Monk is an American comedy-drama detective television series that originally ran on the USA Network from July 12, 2002, to December 4, 2009, with 125 episodes broadcast over eight seasons. The series follows Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), a private detective with obsessive–compulsive disorder and multiple phobias, and his assistants Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) and Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard). Monk works with the San Francisco Police Department in solving unconventional cases while investigating his wife's unsolved murder. The show also explores the personal lives and struggles of the main characters.
First envisioned by ABC as an Inspector Clouseau-type police show, the series' premise of a detective with obsessive–compulsive disorder originated with David Hoberman in 1998, while Andy Breckman, who is credited as creator, wrote the pilot episode by taking inspiration from Sherlock Holmes. Monk went through two years of development hell due to difficulties finding an actor for the main role. After being handed off to the USA Network and casting Shalhoub, the series' pilot was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2001. Subsequent episodes of the first season were filmed in Toronto, Ontario, while the remainder of the series was primarily shot in Los Angeles, California.
A follow-up film, Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie, premiered on Peacock on December 8, 2023, with a script written by Breckman and the main cast reprising their roles from the series.[2][3]
While Monk's personal challenges and compulsions often cause problems and frustration for both himself and those around him, his observational skills and keen attention to detail enable him to solve cases through unconventional means. His 312 phobias include germs, needles, birds, heights, dentists, milk, death, snakes, lightning, mushrooms, crowds, enclosed spaces, and more.
Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk: the "defective detective" and a renowned former homicide investigator who works as a private consultant for the San Francisco Police Department. He has obsessive–compulsive disorder and multiple phobias, all of which intensified after the murder of his wife Trudy, resulting in his suspension from the department. Monk helps the police solve unconventional crimes and undergoes therapy with the ultimate goal of overcoming his grief, taking control of his phobias and disorder, and being reinstated as a police detective.
Bitty Schram as Sharona Fleming (seasons 1–3; guest season 8): Monk's personal nurse and first assistant, and a single mother with a son named Benjy. Sharona is often hard on Monk and refuses to baby him until she moves to New Jersey to remarry her ex-husband.
Jason Gray-Stanford as Lieutenant Randy Disher: Captain Stottlemeyer's second-in-command at the San Francisco Police Department's Homicide Division. Randy is naive and slightly dim, and often poses far-fetched theories and comments about the cases that Monk works on.
Ted Levine as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: the head of the San Francisco Police Department's Homicide Division. He and Monk have been good friends since their early days on the police force. Stottlemeyer is initially annoyed and reluctant to work with Monk due to his phobias, but grows to respect his friend and former colleague's observational abilities.
Traylor Howard as Natalie Teeger (seasons 3–8): Monk's second personal assistant and a young widow with a daughter named Julie. Though Natalie is more deferential and patient with her boss than Sharona was, often referring to him as "Mr. Monk", she is not hesitant to call Monk out when she feels he is being unfair or unreasonable.
Supporting
Stanley Kamel as Dr. Charles Kroger (seasons 1–6): Monk's first psychiatrist. He is said to have died of a heart attack after Kamel's death on April 8, 2008.[5]
Kane Ritchotte (pilot episode & seasons 2–3) and Max Morrow (season 1) as Benjy Fleming: Sharona's son.
Stellina Rusich (seasons 1–2) and Melora Hardin (seasons 3–8) as Trudy Monk: a former journalist and Monk's deceased wife. Monk's efforts to solve her murder form the overarching storyline of the series.
Tim Bagley as Harold Krenshaw (seasons 3 & 5–8): another patient of Dr. Kroger's with obsessive compulsive disorder who develops a rivalry with Monk due to their incompatible compulsions.
Emmy Clarke as Julie Teeger (seasons 3–8): Natalie's daughter who grows to respect Monk and comes to see him as a father figure.
According to an interview with executive producer David Hoberman,[25]ABC first conceived the series as a police show with an Inspector Clouseau-like character with OCD. Hoberman said ABC wanted Michael Richards, who had starred as a private investigator in The Michael Richards Show two years earlier, for the show,[25] but Richards turned it down. Hoberman brought in Andy Breckman as creator, and Breckman, inspired by Sherlock Holmes, introduced Dr. Kroger as a Doctor Watson-like character and an Inspector Lestrade-like character who eventually became Captain Stottlemeyer.
