actually prohibits P.I.'s from carry any weapons. And getting a CCW permit in Hawaii is next to impossible.
§16-97-17 Carrying of weapons prohibited. Private detectives or guards shall not carry firearms, blackjacks, batons, night sticks, chemical sprays, stun devices, or other weapons unless specifically authorized in writing by the appropriate state agency or chief of police in the county or counties in which the private detective or guard is doing business.
I don’t remember them addressing it, but that seems like a pretty big “unless”.
Do you remember reading the previous post that said “And getting a CCW permit in Hawaii is next to impossible.”? CCW is on the books in Hawaii but unless you’re an actual cop that’s the only place it is.
I know a couple of private dicks who worked in Hawaii for a time. With the exception of the Securitas pretend police at the airport it can be just as difficult getting a carry permit for investigators/security personnel as it is for anyone else.
But if they wrote a plot explanation into the magnum series I’ll accept that.
I suspect Higgins/ Robin Masters had some pull.
See, that’s the part that gets me. It’s like you’re saying you’re cool with it so long as the character utters a single sentence in the pilot – “I was authorized in writing by the appropriate state agency,” say – but not if some guy watching the show said “Well, I guess he was authorized in writing by the appropriate state agency.”
As a new contribution, I’ll give the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries set in Melbourne in the mid-1920s with an extremely unconventional (and rich) detective. Alas, the last couple of shows kind of fell apart, but it is great fun, and I was happy to see in the linked article that they are making a second series.
But all in all I have to go with the Hutton Nero Wolfe. My wife has read all the books, and she loves the series, which is high praise. They got the period details really right. The short lived ABC Nero Wolfe series is a primer on how not to do it.