Quirky, Idiosnycratic Detectives Becoming The Genre For NBC

As MONK winds up it's season five 16 episode run over on NBC's sister cable USA Network with this weekend's airings of "Mr. Monk Goes To The Hospital", NBC gears up to run two quirky, idiosyncratic detective series to see if the successful MONK genre of the quirky detective can mean success for the main broadcast channel.

Conan O'Brien produces his friend Andy Richter in ANDY BARKER:P.I., a promising looking new sitcom detective show where Richter plays a strip mall accountant mistakingly thought to be a famous P.I., who then decides to start moonlighting as a P.I. Some of the previews look funny enough. But hampered with only a half hour time slot, one has to ponder whether a funny case can be constructed and executed properly enough for the show to work well beyond just another sitcom. MONK has an hour to build not only a decent "who done it", but also to give a generous helping of his funny and sometimes frustratingly strange obsessive compulsive personality quirks. The result has been a huge cable hit with a cult following of loyal fans.

Jeff Goldblum, the quirky actor who was perfect in the remake of THE FLY, is cast in an hour long idiosyncratic detective show, RAINES. Goldblum is an excellent actor, where his strange and unconventional personality and acting style may well be a perfect match in this new series.

As ratings continue to sag from the aging LAW & ORDER franchise shows, NBC looks to new ideas to put new blood into the detective series. The formula of MONK has worked so well that NBC was ready to see if the same concept can work on their broadcast network as well. Both ANDY BARKER P.I. and RAINES look good so far. whether audiences will embrace these two shows as well as they did the quirky MONK series remains to be seen though.