Remember the defective detective? Recently, Monk star Tony Shalhoub spoke with the AV Club about his experience on the USA Network series.
Created by Andy Breckman, the comic-drama starred Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, a private detective with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. The cast also included Bitty Schram, Jason Gray-Stanford, and Ted Levine. The series ran for eight seasons before ending in 2009.
In the interview, Shalhoub said Monk was originally set at ABC:
That was at a time, when we first started that, when there were some big changes going on at USA. Kind of a changing of the guard, if you will, but they were in the process of rebranding their network, and the show happened to be a part of that rebranding. The script and the pilot had originally been at ABC. I think that’s kind of common knowledge. But it started at ABC, and they couldn’t quite get the right people involved there, so it kind of languished there for a number of years. And then one executive leaving ABC and going over to USA asked to take it over there and see if they could make it work. And then it came to me, and—well, again, it was a life-changing opportunity, and I feel so grateful that I had it, because it was an enormous amount of fun.”
He added that he didn’t know about the series finale twist until a few weeks before:
I honestly didn’t know ’til a few weeks before I got that final two-parter. I didn’t honestly know if they were going to maybe kill me off. That idea was always floating there in the ether. Again, it was one of those situations where I didn’t press them to tell me. I was willing to go with whatever they felt was best. But I’m glad it came out the way it did.”
Shalhoub also said he wouldn’t turn down a Monk movie in the future:
That does get bandied about now and then. It’s not really up to me, but, yeah, I never say never. It was a fun character to work on.”
What do you think? Did you watch Monk? Would you watch a Monk movie?
I just finished watching the series and I think it’s one of television’s best. Both the writing and acting were superb. The 4 main characters are wonderful and in the first 6 years I would say there were 5 main characters, because Dr. Kroger was very prominent and he, too, was wonderful. So many talented guest stars, too, from the wonderful casting of John Turturro as Adrian’s brother to the incredible Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. I would watch a Monk movie in a New York minute (or a San Francisco one). And I’ll be buying the series and watching it again, many… Read more »
Monk has been our family’s favorite show for years now. Nothing else really can compare. It was a class act from beginning to end with probably the best finale I have ever seen. We thoroughly enjoyed the series and would love to see a movie if it were produced.
Amazing, wonderful acting by everyone, fun touches (balloons for Monk to take home from hospital 100th case becomes 101st so he must keep going for 99 more…..always something new. The best. I could be wrong now, but I don’t think so. More, more more!
I would watch a Monk movie in a heartbeat .