Sat 26 Mar 2022
A PI Television Episode Review: TENSPEED AND BROWN SHOE “The Robin Tucker’s Roseland Roof and Ballroom Murder†(1980).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[5] Comments
TENSPEED AND BROWN SHOE “The Robin Tucker’s Roseland Roof and Ballroom Murder.†ABC, 03 February 1980 (Season 1, Episode 3). Ben Vereen (E. L. “Tenspeed†Turner), Jeff Goldblum (Lionel Whitney). Guest Cast: Elayne Heilveil, John Pleshette, Leo Gordon. Created & written by Stephen J. Cannell. Director: Arnold Laven. Currently streaming at the Shout Factory website
As I recall, whenever I’ve found the series available, whether streaming online or on DVD, the first two episodes, comprising a two-part pilot, has not been included. And so, as a direct consequence, I’ve never been properly introduced to the two main characters in this quite enjoyable comedy slash mystery show – the main question being how these two quite opposite fellows got paired up in the first place. The second question I still have is how they got their nicknames, which are barely mentioned in this one, if at all.
I could use a helping hand, in other words. And on this blog, that’s what the comments are for.
Based only on this third episode then, Ben Vereen (Tenspeed) is a fast talking con man who ia apparently out on parole, while Jeff Goldblum (Brown Shoe) is a former accountant who has always dreamed of becoming a PI, and now here he is as one. He’s quite the opposite in personality to his new partner, being uptight and unwilling to be in any way shady in how he operates.
This one begins with the latter receiving a thousand dollar bill by private courier, along with the halves of two others. He is promised the other two halves if the job he is offered is accomplished correctly: to find a young girl with only a photo and address to go on. As it so happens, she is a very naive dime-a-dance girl at a 1940s era dance hall, apparently with no adjustment for inflation, and the story goes on from there. Quite naturally as in stories such as this, bodies pile up more quickly than we the viewer even know who they are or were. It is equally obvious that more than one party wants to find the girl.
It’s all done in solid tongue-in-cheek fashion, with full awareness of all the well-established tropes of the PI novel, with dialogue to match. One phrase that I remember was along the lines of “the fat man had more chins than the Hong Kong phone directory.†And the two stars appear to be having a good time with all the fun and games they are asked to play. I don’t know what reaction yours might be, but I had as much fun with this one as the two players seem to have had.
March 26th, 2022 at 11:48 pm
The show was great fun and worth a weekly visit just to watch Vereen and Goldblum together. It was one of the more playful and imaginative P.I. series at a time when the genre was being played with quite a bit on the small and big screen.
Cannell could be uneven, but here he mostly hit the right notes week after week.
March 27th, 2022 at 5:38 pm
History Time (with Explanations):
– “Tenspeed” Turner gets his nickname from his ability to change identities and cover stories on a dime; you’ll note that whenever he shows up with a new story, the soundtrack plays a bicycle bell.
– Lionel Whitney was a squarish stockbroker – a “Brown Shoe” kind of guy – who desperately wanted to be a tough detective, like his literary idol “Mark Savage”, from “novels” by Stephen J. Cannell (quoted frequently throughout the series).
– Why Tenspeed And Brown Shoe had such a short run:
This season (1979-1980) was another back-up-the-truck year for ABC:
On Sunday night, CBS had 60 Minutes to start, followed by a powerful sitcom block, wrapping up with Trapper John, MD.
NBC had Disney, CHiPS, and weekly major specials.
ABC had fallen into the habit of choosing one new series each season that it would overpromote to a point well past annoyance – a mistake they would repeat on an almost annual basis; this season, it was Tenspeed And Brown Shoe.
The net effect was to make potential watchers tired of a show they hadn’t even seen – the result (as here) was an annual backfire.
As memory serves, this was the first series in a contract Stephen Cannell had with ABC; that it wasn’t the last showed at least some patience on the part of both contractees.
More Than You Wanted To Know will return.
March 27th, 2022 at 7:54 pm
Thank you, Mike. Based on your comments on earlier TV-related posts, I’ve been hoping to have you weigh in. “Brown Shoe” I more or less understood. “Tenspeed” was the puzzler. This is the kind of stuff that had to have been covered in the two-part pilot, but it makes sense they weren’t go over it again and again as the series went on.
Based on this episode, I’m going to make a point of following up on all the rest. I’m not likely to do any bingeing, though. That’s a concept that usually doesn’t work for me. I tend to burn out too quickly whenever I try.
March 27th, 2022 at 8:02 pm
Steve, Youtube has the pilot.
March 27th, 2022 at 8:31 pm
And so it is. Thanks, Sai!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwoTmE4mVCw