Watching the marathon right now. I catched an epi. I hadn't seen before: 'Monk and The Other Woman'. Lovely. I want Monk to get a 'ship with someone.

Plus, did you catch the 'Shaft' song with 'Monk' lyrics? Isaac Hayes sang it too! it was just great! Did anyone catched the lyrics? they were funny!

Argh! missed that one again! I caught Mr Monk goes to Mexico. Really one of my favorites. Stottlemeyer euologizing Monk. Love it! Can't wait for the new episodes. Tony Shaloub so deserved that Emmy.

I've been in Monk heaven all day!

Hee-hee! I loved that song each time it came on. I won't try to quote the whole thing, but the part where he sang, 'I hear this guy Monk is afraid of germs' and then the female voice goes, 'wipe your mouth!' was hilarious!

I feel soooo lazy since all I did yesterday was do one load of laundry and watch Monk all. day. long. But it was worth it! If possible, my love for Monk and Disher has grown.

Isaac Hayes has always, still does, and will always rock. 'No one understands him but his nurse (female voice: Adrian Monk!).'

I watched several eps yesterday and I realized I like the 1st season theme song better than the Randy Newman one. I thought the first one was more upbeat. I loved the episode that had Monk and the captain living together- the 21st century 'odd couple' :)

One of the upcoming new episodes that I've closed-captioned is called "Mr. Monk Gets Married."

I like the first season theme music better, too.

Whereas I realized during the marathon that I can only listen to the first season music about twice before it gives me a headache and an urge to destroy something. I absolutely love the second season music and the lyrics.

Hee! But I'm sure that's the exact reaction Monk gives to the people who spend time with him, so it fits.

All fingers and toes crossed for Tony, Bitty, & the show! I can't wait for the Golden Globes. I will be seriously whooping it up here in NJ.

Fav eppy--the one where Monk gets institutionalized. Kevin Nealon & the Santa-obsessed guy were so funny! And I heart me some Dennis Boutsikaris (bad spelling, I know)

Monk trivia question--Is guest star Jerry Levine in any way related to Ted Levine, who plays Stottlemeyer? They both have kind of squinked up eyes. Just curious.

That one is one of my faves too, but I love all the eps! I don't think I have a fave ep, just fave scenes.

Not that I'm as bad as Monk, but I did force myself to memorize as much of Isaac Hayes' homage to Monk, Shaft-style:

Who's the obsessive compulsive dick that's a total mess with all his ticks?
(Monk!)
You're damn right.
Who's the cat that solved the crime when the cops don't have the time?
(Monk!)
Can ya dig it?
They say this cat Monk is afraid of germs...(Wipe your mouth)!
I'm talkin' about Monk, baby...(And we can dig it).
He's a complicated man, and no one understands him but his nurse.
(Adrian Monk!)

As much as I love Monk, I don't think I can stomach sitting through an awards show, esp. the Golden Globes. But my fingers and toes will be crossed that night!

Any word on when the first or second season will be coming out on DVD?

Dunno Sister, I've been asking myself the same question. All you can get on DVD is the premiere episode.

Also, I have a nitpick, and not a good one, Having watched most of the marathon, I think some scenes crossed the border a bit from funny to annoying, I am talking about some instances when African Americans are on the show... on one, Monk (as always) wipes his hands after shaking hands with some teachers, the gag here is that Sharona only gives him a wipe after he shakes the black teacher's hand... this one joke was on purpose, but not particularly funny.... but also, on the episode where 'Monk' goes speed dating, he leaves the table when a black girl sits down, no explanation, no nothing. Also, I remember that when Sharona gets a job at the lamp store, she closes the store midday to its only customer, again, an African American. So for a show with almost no diversity on its main characters (This is supposed to be SF, people, and the best they can come up with is a stereotypical Asian dry-cleaner lady or school teacher?) they just could be more careful.

Anyway, I'm not a prude and I like 'Monk' a lot, I just wish the writers/casting stopped making the African Americans on the show always getting the unexplained snub from 'Monk'. It just doesn't look good.

I don't know about the eps you mentioned, but in the one with the marathon-running furniture salesman, the joke was that the african-american man (and others standing there) took it very personally (the handwipe) and Monk and Sharona tried unsuccessfully to convince them it had nothing to do with his color.

Come to think of it, in that ep, wasn't Monk's big lifelong idol a black man? or am I remembering wrong?

I believe the first season is already out on DVD. I couldn't find it on Amazon but I swear I saw a DVD box with Monk on the cover in Target.

ETA: Actually, I just found it on Target.com and it's only the premiere episode.

