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Sonny Spoon

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Michael Daly & Dinah Prince, and Stephen J. Cannell & Randall Wallace

“He’s a scam, he’s a sham, he’s a flim-flam man.”
— NBC trailer for the show

“Fashion plate. Con artist. Public nuisance. Private eye.”
— tagline from a print ad

Television’s affable, street-smart, hip young Black private eye SONNY SPOON was a cross between John Shaft, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe‘s E.L. Turner, and The Rockford Files‘ Jim Rockford, which isn’t surprising considering he came out of the House of Cannell, which helped create the latter two..

“Slightly off-centre” was how Cannell described it, but that was an understatement. He’d already taken a shot at playing the quirky card for laughs back in 1980 with Tenspeeed and Brown Shoe, and here he was again, this time casting Mario Van Peebles as the hip, young Black private eye who wanted to dig like a private sex machine with all the chicks.

But whereas Shaft was definitively cool, SONNY SPOON was, uh, different.

Sure, as we learn in the very first episode, “Sam’s Private Eye” (February 12, 1988), Sonny’s origin story was pretty much boilerplate. A young kid from the streets of New York City with a gift for gab, taken under the wing of an older private eye, Sam Abramovitz. Teaches him the ropes, uses the kid as his assistant in exposing insurance cheats and the like. The years go by, and Sonny becomes his partner, more or less, until Sam steps into something he can’t finagle, and gets murdered. Sonny steps up, cracks the case, and takes over the biz.

It practically writes itself.

But Sonny zigged when we all expected him to zag.

He was glib and fast-talking, a hyperactive motormouth at times, and not above occasionally breaking the fourth wall, as he did at the end of every bluesy, harmonica-driven opening credit (music by Mike Post), informing the TV audience that he was “Spoon, Sonny Spoon. And I want to make something absolutely understood: I control  the film, video and book rights to this entire story.”

Uh-huh.

As much street-level hustler as private eye, Sonny’s “office” was a newsstand and an out-of-order phone booth, and he had more identities and scams than even Rockford. And his wardrobe? Sure, he liked to dress sharp, but at various times, Sonny would dress up as an oil sheik, a Baptist minister, a rabbi, a federal inspector, a gangster or a female gospel singer — he was like a one-man Village People.

Helping out Sonny on his often elaborate scams (oh, I mean cases) were a large cast of mostly rough-and-tumble friends and acquaintances, including a hooker (Monique), a roller-blading stoolie (Skates) and a news vendor (Lucius). But mostly there was attractive assistant DA (Carolyn Gilder), constantly pulling Sonny out of one jam or another. Or the other way around.

Also on hand was his dad, Mel, a local bartender and con artist himself, played by Melvin Van Peebles,  Van Peebles‘ real-life father and famous film director . The offered Sonny advice and philosophical musings.

Still, for all his scams and corner-cutting, Sonny’s heart was in the right place. Mostly. His cons were often in the service of “liberating” money from the rich and crooked, and getting various friends out of various jams.

In many ways, the show was ahead of its time, particularly in its casting of Bob Wieland as Johnny Skates, a legless vet who propelled himself recklessly down the city sidewalks on a skateboard, and presenting Monique as a sex worker so matter of factly.

Certainly one of the more entertaining P.I. shows out there but the show, a poorly promoted mid-season replacement that somehow managed a second short season later the same year, never attracted a large enough audience, and slipped out of site, with a final episode, “The Final Exam,” never even airing.

Too bad. But by the late eighties, private eye shows were already struggling, and nobody was ready for anything this odd. But it was, in spades.

TELEVISION

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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