Created by L.A. Morse "When you get old, you either went soft or you got dry. Fortunately, I got dry." -- Jake, on aging.Cranky, pot-smoking 78-year old JAKE SPANNER is, as the title of his one recorded adventure puts it, an old dick, working some of the same turf as Robert Benton's similarly-themed The Late … Continue reading Jake Spanner
Tag: Made-for-television movie
Joe Dancer
Created by Robert Blake (1933-2023) You want to know how much moolah Robert Blake made for ABC during his run in Baretta? Here's a hint: when Baretta ended, NBC--no doubt sniffing a cash cow--was willing to air not one but several pilots for a hard-boiled private eye series Blake had concocted, and gave him carte … Continue reading Joe Dancer
Larry Dean & Chip Bronx (Two for the Money)
Created by Howard Rodman (1920-85) Young patrol officer CHIP BRONX (played by Stephen Brooks) is shot while on duty, and learns he won’t be fit for active duty when he recovers. So his partner and best friend, LARRY DEAN (played by Robert Hooks), quits the department to become a private investigator, and urges Chip to join … Continue reading Larry Dean & Chip Bronx (Two for the Money)
Matthew Hope
Created by Ed McBain Né Salvatore Lombino Other pseudonyms include Evan Hunter, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Richard Marsten, Ezra Hannon,John Abbott (1926 -2005) Robert Randisi considers Calusa, Florida attorney MATTHEW HOPE to be a private eye, and that's good enough for me. When we first meet Hope in 1978's Goldilocks, he’s a transplanted New Yorker … Continue reading Matthew Hope
Nikki Beaumont & Nora Delaney (Nikki & Nora: The N&N Files)
Created by Nancylee Myatt “Here come the girls!” — the official theme song (seriously) Once upon a time, there was a 2004 made-for-television movie, Nikki and Nora, about two female partners (and lovers) in the Special Crimes Unit of the New Orleans police department. Apparently, it was intended as a pilot for UPN, but it was never … Continue reading Nikki Beaumont & Nora Delaney (Nikki & Nora: The N&N Files)
Don Strachey
Created by Richard Stevenson Pseudonym of Richard Lipez (1938-2022) Albany, New York private peeper DON STRACHEY is openly gay, a younger (forty-something) more emotional, and slightly flakier persona than Joseph Hansen's middle-aged, controlled Dave Brandstetter. Where Dave is calm and collected, Don is flippant, sassy, sloppy, paranoid, compulsive, impulsive and prone to plots and plans. … Continue reading Don Strachey
H.P. “Philip” Lovecraft
Created by Joseph Dougherty "The omens are bad. Me, I'm going to Florida!" -- you know things are bad when the landlady threatens to call it quits Raymond Chandler's mean streets were never like this! A pleasant surprise was Cast a Deadly Spell, a pulpy, tongue-in-cheek 1991 HBO offering that took the world of the … Continue reading H.P. “Philip” Lovecraft
Harold “Shill” Shillman (One Shoe Makes It Murder)
Created by Eric Bercovici Some P.I.'s are thick-headed, and some are pretty down on their luck, but alcoholic, divorced, impotent sad sack ex-cop HAROLD "SHILL" SHILLMAN may take the cake. In his only appearance in print, So Little Cause For Caroline (1980), he not only tries to take his own life with a gun, but the … Continue reading Harold “Shill” Shillman (One Shoe Makes It Murder)
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)
Elliot & T.C. Cooper (Quick and Quiet)
Created by Bruce Kalish & Sam Bobrick "Being dead ain't easy..."--official tagline A reboot of a failed pilot from the previous year, Landon, Landon and Landon, Quick and Quiet aired on August 8th, 1981. It was CBS' second pilot to feature William Windom playing a dead private eye, but this time his name was THADDEUS CHARLES “T.C.” … Continue reading Elliot & T.C. Cooper (Quick and Quiet)