Culture Blues

Every month in "Why didn't you watch...?" we will take a look at a television series that was criminally and irresponsibly canceled before its time; taking a critical look at the show while also delving into what was wrong with all of you people that you couldn't tune in for 30 or 60 minutes each week. The rules are simple: the show must have been canceled, it can't have lasted for two full seasons, and we have to like it. So, why didn't you watch...

Andy Richter has had a strange career. He was an original member of Late Night with Conan O’Brien. He left the show while it was still steadily on the rise (after the 5^th anniversary show in primetime but before Conan started hosting mainstream awards shows). Then Andy had a few small unmemorable film roles before getting his first shot at a network show with Andy Richter Controls the Universe. It was well liked but failed to take off (some people consider Better Off Ted a reworking of this idea by Victor Fresco, the creator of both).  Then Andy went the typical sitcom route with Quintuplets, perfectly illustrating something that network execs simply do not understand: people who like lame family sitcoms are not fans of unorthodox comics like Andy Richter and Tracy Morgan (The Tracy Morgan Show being one of the most egregious examples of a square peg crammed into a round hole). Similarly, fans of Andy and Tracy are not going to watch someone they like shoehorned into a lame sitcom that doesn’t suit their talents. It’s a lose-lose. After Quintuplets was unsurprisingly cancelled after a surprising 22-episode run, Andy appeared on NBC’s schedule in 2007 as Andy Barker, PI, along with shows like 30 Rock and My Name is Earl.

He's on the phone with Conan.

Looking back at articles from the time is pretty shocking (it seems like an eternity ago). NBC hit historic lows in ratings – thanks in part to 30 Rock and Andy Barker. But critics liked both shows and some even wondered if NBC had successfully shattered the mold of conventional half hour comedies with these quirky, single camera efforts (The Office was starting to take off at this time and Scrubs was already NBC’s single-camera patron saint).

Two years later, 30 Rock isn’t breaking any ratings records but it’s an MVP for the still slumping NBC and is appointment television for fans and critics alike. And while its most recent season turned into a celebrity filled circle jerk-athon ratings grab that even the writers couldn’t help but poke fun at (see the Night Court episode), it still entertained people AND won the Emmy for Best Comedy. Meanwhile, Andy Richter is once again playing second fiddle on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien (demoted to “announcer” no less) and Andy Barker, PI is nothing more than a memory. For most, in fact, Andy Barker is less than a memory because everyone I talk to claims to have never heard of it.

Andy's done being a sidekick.

Andy Barker, PI begins with an unpromising mistaken identity concept that seems more suited to a Michael Myers (or 1997 Bill Murray) feature film vehicle than a weekly television comedy. Richter’s Andy Barker is an accountant with a wife and a seemingly undetermined number of kids (this is actually a great sign for the show, believe it or not). He has just opened his own business and has a brand new office in a typical suburban shopping plaza. Before long a damsel in distress has walked into his office looking for the prior tenant – a private detective. Barker decides to help the woman and suddenly, and for the rest of the series’ short run, he is effectively a private eye.

Andy’s indeterminate number of kids is good news because the show spends very little time on Andy’s home life and avoids tired Conflicting Schedule plots where the main character has to juggle his two lives.  Andy’s baby daughter factors into the plot of just one episode, although he makes vague references to other kids, and his wife basically makes one token appearance per episode.

Rather than traditional sitcom boilerplate, the episodes focus on Andy’s amateur detective work. Andy gets in over his head at times, but he’s no bumbling idiot. His instincts and intuition prove sound, and in the best episodes, Barker actually “cracks” the case. The show never really wanders into Mistaken for Badass territory, which was a serious concern for me, but there are definitely episodes where Andy solves a case based more on coincidence than his detective work. These unfortunate incidents make for much less interesting episodes. The show is at its best when portraying Andy as a competent and observant yet inexperienced and unassertive private eye.

Let's see Jack Bauer try this!

Most of the episodes end with some sort of action set piece - a chase or a fight. It seems a little odd for a show like this, but I’m sure the network thought it would help bring in viewers. They do something very smart though; by creating relatively modest set pieces that fit the tone of the show, they are able to stage them impressively. The golf cart battle at the end of the second episode is a perfect example. Andy is driving the cart with a criminal hanging onto the top. Since this scene is set on a speeding golf cart, they are able to use long shots of a guy actually hanging on. Frankly, it looks better than when TV shows feature high-speed car chases consisting entirely of tight shots that help keep costs down and that help the viewer not be able to see what’s going on.

While he displays some aptitude for the job, Andy Barker needs help to succeed as a detective. Similarly, Andy Richter needs help to make this show work. Andy’s most successful gigs have been as sidekick to the energetic and lithe Conan O’Brien. Andy’s specialty is to observe the insanity around him and respond with a perfectly timed bemused quip or a slightly mortified reaction shot.

The nitty gritty legwork involved in being a fake private detective.

This is where the supporting cast comes in. Tony Hale (Buster from Arrested Development) plays Simon, the owner of the video store underneath Andy’s office.  He’s a film snob and an all too eager member of Andy’s crime fighting team.  In the pilot, Simon serves to place the show in the proper pop culture context (“This is just like Chinatown”). In a world where everyone, including recent immigrants and gangsters, have seen the appropriate movies, Andy is more familiar with Judging Amy and Miss Congeniality (1 and 2). Rather than being bumbling and inept, Andy’s status as a square is his major drawback. Simon is also responsible for one of my favorite moments from the series. When the shopping plaza has a fund raising fair, Simon hosts a “Find Out Why Your Favorite Movie Sucks” booth. Brilliant.

The MVP of the show, however, is Lew Staziak, the “retired” private eye that sets everything in motion. The late Harve Presnell plays the senile, wisecracking, world-weary veteran to perfection. Character-wise, his hilarious (sometimes nonsensical) quotes are either the result of dementia or being a fucking genius. Think of Rip Torn in Dodgeball or Philip Baker Hall as the library cop Mr. Bookman on Seinfeld and you’re basically there. This is an archetype we have been seeing much more of in the past few years as it is perfectly suited to today’s more “memorable quote” focused comedy. For Andy Barker, PI, Lew provides most of the laugh-out-loud moments as well as a little bit of edge. Lew gets some welcome back-story and a little added depth in “The Lady Varnishes,” one of the series’ best episodes. Unfortunately, it’s also the last.

He looked exactly the same in 2007!!!

Which brings us to the biggest problem with Andy Barker – there’s only 6 episodes. Three of them (the pilot, and the last two episodes: The Big No Sleep, and The Lady Varnishes) are absolutely terrific. In the last episodes the show is clearly hitting its stride. Huge assists are provided by guest stars Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert of Lost) in “The Big No Sleep” and Amy Sedaris and Ed Asner in “The Lady Varnishes.” A comedy with episodic plots of this nature likely would have needed regular efforts like these from guest stars in order to stay in top form. The fact that “The Big No Sleep” and “The Lady Varnishes” aired in a glorious one hour block that earned NBC the aforementioned historic low… well, it’s an absolute miscarriage of justice.

NBC’s Thursday night successes provide a pretty bleak view of 21^st century American life. The ideas that work will always infringe on one’s personal life (30 Rock) and that no one, no matter what they do is capable of escaping their mundane and soul crushing workplace (The Office) rule. Andy Barker, PI presented a very different viewpoint; that the modern male is capable of indulging his adventurous urges without sacrificing peaceful domesticity. This harmony seems almost revolutionary for television. Andy Barker was a good show that could have become great, but it will probably just be remembered as one of NBC’s missteps in its attempt to rebuild its Thursday night comedy lineup.