The pilot is available on DVD, but I don't believe the entire first season is.

See.. this is what I mean, whether they do it purposefully or not, its annoying. Monk is good enough to avoid being seen as racist (even though I am 100% sure its accidental)

The show or the character? I didn't find the episode with Sharona handing him the wipe after he shook hands with the black man as offensive. To me, the show doesn't come off as racist. Maybe those incidents just don't push my buttons. As for Monk himself, iirc, the handshakes came so quickly, Sharona didn't have time to give him a handwipe in between each one, and once there was time, he would have had a panic attack if he didn't get one immediately. (Which, really would have been offensive to the other man. Can you imagine Monk freaking out that he needed to clean his hands right now?) And, the thing is, it's such a natural part of his, and Sharona's, life, that they don't think "I need to be careful so as to come off as being offensive."

On a lighter note, "Wipe your mouth" still has me laughing.

[/QUOTE]See.. this is what I mean, whether they do it purposefully or not, its annoying. Monk is good enough to avoid being seen as racist (even though I am 100% sure its accidental)[QUOTE]

I tend to agree with you. I think it's important for writers to be aware of potentionally racist material bc you can't be the only person that feels wierd about said material.

The whole idea is that Monk is helpless in the face of his disorder. He cannot control it, even when it is very apparent that it is offensive or perceived to be racist. The disorder is mainly played for laughs, but the show works best (is most poignant) when you see how Monk is aware of what it is doing to his life, yet still cannot break free.

I agree with ciscokidinsf that there are times when something close to racism seems to be peeking out from Monk. I've noticed it too. kimmako, though, is right that Monk the character is not racist, but the way that certain guest stars or extras are cast (as the one who is ignored or slighted) makes it seem like the show is. Aside from the "Marathon Man" episode where the character's race was kind of the point, I'd like to think that the casting is done color-blind so that they just say "we need a pretty girl for Monk to leave just before a speed-date" and those characters wind up being played by black actors.

Let's just blame it at bad luck (or thoughlessness) at casting and leave it at that. Let's just hope they get better at it. I love 'Monk' and can't wait for season 3 to start.

The lady who played Monk's dry cleaning lady was in 'Bad Santa'. That movie rocked.

I just checked USA's website and new episodes start January 16th! Yay!

Why isn't this wonderful show recapped? I can't wait to see the newest episode.

Hey, Monk is back on ABC now. Cool!

This morning I heard most of an interview with Tony Shaloub and someone else (sorry, didn't catch his name) about Monk. New show Friday! It was on Morning Edition (NPR). They talk about how they want to make people uncomfortable / irritated with Monk, but not so much that you switch the channel. heh.

I am so looking forward to 'meeting' Monk's brother as played by John Turturo -- it just seems like perfect casting! I've missed this show so much.

Here is the link to NPR's Morning Edition story. Also includes audio links to Tony on Fresh Air, plus others.

Great piece, glad to see the show getting more PR in a different venue than the usual.

Link to a rave review from TV Guide:

http://www.tvguide.com/tv/roush/review/

(Longtime lurker, first-time poster.)

I'd seen a few episodes on USA previously, but it wasn't until the new year's marathon that I became happily addicted to Monk (or as I like to call it, Encyclopedia Brown Washes His Hands). Friday can't come fast enough.

Has anyone ever seen Bitty Schram (that's her name, right?) in anything prior to this show?

.
Hee!

Bitty Schram was in the movie A League of Their Own. The movie as a whole didn't make much of an impression on me, so I remember her from it only vaguely.

That's right: she was the player whose kid came along on the bus. Thanks, CydW!

(I could have looked this up on Imdb, of course, but then I would have missed the joy of human contact. Well, you know what I mean.)

We're quasi-human around here, anyway. :)

She was the ballplayer with the son, wasn't she? The target of the line, "There's no crying in baseball,' IIRC, but might not.

Come on, Friday night!

Bitty looks a lot better in Monk than she did as Evelyn, the mother of "Stillwell Angel." Must have been fun to do that scene with Tom Hanks though. And the follow-up where Evelyn (who plays right field) again misses the cut-off "man" but Tom/Jimmy manages (just barely) to restrain himself from yelling at her. What a hoot!

Two posts in a row, but it's a new day and a new topic...

Tony Shalhoub has been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award as lead actor in a comedy for Monk. Yay, Tony!

Holy crap, an official Monk banner on TWoP? Is this the first non-fan banner for a show?

I think that since TWoP has hooked up with Yahoo TV, "they" direct ads to different forums. It totally floored me when I saw an ad for HGTV in the HowTo forum, too.

