Sun 14 Jun 2020
A Private Eye TV Episode Review: DELLAVENTURA “Above Reproach” (1997).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[8] Comments
DELLAVENTURA “Above Reproach.” CBS. 23 September 1997 (Season One, Episode One). Danny Aiello (Anthony Dellaventura), Ricky Aiello, Byron Keith Minns, Anne Ramsay. Guest Cast: Meg Gibson, Anthony Franciosa. Cameo: Rudolph Guiliani. Created by Richard Di Lello, Julian Neil and Bernard L. Nussbaumer. Director: Peter Levin.
Anthony Dellaventura is a Manhattan-based PI who once worked for the police department but quit when he became fed up with internal politics and crooks getting off too easily. One of the D.A. he approves of, though, is Sarah Macalusso (Meg Gibson), who is scheduled to soon be sworn in as a municipal judge. A small problem has arisen, however. She was kidnapped overnight, drugged, and videotaped in shall we shall we say compromising positions.
Even though Dellventura talks quietly, he’s also the kind of street guy who also talks tough, or that’s the premise of the show. I think he’s also the kind of guy who doesn’t think before making promises too quickly. There’s also no sense of real danger or suspense when he charges in without a plan other than confrontation and hoping for the best. He’s all brave braggadocio, but little more than that, and without a small gang of loyal assistants, I don’t think he’d get very far in the real world.
The show is still mildly enjoyable, in a homespun sort of way, but overall, viewers seem to have agreed with me. Thirteen episodes and that was it for this short-lived PI series, now probably forgotten by everyone other than those involved. Incidentally, and for the record, Episode Two is titled “Pilot,†This wasn’t it.
June 15th, 2020 at 5:50 am
Forgotten by me, for sure. In fact, even the recap did nothing to make me remember that it ever existed.
June 15th, 2020 at 6:47 am
There was a time in my life when as soon as the TV GUIDE came every week, I read it from cover to cover. Those days must have ended by 1997. I don’t remember this one either. It seems like alternative history to me.
June 15th, 2020 at 10:08 am
There were six broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, UPN, and WB, plus cable and syndication. CBS was having rating problems getting the young people advertisers wanted and was getting teased as the “old folks” network.
It was a terrible season with only seven new series (of all networks) surviving the year. DELLAVENTURA aired against the 13th ranked series NBC DATELINE TUESDAY and the 17th rating ranked show ABC NYPD BLUE.
June 15th, 2020 at 1:03 pm
Thanks, Michael. I was wondering if I was watching anything else at the time, and the answer is, no , I wasn’t. I watched only the first two seasons of NYPD BLUE, and when David Caruso left, I never found any of the other characters interesting. Not that I followed Caruso’s career either, wherever it led.
June 15th, 2020 at 7:05 pm
Some plots are so old they creak. That one certainly does.
June 16th, 2020 at 10:43 am
At the end of the episode, Danny Aiello addresses the Fourth Wall:
If you need me … I’ll be around.
As I recall, Aiello ended every episode this way; it was intended as a catch phrase.
The credits show that this was Danny Aiello’s grab at TV Fame; he promoted the daylights out of Dellaventura, telling interviewers that he was calling in favors from stars he’d worked with in the past to appear on the show.
That didn’t happen, of course, because of the quick axe …
June 16th, 2020 at 11:09 am
Another sign of how personal this series was to Aiello was his son was a co-star.
June 16th, 2020 at 11:30 am
And according to IMDb, another son, Danny Aiello III, directed two episodes.