Robert Wagner: Senior Sleuths

Showing posts with label Senior Sleuths. Show all posts

Monday, 7 February 2011

Matlock: Season Two (1987-1988)

Matlock - The Second Season

Episodes:
01. "The Billionaire"
02. "Blind Justice"
03. "The Annihilator"
04. "The Husband"
05. "The Power Brokers: Part 1"
06. "The Power Brokers: Part 2"
07. "The Network"
08. "The Best Friend"
09. "The Country Boy"
10. "The Gift"
11. "The Gambler"
12. "The Body"
13. "The Reunion"
14. "The Gigolo"
15. "The Umpire"
16. "The Investigation: Part 1"
17. "The Investigation: Part 2"
18. "The Hucksters"
19. "The Lovelorn"
20. "The Genius"
21. "The Magician"
22. "The Fisherman"
23. "The Heiress"

Related links:
Opening Theme: MATLOCK
10 Senior Sleuths on TV
150+ Mystery Series: 1841-2010
Retirement is Murder: 10 Senior Sleuths
Still Kicking: 10 More Senior Sleuths

Monday, 31 January 2011

Matlock: Season One (1986-1987)

Matlock - The First Season

Episodes:
01. "Diary of a Perfect Murder" (pilot)
02. "The Judge"
03. "The Stripper"
04. "The Affair"
05. "The Seduction"
06. "The Don: Part 1"
07. "The Don: Part 2"
08. "The Sisters"
09. "The Cop"
10. "The Angel"
11. "The Professor"
12. "Santa Claus"
13. "The Chef"
14. "The Author"
15. "The Rat Pack"
16. "The Nurse"
17. "The Convict"
18. "The Court Martial: Part 1"
19. "The Court Martial: Part 2"
20. "The Therapist" (First Appearance of Cassie Philips)
21. "The People vs. Matlock"
22. "The Photographer"
23. "The Reporter"
24. "The Doctors"

Related links:
Opening Theme: MATLOCK
10 Senior Sleuths on TV
150+ Mystery Series: 1841-2010
Retirement is Murder: 10 Senior Sleuths
Still Kicking: 10 More Senior Sleuths

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Opening Theme: HETTY WAINTHROPP INVESTIGATES

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

Henrietta "Hetty" Wainthropp, a sixty-ish housewife in Lancashire, England, was introduced as an amateur sleuth in David Cook's 1986 novel Missing Persons. However, a TV movie based on the book led to a series -- and rather than keep her amateur status, the producers decided to make crime her business. Thus was born Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (BBC One, 1996-1998), wherein Hetty (played by Patricia Routledge) and young sidekick Geoffrey Shawcross (Dominic Monaghan) open up a proper office for private investigations.

As described by Thrilling Detective: "While the series is definitely aimed at fans of 'cozies' rather than hard-boiled fiction -- it's highly unlikely, for instance, that the non-violent, bus-pass-owning Hetty will ever get mixed up in a car chase, a shootout, or a wild fistfight -- Hetty has at least a few 'tough guy' qualities that make her more than just a eccentric P.I wannabe. First and foremost, she's quite strong willed and plain-spoken, and her cases occasionally take her into some (relatively) rough locales that would make Miss Marple faint dead away."

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates Opening/Closing Titles

More TV Main Titles:
Opening Theme: BARNABY JONES
Opening Theme: MRS. BRADLEY MYSTERIES
Opening Theme: MISS MARPLE
Opening Theme: CRAZY LIKE A FOX
Opening Theme: PERRY MASON RETURNS

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Opening Theme: CRAZY LIKE A FOX

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

Crazy Like a Fox (CBS, 1984-1986) starred Jack Warden as free-spirited private detective Harry Fox. Co-star John Rubinstein as played his son Harrison, a high-strung attorney frequently dragged into his father's cases. Crazy Like a Fox aired a total of 35 episodes.

The series was followed in 1987 by the TV movie Still Crazy Like a Fox, where the Foxes found themselves stirring up trouble in London. Monty Python's Graham Chapman guest-starred as Detective Inspector Palmer in one of his last roles before his death in 1989.

More TV main titles:
Opening Theme: THE ROCKFORD FILES
Opening Theme: DIAGNOSIS MURDER
Opening Theme: MATLOCK
Opening Theme: BARNABY JONES
Opening Theme: NBC Mystery Movie (COLUMBO)

Thursday, 29 July 2010

Opening Theme: MRS. BRADLEY MYSTERIES

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

British TV drama The Mrs Bradley Mysteries (BBC, 1998-99) starred Diana Rigg as Adela Bradley and Neil Dudgeon as her faithful driver George Moody. The 1920s mysteries, which found the duo taking their Rolls Royce to solve murders among the well-to-do and repressed, were inspired by the novels by Gladys Mitchell, who published some eighty novels in her lifetime. As Rigg introduced the character on PBS Mystery: "Over the course of some sixty-six mysteries, Adela Bradley married and divorced three husbands, was made a Dame of the British Empire, and a consultant to the British Home Office. She also developed prodigious abilities at pub darts, snooker, billiards, and knife throwing. One thing she cannot do is knit."