New episode tonight! Mr Monk and the Paperboy: Monk fears he'll wind up in the obituaries after a newspaper thief kills his delivery boy in this first of a series of new episodes.

I forgot to mention it, a few weeks back -- right around the time they had the New Year's Monk marathon, my sister went to the movies and came back with a pocket-sized tissue pack with Tony Shaloub's face on it. Apparently the theater was giving away Monk tissues with all tickets sold as a way of promoting the upcoming season. And it's worked -- every time I'd ask her for a tissue, we'd fall into mutual hysterics in anticipation of the new season.

Mm, Disher.

Re: on Bitty Schram's previous work; not only was she in A League of Their Own, but she was also on several episodes of Felicity in 2001.

"Ooooooooooh the humanity!"

*****!hee!*****

Does anyone know the name of the show tune Monk was singing in tonight's episode? And what it's from?

I'm kicking myself right now. When the kid was listing all is prior addresses and Disher was taking them down, I thought to myself that those numbers meant something. Then when Benji was digging through the paper, and there was a closeup of the winning lottery numbers, I thought to myself that the lottery had something to do with it, especially since Sharona mentioned there was just a big winner. And duh, I couldn't put two and two together.

That said, fun episode with the Monk vs. Sharona strength contest. Plus, Disher so wants Sharona, though I think we all knew that already. Kind of funny that Monk could solve two crimes by just paging through the newspaper. I've missed this show.

It's called "If Ever I Would Leave You" and is from "Camelot." I found it interesting that that seems to be the only show tune Monk knows--it sounded like he sang it over and over again for the twenty minutes left in his session.

slaughteredlamb, it's "If Ever I Would Leave You" from Camelot.

The Marmaduke thing (esp. Captain Stottlemeyer's reaction) had me rolling. My best friend once dumped a girl for thinking The Family Circus was a rip-roaringly funny comic strip, so there was a bit of background enjoyment for me on that count as well.

What was up with all of Sharona's references to her idiocy in marrying Benjy's father?

I'm hoping that Adrian's reticence about his intimacy with Trudy was just him feeling that that issue is simply too personal even for therapy, and not his way of hiding some shameful secret ("My Wife Wouldn't Touch Me!" as seen in The Enquirer).

Who was the other guy in the previews (not John Turturro)? It wasn't Anthony Andrews, was it?

How do I love this show? Let me count the ways...


1.It's a throwback to the oldstyle detective series on movies and tv like The Thin Man and the Charlie Chan series or Hercule Poirot films which were as much about comedy as mystery and didn't try to depress viewers with that hard-boiled nitty gritty stuff. Not that I *mind* darker crime shows from time to time but for god's sakes they can't all be [/I]CSI[I].

2. It has a strong likeable female lead who actually looks like a real woman instead of Miss January.

3. It celebrates neuroticism and geekiness, while at the same time gently mocking it.

4. It has one of the few truly original concepts to come to tv in years.

5. It has Tony as Monk. "Nuff said.

It doesn't surprise me that Monk wouldn't want to talk about his sex life with Trudy with anyone, but the way he talked about holding her hand made me wonder if they ever got around to doing anything else. Sex is pretty messy, after all....

My favorite part about this episode was the confirmation of Dishers love for Sharona. He still won't admit it, though, and those little glances were too cute to handle.

I just have to add that I had a Monk moment of my own tonight. I went to subway and the girl who made my sandwich had really, I mean really bad rotten, green and black teeth- like ALL of them. Once I got my sandwich and left the store I had to throw it away. Anyone who has that little concern for hygiene is not allowed in the same room with my food, let alone to prepare it. I know Monk would have done the same, and I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse.

Oh, the humanity!

Thank you, everyone who answered my question. I am now $10 richer and 50% more full of myself.

I probably would had throught the Marmaduke thing was funny, but it just kept reminding me of the conversation that The Mayor and Mr. Trick from Buffy had about Marmaduke and (oddly enough) The Family Circus.


I would of thought Monk would share the same opinion. Otherwise, I loved the episode. I loved Monk's reason for not hearing the murder "vacuuming", and his entire therapy session was so sweet.

The Other Daughter, I totally agree with all 5 points that you listed.

My dad called the killer and the lottery thing halfway through the episode, but I still enjoyed the entire episode. The character interaction between Sharona and Monk and (bless my shipper heart) Sharona and Disher. He's so adorable denying his love for her.

jade skyy: oh the humanity indeed. That would have scared me into tossing the food as well.