Obsessive fear lends 'Monk' its spunk

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Hollywood likes its neat categories, its partitions between styles.

Then there's "Monk," which debuts at 9 tonight on the USA Network. It's a series based on solving mysteries produced by very funny people.

"I'm a comedy writer, but I've always loved Sherlock Holmes," says producer-writer Andy Breckman. "Everyone thinks someone can only wear one hat."

Now he works with people who can be serious or silly.

Tony Shalhoub — best-known to TV viewers as Antonio on "Wings" and currently starring in "Men in Black II" — plays Adrian Monk. Once a great police detective, Monk has been frozen by fear since the unsolved murder of his wife.

Now he's afraid of germs, heights, crowds and more. Call him the first obsessive compulsive detective.

"He's been sort of laying low for three or four years and he's started to slowly creep back into detective work," Shalhoub says.

Bitty Schram — obscure except for role in "A League of Their Own" — plays Sharona, the nurse who helped him pull through. Now she's his assistant.

There are some very funny moments here. You expect that from Breckman, who has worked with David Letterman, Steve Martin and "Airplane" co-creator Jerry Zucker.

He and Zucker spent almost a year together, creating the broad humor of the "Rat Race" movie.

"It was like going to comedy school," Breckman says. "It was sitting in a room and laughing. Then he'd show how to make it funnier."

Still, Breckman also has a fondness for mysteries.

"I'm not a fan of the whodunit — the Agatha Christie stories where you gather everyone in a room," Breckman says. "I really like ones where you try to figure out how he did it."

One upcoming tale involves an 800-pound man (Adam Arkin in a fat suit). If he can't get through his doorway, how could he commit a murder?

There's one bonus to writing a story like this: Smart characters are welcome.

"I do like writing smart guys," Breckman says. "You get to be as smart as you can."

His movie script, "I.Q.," took that to an extreme. It also fit Breckman's desire to stay near his home in Summit, N.J.

"I wanted to write a movie that had to be shot in New Jersey," Breckman says. So he wrote the 1994 "I.Q.," in which a regular chap (Tim Robbins) falls for the brainy niece (Meg Ryan) of Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau).

With all that starpower, Breckman says, his script ended up being changed a lot. Still, he did get to visit the set and watch the movie being made in New Jersey.

Now "Monk" lets him stay there. The first season, tonight's movie, followed by 12 one-hour episodes, is being filmed in Toronto.

Breckman, however, has his writing staff and production office in Summit. There, far from Hollywood, he can craft a different sort of semi-comic mystery.