Although ABC originated the show, the network handed it off to the USA Network. USA is now owned by NBC (NBC Universal).[26]Monk was the first Touchstone Television-produced show aired on USA Network instead of ABC. Although ABC initially refused Monk, they did air repeats of the show on ABC between June–November 2002, and then again between March–May 2004. On January 12, 2006, USA Network announced that Monk had been picked up through at least season six as one of the "highest-rated series in cable history."[27] An in-joke reference to this contract renewal was also inserted into the episode "Mr. Monk and the Big Reward", which aired around this time.
Season five premiered Friday, July 7, 2006, at 9:00 pm Eastern time. This marked the first time change for the program, which aired at 10:00 pm during its first four seasons. The change allowed the show to work as a lead-in to a new USA Network series, Psych, another offbeat detective program. Monk followed a consistent format of airing half of its 16 episodes in midyear and the second half early the following year, with the exception of the first season, which broadcast entirely from July through October 2002, and the final season, which broadcast entirely between August and December 2009.
Previously aired episodes of Monk began airing on NBC Universal sibling network NBC April 6, 2008. NBC eyed the show because its block with Psych could be plugged into NBC's schedule intact. The shows were being used to increase the scripted programming on the network as production of its own scripted programming ramped back up following the writers' strike.[28] Ratings for the broadcast debut were well below NBC averages for the time period. The show came in third behind Big Brother 9 on CBS and Oprah's Big Give on ABC.[29]
Location
Although set in the San Francisco Bay Area, Monk is for the most part shot elsewhere except for occasional exteriors featuring city landmarks. The pilot episode was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, with some location shooting in San Francisco, and the subsequent season-one episodes were shot in the Toronto, Ontario, area.[30] Most of the episodes from seasons two through six were filmed in the Los Angeles area. These include the sets for Monk's apartment, the police station and Stottlemeyer's office, Dr. Kroger's office, and Natalie's house.[31] In season two, episode eight, a building for the Toronto Star can also be seen in a cut scene.
In the later part of season four, some on-location filming was done in San Francisco. Many portions of the episode "Mr. Monk and the Big Reward" were noticeably shot on location, including a climactic chase scene where Monk and Natalie are chased by three bounty hunters.[32] Other filming was done in Chinatown, which is shown in the opening of "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty", as Stottlemeyer and Disher chase wanted fugitive Miguel Escobar (Carlos Gomez) up Jackson Street. In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", some on-location filming was done at Edwards Air Force Base.
NYC actor Colter Rule was hired by USA Network to do all radio and TV promotions for the series from its inception, lending an ironic, understated tone that contributed to the show's early popularity. The original tag was "Monk! America's Favorite Defective Detective!" When season two began, the series received a new theme song, titled "It's a Jungle Out There", by Randy Newman. Reaction to the new theme was mixed. A review of season two in the New York Daily News included a wish that producers would revert to the original theme.[35] Shalhoub expressed his support for the new theme in USA Today, saying its "dark and mournful sound,… [its] tongue-in-cheek, darkly humorous side… completely fits the tone of the show."[36] Newman was awarded the 2004 Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for "It's a Jungle Out There".[37]
The show made references to the theme music controversy in the episode "Mr. Monk and the TV Star", where obsessed fan Marci Maven and Sharona both express distaste for the new theme music to a CSI parody called Crime Lab: SF. In the epilogue of the story, Marci implores Monk to promise her that he will never change the theme music if he ever gets his own show. When Monk agrees to the promise, the original music is heard as the scene fades to credits, and it plays through the credits.
The original theme is heard in the season-three episode "Mr. Monk and the Game Show". It is heard in several other episodes as the show enters the credits and then leads into the new theme's instrumental version. In the season-five episode "Mr. Monk and the Leper", while looking around a victim's apartment, Randy doodles out the old theme song on the piano, much to Stottlemeyer's exasperation. The music is also heard in the season-seven episode "Mr. Monk and the Bully".
In the season-six episode "Mr. Monk and the Rapper", Snoop Dogg guest-starred as Murderuss, a rapper who is being wrongly accused of car-bombing a rival rapper. For the episode, Snoop Dogg performed a hip-hop cover of "It's a Jungle Out There" that substitutes for Randy Newman's version in the opening credits, and at the end before transitioning into the regular credit music. The June 16, 2008, reairing of the pilot episode featured a new credit sequence with the Newman theme. The season-eight episode "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk" features a slower version of the original theme with a muted trumpet playing the melody.
Randy Newman also wrote a new song for the final episode entitled "When I'm Gone". The song was released on iTunes on December 1, 2009, and won the 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
For a few episodes where Trudy is featured, a somber but pleasant ending theme was used. The ending theme is last used in "Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra".
