Thu 2 Mar 2023
A TV PI Episode Review: RICHIE BROCKELMAN, PRIVATE EYE “A Title on the Door, and a Carpet on the Floor” (1978).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[10] Comments
RICHIE BROCKELMAN, PRIVATE EYE. “A Title on the Door, and a Carpet on the Floor.” NBC, 31 March 1978 (Series 1, Episode 3). Dennis Dugan (Richie Brockelman), Barbara Bosson (Sharon Deterson), Robert Hogan (Sgt. Ted Coopersmith). Guest Cast: Carol Lynley, Charles Siebert, Rene Auberjonois, Jim McKrell. Screenplay: Steven Bochco & Stephen J. Cannell. Director: Arnold Laven. Available on YouTube here.
Coming in at perhaps exactly the middle of this short-lived private eye series, it is difficult to explain what was the driving force behind it. It started out first a made-for-TV movie, then a two-hour episode of The Rockford Files. Following this it was picked up a short series episodes on NBC, then appearing once again as another two-hour episode of The Rockford Files. (If I have any of this wonrg, please so advise in the comments.)
Suffice it to say, perhaps, that it was the apparent youthfulness of Richie Brockelman that was intended to be its appeal, at 22 the youngest PI in town, complete with a semi-dorky haircut and a somewhat funny name. Otherwise it was just another PI show taking place in LA with lots of scenes with cars driving from one place to another.
In this particular episode, both Richie and his secretary are hired by a much bigger outfit to come work for them, even while Richie is still investigating the death of a client’s husband. Does the discerning viewer think that someone at the much bigger outfit has a nefarious reason behind this? The discerning viewer does, and the discerning viewer would be absolutely correct.
I may have made this sound less interesting than it was, but in all seriousness it was no better nor worse than the standard TV PI fare at the time. In this case, at least, “no worse” was not enough, and the plug was pulled after only the five episodes.
March 2nd, 2023 at 5:43 pm
Testing comments.
March 2nd, 2023 at 7:15 pm
I tend to agree with the assessment here, but at the time it felt a bit more original than it was based mostly on Dugan’s youth and the slightly laid-back approach.
March 2nd, 2023 at 9:01 pm
I probably should have started with the original TV movie that served as the pilot I mentioned. It’s on YouTube too:
March 3rd, 2023 at 1:01 am
Ha. I remember this detective teaming up with Jim Rockford on re-runs of the show. But I didn’t know there was such a tangled history behind it. Learned something new.
‘Rockford Files’ is still one of the best TV detective series ever, it seems to me. And this kid detective was funny. Tom Selleck was another guest-sleuth and both of them would be hilariously underfoot during a case, irritating the hell outta Rockford, in that understated Stephen J. Cannell style.
Maybe it’s not worth overmuch dwelling on but I will air just this one item in passing here, one of my favorite lines from the whole Rockford run, and it actually comes from this Brockelman character.
Brockelman is pinning down a clue in a library, or a student bookstore, or a college campus. Somewhere like that. He’s talking to two mail clerks. They gradually admit that they have a shipping package Richie is looking for. Something like this, I can’t recall. Richie insists he has to get the package to a missing teacher –played by Suzanne Pleshette –personally.
Anyway they give the box to him, and Richie is about to race off, but the two clerks halt him.
“Waitaminute,” one says. “If you want to get her textbooks back to her why don’t you just mail them?”
Richie has to conceal the fact that he’s fibbed, so he comes up with something off-the-cuff. It hands me such a laugh I’ve often used it myself in years since.
He replies, “No, no no –these textbooks can’t be mailed, I gotta deliver them personally.”
Clerks gaze back.
“How come?”
Richie: “They’re law books.”
“So?”
“You can’t send law books through the mail” and this stumps them so profoundly he has the segue he needs to exit.
March 3rd, 2023 at 1:21 am
That’s a better line than any in the episode I saw, Lazy. Thanks! I think the one you’re talking about was the first made-for-TV movie/pilot, given the presence of Suzanne Plessette in the cast. That’s the one in the video I embedded in the comment up above. Take a look and see.
March 6th, 2023 at 11:52 pm
Haha, yes. In this pilot, the 22 yr old freshman detective is naturally flustered by his first femme-fatale in the form of the older Pleshette. He’s hardly a seasoned ladies’ man such as Spade or Marlowe. Wears his heart is on his sleeve. But, I love that throwaway line.
It’s like my other fave from Kurt Russell:
“Everybody knows the airport has the best salad bar”.
Makes utterly no sense. The world needs less sense like this!
March 8th, 2023 at 3:35 am
Fun Fact (Looking Things Up Dept.):
In 1978, when he was playing 22-year-old Richie Brockelman –
Dennis Dugan was 32 years old (born 1946).
That was Dugan’s acting specialty: playing characters far younger than he was.
And that may have been the reason why he transitioned to directing, which is what he’s been doing lately (but that’s another story …).
March 8th, 2023 at 10:00 am
I do know he’s become rich if not entirely famous for directing a slew of Adam Sandler movies.
April 8th, 2024 at 9:34 pm
Regarding Richie Brockelman’s age.
He says to her early in the movie ‘I’m actually 32, well I’m 31 but I’ll be 32 in 6 days’, but he’s actually 22-23 in the show.
see clip:
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxZ-VMs9VXtaUm28rTMx53w-k0sol36UQS?feature=shared
or at 4:35 in the full movie.
Later Susan Pleshette’s character says she’s 35, and asks Richie again how old he is and he says ‘so you’ve got 10,12 years on me’.
So he’s probably 23.
April 8th, 2024 at 9:36 pm
Susan Pleshette was 39 at the time of the movie.