Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: Buddy Faro


Here's another very short-lived series I thought was pretty good. Thirteen episodes were made, but only eight aired in the fall of 1998 before it was cancelled. The set-up is all in that title sequence. Famous private eye vanishes, only to be found twenty years later by a young, eager PI and resumes his career. It was a funny, well-written, affectionate parody of shows like PETER GUNN and 77 SUNSET STRIP. Dennis Farina, who was so good in CRIME STORY, played the title character, Buddy Faro. The series was created by Mark Frost, who worked on HILL STREET BLUES and TWIN PEAKS and has written several mystery novels, none of which I've read. BUDDY FARO seemed to be aimed directly at fans of old private eye novels and TV shows, like me, and I guess there just weren't enough of us.

6 comments:

Todd Mason said...

ABC/Disney was going through a period of strangling all kinds of series in their cribs, even more eagerly than the other networks, that hasn't quite ended yet. I liked this one a lot, as well.

Todd Mason said...

Frost often verges on fantasy in his noirish writing, as won't surprise you. You definitely don't need to see ON THE AIR, the second Lynch/Frost ABC series, but you might like it more than I do...it would be difficult not to (a rather more acidly "comic" attempt at the same thing REMEMBER WENN also botched...a mild farce about radio's dominant years).

pattinase (abbott) said...

Missed this one.

Cap'n Bob said...

It flew under my radar. I may have been working nights in those days.

RJR said...

James, when it comes to shows like Buddy Faro, The Outsider, City of Angels, Man in a Suitcase, there are never enough of us P.I. fans to support tem.

James Reasoner said...

All too true, Bob.