"Here's what happened" segments
Most episodes feature a sequence in which Monk reveals how the crime was committed, almost always prefaced with the words "Here's what happened" and shown in black and white. Sometimes the conventions of these segments are defied for humorous effect, e.g. by having them take place early in the episode or being delivered by someone other than Monk.
A Turkish adaptation titled Galip Derviş [tr] began airing on Kanal D in March 2013, the same name used when it first aired the original Monk in the 2000s.
USA Network premiered a 10-episode online series entitled "Little Monk" on August 21, 2009. It includes Adrian and Ambrose Monk during their middle-school years, bringing a back story to Monk's detective skills and phobias.
Scrapped television movie
On February 17, 2012, Andy Breckman announced that a script had been completed for a television movie titled Mr. Monk For Mayor. Breckman stated that the film should begin production by June–August 2012 in California for a release date in December 2012. Breckman also stated that he hoped a sequel would be produced, as well.[39] The idea was rejected for budgetary reasons.[40]
COVID-19 short
On May 11, 2020, Peacock, for their At-Home Variety Show released a 41⁄2-minute scripted short of Monk, titled Mr. Monk Shelters in Place, following Monk during the COVID-19 pandemic, showing how he fares during this time. Tony Shalhoub reprises the titular role, as well as original main cast members: Jason Gray-Stanford, Ted Levine, and Traylor Howard in their respective characters.[41]
On March 14, 2023, Tony Shalhoub confirmed on Dr. Loubna Hassanieh's Unheard Stories: Stories That Inspire podcast that a 90-minute Monk movie was produced for Andy Breckman Productions, Mandeville Television, ABC Signature, 20th Television, Universal Content Productions and Peacock, with shooting expected to start in May 2023.[42] The following day, Peacock officially ordered the Monk follow-up film, titled Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie with original cast members Shalhoub, Levine, Howard, Gray-Stanford, Hardin and Elizondo (who played Monk, Captain Stottlemeyer, Natalie, Randy, Trudy, and Dr. Bell) confirmed to reprise their roles from the series with creator Andy Breckman writing the script.[2] The movie premiered on December 8, 2023.[43]
A "behind-the-scenes" audio podcast entitled "Lunch at Monk" is available for download through the USA website.[44] In the podcast, cast and crew members of the show are interviewed over lunch and dinner.
Novel series
Since 2006, during the airing of season four, Lee Goldberg, a writer for the series, has produced a series of novels based on the original television series.[45] All of the novels are narrated by Natalie Teeger, Monk's second assistant. For the most part, the novels remain faithful to the television series, with slight discontinuity. On December 31, 2012, the last novel to be written by Lee Goldberg was released. After Goldberg left the series, Hy Conrad wrote four more books, ending with Mr. Monk and the New Lieutenant.[46]
This novel was written before, but published after, the airing of "Mr. Monk Is on the Run", so events in this story run contrary to the series timeline. The foreword acknowledges some discontinuity.
Direct sequel to Mr. Monk Helps Himself. The novel itself was noted by Conrad to have been adapted from a never-filmed season-three script for an episode called "Mr. Monk Is At Sea", which would have had Monk and Sharona investigate a murder on a cruise ship. That episode was never filmed because no cruise line, out of sensitivity to the plot, wanted to loan a ship to the production crew to use for shooting.
Direct sequel to Mr. Monk Is Open for Business. Hy Conrad confirmed through his website that New Lieutenant will be the final Monk novel.[51]
Home releases
Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released all eight seasons of Monk on DVD in Region 1. On October 5, 2010, Universal released Monk – The Complete Series: Limited edition boxset on DVD in Region 1, a 32-disc set featuring all eight seasons of the series, as well as special features and a collectible 32-page booklet.[52]
Monk episodes are also available on iTunes. All seasons are also available in HD format. The Region 2 and Region 4 DVDs of seasons one-three are in the 4:3 aspect ratio.
In Australia, Seasons 1-5 were re-released in slimmer packaging in 2010. In 2017, all eight seasons were re-issued and distributed by Shock Entertainment (previous releases were Universal). Seasons 1-3 are now in 16:9 format, and all seasons are Region 4 NTSC (previous releases were PAL Regions 2, 4 and 5). Complaints from some buyers were that there are no subtitles or episode list and episodes appearing out of order.
All 125 episodes (seasons 1–8) of the series are available on various streaming services including Peacock, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.
