Created by Merle Constiner(1902-79) "Fortunes Devined from the Soles of Your Feet... Learn the Secrets of Love, Hate, Riches."— one of The Dean's many business cards Only in the pulps! One of the more entertaining sleuths of the detective pulps of the forties was DEAN WARDLOW ROCK (better known as "THE DEAN"), a quite likable … Continue reading The Dean (aka “Dean Wardlow Rock”)
Tag: Con Artist
Leon Morley
Created by George Harmon Coxe (1901-84) Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of eyes? LEON MORLEY is yet another private eye from the prolific Coxe, who started out in the pulps back in the 1930s and kept on writing novels into the seventies. But Leon wasn't one of the good guys. In his … Continue reading Leon Morley
Sonny Spoon
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 … Continue reading Sonny Spoon
Todd Wright (So Help Me Todd)
Created by Scott Pendergast A disappointingly underwhelming TV show that—so far--smothers its own potential cleverness with a thick, warm blanket of comfy family drama that never quite pays off, at least until the seventh episode—coincidentally a Thanksgiving-themed episode. Your enjoyment of So Help Me Todd (2022, CBS/Paramount) will depend on your tolerance for having your heart … Continue reading Todd Wright (So Help Me Todd)
Norm Swallow (Blackmail)
Created by Bill Crenshaw "Now, knowing what I know about you two, I could turn you in. It's my civic duty. But it ain't that simple." -- Norm decides to cut himself in SLEAZE ALERT! Here's a real low-budget pleasure, if your tastes run towards those old noirish B-films of yesteryear. In the densely-plotted 1991 … Continue reading Norm Swallow (Blackmail)
Alice Vaughan (The Catch)
Created by Allan Heinberg, Jennifer Schuur & Helen Gregory Based on a treatment by Kate Atkinson So there was this TV show, The Catch (not to be confused with a failed 2005 pilot of the same title), executive produced by TV miracle worker Shonda Rhimes (which seems to be her only contribution to the project). But, … Continue reading Alice Vaughan (The Catch)
Eddie Flynn
Created by Steve Cavanagh "Lawyers don’t usually question whether or not a client is telling truth. That way lies madness. You do what you have to and trust the system. So, the guilty plead guilty. The innocent fight their case and the jury decides. If a by-product of that process is the emergence of the … Continue reading Eddie Flynn
On the Con
Scam Artists: A Suggested Reading List Perhaps it's my own particular aversion to the "amateur" sleuth thing, but my appreciation for private eyes and other "professionals" may just have to do with competence. I mean, in the right mood, I can take unlikely amateurs rising to the occasion and grabbing the gold, saving the girl … Continue reading On the Con
Frank McBride & Peterson T. “Pete” Ryan (Switch)
Created by Alan Godfrey & Glen A. Larson In 1975, CBS tried to cash in on the then-white hot success of The Sting, the 1973 big screen Newman/Redford con man smasheroo, with Switch. The show's pilot, a 90-minute made-for-TV movie, was called "Las Vegas Roundabout," and aired in March 1975, and quickly set up the series. The … Continue reading Frank McBride & Peterson T. “Pete” Ryan (Switch)
Beverly Laborde & Â Adam Dutton
Created by B.V. Lawson This oddball team-up squeak onto this site just under the wire--neither BEVERLY LABORDE or ADAM DUTTON is a private eye. In fact, Dutton's a friggin' police officer! In Vermont! But with sexy scamster Laborde helping him with some off-the-books investigations, that's close enough to rock'n'roll for me. And boy, does the sad sack … Continue reading Beverly Laborde &  Adam Dutton