Created by Bryan Fuller "In Cod We Trust." — advertising slogan on a billboard Hoo-boy. This one's a stretch, even on a site whose parameters are as elastic as this one. Sure, television's Pushing Daisies (2007-09, ABC) had a private eye as a regular character, but it was never really a PI show. What it … Continue reading Emerson Cod (Pushing Daisies)
Tag: Screwball
Mira James
Created by Jess Loury This twelve-book series follows the romantic misadventures and investigations of Minnesota gal, sometime reporter and eventual private eye MIRA JAMES. Mira grew up in the Minnesota boonies of Paynesville but split as soon as she could for the bright lights of the Twin Cities and a BA in English. But for … Continue reading Mira James
Jimmy Corrigan (Jimmy the Gent)
Created by Laird Doyle "Blondes...Brunettes...And Their Bankrolls! He makes 'em!... Takes 'Em and Tosses 'Em Away! Wild Jimmy in a Knockout riot of Laughs!" -- slug line on original poster.Jimmy Cagney plays JIMMY CORRIGAN, the scrappy, strutting operator of a missing heirs bureau, out to win the heart of the beautiful Joan (Bette Davis) in … Continue reading Jimmy Corrigan (Jimmy the Gent)
Bill & Sally Reardon (There’s Always a Woman)
Created by Wilson Collison In the screwball thriller There's Always a Woman (1938, Columbia), BILL REARDON (Melvyn Douglas) quits his comfy job an investigator with the District Attorney's office to open up his own detective agency at the urging of his pushy but ditzy wife SALLY REARDON (Joan Blondell). But the agency never quite … Continue reading Bill & Sally Reardon (There’s Always a Woman)
Guy Johnson (It’s a Wonderful World)
Created by Herman J. Mankiewicz "I never met a dame who wasn't a nitwit or a lumphead." -- Guy's take on women. When his boozing millionaire client, Willie Heyward, is framed for murder, money-grubbing New York city private eye GUY JOHNSON (played by Jimmy Stewart at his befuddled, doofus best) hides him away so he can catch … Continue reading Guy Johnson (It’s a Wonderful World)
Ronnie Jackson (My Favorite Brunette)
Created by Edmund Beloin and Jack Rose "You see, I wanted to be a detective, too. It only took brains, courage, and a gun...and I had the gun." -- Ronnie Jackson For any baby boomers or gen Xers out there who grew up in the sixties and seventies, Bob Hope is mostly remembered as a smarmy … Continue reading Ronnie Jackson (My Favorite Brunette)
Bill Crane
Created by Jonathan Latimer Pseudonyms include Peter Coffin (1906-1983) Jonathan Latimer's first book, 1935's Headed For a Hearse, was one of the first hard-boiled screwball comedies, following closely on the heels of the previous year's The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. But where Hammett only toyed with the idea, contenting himself with cocktails and banter, … Continue reading Bill Crane
Shell Scott
Created by Richard S. Prather (1921-2007) “Shell Scott should be in the Top Ten of any readers list of favorite private eyes.” -- Robert J. Randisi Richard S. Prather's SHELL SCOTT was, without a doubt, the second most commercially successful private eye of the fifties (over forty million books sold!). He appeared in a long … Continue reading Shell Scott