Mon 17 Aug 2020
A TV Episode Review: TEQUILA AND BONETTI “Street Dogs†(1992).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Comedy , TV mysteries[7] Comments
TEQUILA AND BONETTI. “Street Dogs.†CBS, 60m. 17 January 1992. (Season 1, Episode 1.) Jack Scalia as Detective Nico “Nick” Bonetti, Charles Rocket as Captain Midian Knight, Mariska Hargitay as Officer Angela Garcia, Brad Sanders as Tequila (voice). Writer: Donald P. Bellisario. Director: Michael Zinberg.
In case you’re wondering, Tequila is a dog, a police dog, mind you, and a good one, but a dog, and one of the ugliest dogs you’ve ever seen. Police detective Nick Bonetti is a transplant to L.A. from New York City, and part of the basis thesis of the series is that he’s a fish out of water. I think Jack Scalia made a good part of his acting career playing an Italian from Brooklyn, a role which I’m sure came very easy to him, because that’s exactly who he is.
In “Street Dogs†he solves a murder which everyone else thinks was a suicide, but it takes Tequila’s strong sense of smell to catch the killer. And having written that, I see that I’ve neglected telling you what the kicker is in all this. We, the viewer, get to hear Tequila’s wry commentary on what’s going on around him. No one else, only us.
Well, someone thought this was going to be a very funny concept, and audiences would lap it up. It might have been a go – audiences like talking animals, as you well know – but in spite of Bonetti’s natural brashness, he also comes with his own baggage. He accidentally killed a 12-year-old girl while on duty back in NYC, and he still hasn’t gotten over it. Breaking down and crying in the arms of his ex-wife just doesn’t go with the flow. It broke the comic mood entirely, I can tell you that.
Apparently 10 of 12 episodes that were filmed actually made it onto the air. It’s a wonder it lasted as long as it did.
August 17th, 2020 at 6:46 am
I never watched this (not surprising, as few did), but I always had a hard time understanding why Jack Scalia went from series to series and role to role for a number of years, on little apparent talent other than his looks.
August 17th, 2020 at 10:13 am
As uninspired as the US version was, you may be surprised to learn that T&B was remade in 2000 and filmed and aired on Italian TV. I certainly was.
August 17th, 2020 at 10:16 am
By the way and for what it’s worth, this is the first time I’ve added photos to a review that I’ve taken with my cellphone. If they’re out of focus, so was the source, but in the case of old obscure TV shows like this, we have to take what we can get.
August 17th, 2020 at 5:39 pm
Strange that Mariska said you never heard of sexual harassment early in this dog pilot.
August 17th, 2020 at 6:12 pm
Sometimes irony sneaks up on us without our ever becoming aware of it.
August 17th, 2020 at 6:21 pm
You wonder if some of these writers actually know what comedy is. The pretension is so deep you could drown in it, and if I never see another cop hero who accidentally shot a kid and whines about it, it will be just fine with me.
February 18th, 2021 at 11:02 am
Tequila and Bonetti are investigating the suicide of a wealthy spoiled socialite. Tequila believes it’s a murder made to look like a suicide and tries to find a way to point this out to Bonetti.