More mystery TV main titles:
THE AVENGERS w/ The New Avengers
RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY
MISS MARPLE
HAMISH MACBETH
THE SAINT
THE ADVENTURER
THE PERSUADERS
PERRY MASON RETURNS
DIAGNOSIS MURDER
MATLOCK
BARNABY JONES
NBC Mystery Movie (COLUMBO)
THE ROCKFORD FILES
QUINCY, M.E.

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Opening Theme: PERRY MASON RETURNS

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

Years after the legendary series Perry Mason (CBS, 1957-1966), star Raymond Burr and co-star Barbara Hale reunited for a series of Perry Mason TV movies starting in 1985. The first, Perry Mason Returns, found Mason resigning his position as appellate court judge to defend his secretary, Della Street, on murder charges. William Katt (Hale's son) played Paul Drake, Jr. (son of private investigator Paul Drake, portrayed by the late William Hopper in the original series.)

The series was produced by Dean Hargrove and Fred Silverman -- they also produced Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, and Diagnosis: Murder.

The Perry Mason TV movies continued even after Burr's death in 1993 -- his final performance as Mason was in The Case of the Killer Kiss. Subsequent telefilms starred other actors as lawyer friends of Mason -- one with Paul Sorvino as Anthony Caruso (1993), and three with Hal Holbrook as "Wild Bill" McKenzie (1994-95). Hale appeared in these as Street.

Thursday, 22 July 2010

Opening Theme: DIAGNOSIS MURDER

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

The mystery series Diagnosis: Murder (CBS, 1993-2001) starred Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a medical doctor who solves crimes with the help of his son, homicide detective Steve Sloan (played by real-life son Barry Van Dyke). The series was a spin-off of Jake and the Fatman (itself a spin-off of Matlock.) One of the fun angles of the show was how the producers would work in elements of other series -- ranging from cast reunions (Star Trek and M*A*S*H) to guest stars appearing as their characters from other series (Mike Connors as Joe Mannix, Andy Griffith as Ben Matlock, and Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter from Mission: Impossible.)

Diagnosis: Murder also led to a series of original novels by Lee Goldberg, an executive producer and writer on the TV show.

Season One

Season Six

Season Seven

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Opening Theme: RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

British legal mystery series Rumpole of the Bailey (1975-1992), created and written by John Mortimer, starred Leo McKern as an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients. The television series led to a series of short stories, novels, and radio dramas.

Thursday, 15 July 2010

Opening Theme: MISS MARPLE

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

Agatha Christie's famed amateur sleuth Miss Jane Marple was introduced in the short story "The Tuesday Night Club," published in The Royal Magazine December 1927. Her first full-length novel was Murder at the Vicarage 1930.

Over the years, the character has been played by several actresses in film and on TV. From 1984-1992, the BBC series Miss Marple, starring Joan Hickson, adapted all the original Miss Marple novels. Starting in 2004, the ITV series Agatha Christie's Marple has starred Geraldine McEwan and now Julia McKenzie.

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, BBC, 1990 (starring Joan Hickson)

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple (starring Geraldine McEwan)

Masterpiece MYSTERY!: Miss Marple (starring Julia Mckenzie)

More themes:
Agatha Christie's Great Detectives (anime)
MATLOCK
BARNABY JONES
QUINCY
THE EQUALIZER
HARRY O
NBC Mystery Movie (COLUMBO)
PERRY MASON
Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries
Checkmate
Magnum P.I.
Monk
Simon & Simon
THE ROCKFORD FILES

From The Thrill of it All:
Agatha Christie meets Doctor Who
Detectives: HERCULE POIROT by Agatha Christie
Detectives: MISS MARPLE by Agatha Christie
Detectives: TOMMY and TUPPENCE by Agatha Christie
Detectives: SHERLOCK HOLMES by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Detectives: HAMISH MACBETH by MC Beaton
Detectives: HORACE RUMPOLE (Rumpole of the Bailey) by John Mortimer
Detectives: JESSICA FLETCHER (Murder She Wrote) by Donald Bain
Detectives: DR. MARK SLOANE (Diagnosis Murder) by Lee Goldberg
Retirement is Murder: 10 Senior Sleuths
100 Mystery Series: 1887-2010
Murderous Beginnings: 40 Detective Fiction Firsts
All Aboard For Murder: 10 Mysteries and Thrillers On Trains
Christmas Can Be Murder: 10 Seasonal Mystery Titles

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Opening Theme: MATLOCK

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

Legal drama Matlock (NBC 1986-1992, ABC 1992-1995) starred Andy Griffith as folksy defense attorney Ben Matlock. The format of the show, not unlike that of Perry Mason (1957-1966) often found Matlock identifying the murderer in the courtroom and confronting him or her on the stand.

