Created by Mark Frost
It takes BOB JONES, a straight-arrow, decidedly small-time private eye, who’s idolized Buddy for most of his life, to find and bring him back home after twenty years.
Unfortunately, it seems Buddy’s brought 1978 back with him. Although in Buddy’s world, 1978 seems a lot more like 1958, if you ask me. Cadillacs still zig, Frank still rules, Tony Bennett’s still crooning, babes are still beautiful and the crumbs around town are still trying to get away with murder. With Bob’s brains and Buddy’s style, a crime-solving partnership is born — and Los Angeles just might become a safe place to live again.
Yeah, right…
Actually, this one was promising, but too few folks saw it for the Rat Pack homage/parody it certainly was.
“As fans of the detective genre ourselves, we’re having a lot of fun with it,” admitted one of the writers to me. “It sounds like a fun-ass show, hip AND smart, and we plan on having a bit of fun with some of the conventions of the genre, and paying slightly twisted tribute to several crime classics.”
More than one promising TV show out there has proven too hip for the room, and this short-lived little gem was certainly one of them. Too bad.
It was fun while it lasted, though.
FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY
- “The show Buddy Faro is absolutely the worst thing I have ever seen on television and I’m 52. I like Dennis Farina……but this show sucks.
— Mary Lou - “One of the hippest shows I’ve seen in a long time. Where do I vote to keep it on? I’m afraid the public doesn’t get it. I hope I’m wrong.”
— Bobbi - “Mary Lou, meet Bobbi. Bobbi, meet Mary Lou.”
— I received these two e-mails within a few minutes of each other.
TELEVISION
- BUDDY FARO
(1998, CBS)
Series
8 60-minute episode
Premier: September 25, 1998
60-minute episodes
Writers: Mark Frost, E.M. Cosin, Kim Costello, Jon Hotchkiss, Barry Pullman
Executive Producer Charles Haid for Spelling Television
From McNamara Paper Product in association with Warner Bros. Television
Starring Dennis Farina as BUDDY FARO
and Frank Whaley as Bob Jones
Also starring Alison Smith, Charlie Robinson- Pilot (September 25, 1998)
- “The Curse of the Faro” (October 2, 1998)
- “Touched by an Amnesiac” (October 9, 1998)
- “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” (October 16, 1998)
- “Now You See Him, Now He’s Dead” (October 23, 1998)
- “Death by Airbrush” (November 6, 1998)
- “Talk Show Heller” (November 13, 1998)
- “Get Me Cody Swift” (December 4, 1998)
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