Over the years, Matlock's circle of helpers included daughters Charlene Matlock (Linda Purl) and Leanne MacIntyre (Brynn Thayer), legal partner Michelle Thomas (Nancy Stafford), and private investigators Tyler Hudson (Kene Holliday), Conrad McMasters (Clarence Gilyard), Cliff Lewis (Daniel Roebuck), and Jerri Stone (Carol Huston).

Matlock led to the spin-off Jake and the Fatman (1987-1992), starring William Conrad and Joe Penny. That show also had a spin-off -- Diagnosis Murder (1993-2001) starring Dick Van Dyke -- on which Andy Griffith guest-starred in one episode as Ben Matlock.

Matlock (TV series) - Wikipedia

More themes:
BARNABY JONES
PERRY MASON
JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE
LAW & ORDER: UK
QUINCY
THE EQUALIZER
HARRY O
MANNIX
NBC Mystery Movie (COLUMBO)
THE ROCKFORD FILES

Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Opening Theme: BARNABY JONES

With the release of my new whodunit Nursing a Grudge starring geriatric amateur sleuth Earl Walker, this blog is featuring senior citizen detective shows the next several weeks ...

Barnaby Jones (1973-1980) starred Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as father- and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles. A spin-off from Cannon, starring William Conrad, the Barnaby Jones premiere episode "Requiem for a Son" found Jones coming out of retirement to find his son's killer. His widowed daughter-in-law helped him solve the case, and the two decided to keep the detective agency open. In 1976, Mark Shera joined the cast as J. R., a son of Barnaby's cousin.

A different kind of private eye, Barnaby Jones was a milk-drinker who caught criminals with his brains rather than his fists: "To its credit, the producers didn't downplay Barnaby's age, nor did they get cute about it," notes Thrilling Detective. "They simply treated him with respect and dignity, made us aware of his limitations but focused on his strengths. Not for Barnaby, then, the routine TV fare of fisticuffs and car chases. Rather he relied on his keen intellect, his home crime lab and good old detective work (a real rarity on the tube) to get the goods on the bad guys." Buy DVDs at Amazon

Barnaby Jones TV show theme song

Barnaby Jones on Wikipedia
Barnaby Jones on Thrilling Detective

More themes:
CHARLIE'S ANGELS
THE EQUALIZER
HARDY BOYS / NANCY DREW MYSTERIES
HARRY O
MANNIX
NBC Mystery Movie (COLUMBO)
PETER GUNN
THE ROCKFORD FILES
QUINCY
SIMON & SIMON

From The Thrill of it All:
Retirement is Murder: 10 Senior Sleuths
Detectives: MURDER SHE WROTE: JESSICA FLETCHER
Detectives: Lee Goldberg: DR. MARK SLOANE (DIAGNOSIS: MURDER)
Mysteries: Lawrence Block: BERNIE RHODENBARR
Detectives: M.C. Beaton: AGATHA RAISIN
Detectives: Agatha Christie: MISS MARPLE
100 Mystery Series: 1887-2010
Murderous Beginnings: 40 Detective Fiction Firsts
NURSING A GRUDGE: Hometown Mysteries
NURSING A GRUDGE is "summer fresh"
Download the first chapter free!

Monday, 1 February 2010

Opening Theme: QUINCY

Opening credits from Quincy starring Jack Klugman.

More main titles:
Batman 1966 w/ The Odd Couple
Rockford Files
S.W.A.T.
Saint
Simon & Simon
Six Million Dollar Man

Tuesday, 22 April 2008

Mystery TV Themes: Agatha Christie's Great Detectives

Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple
(Agatha Christie no Meitantei Poirot To Marple)
Set in 1930s London, and starring Agatha Christie's two most famous sleuths, this 2004 Japanese animation series was based on Christie's original novels and stories. Detective Hercule Poirot and his trusted assistant Arthur Hastings, and Miss Jane Marple investigate several complicated cases. The great detectives are joined in their adventures by newly developed characters Mabel West (Marple's inquisitive sixteen-year-old great-niece), and Oliver, a curious ... duck. (Well, it is a cartoon.) Despite these additions, it is said that the series was relatively faithful to the source material.

Agatha Christie no Meitantei Poirot To Marple links:
Official site
MICO Program Finder
Wikipedia

MAIN TITLES

More opening themes:
ALIAS
THE AVENGERS (w/ THE NEW AVENGERS)
BARNEY MILLER
BATMAN 1966 (w/ THE ODD COUPLE)
BONES
S.W.A.T.
THE SAINT
SIMON & SIMON
STARSKY & HUTCH
T.J. HOOKER