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Brilliant But Cancelled Crime Dramas
Delvecchio, Gideon Oliver
Johnny Staccato, Touching Evil
Bravo / Universal 2006
Brilliant But Cancelled Crime Dramas is a DVD featuring an episode from 4 cancelled TV crime shows. For TV detective fans, this is an interesting addition.
There is a reason why Delvecchio, Gideon Oliver, Johnny Staccato, and Touching Evil died quickly but the curiosity and entertainment factor here is pretty decent and worth it if you can get Brilliant But Cancelled for about five or six bucks, especially since picture quality in 2 episodes is comparable to a slightly used VHS tape.
Delvecchio:
A perfect example of wrong actor in wrong role is Taxi's Alex Rieger playing a police detective in this 1977 TV detective show.
Judd Hirsch has neither the energy nor the persona to carry the role. Delvecchio is just Rieger as a cop.
The show itself is a series of Hollywood backlot stages and second banana actors.
This was a Stephen Bochco show so you will recognize Charles Haig and Michael Conrad "Let's be careful out there" in supporting roles.
I've seen tighter and more believable Matlock episodes. Delvecchio's disappearance was no great loss.
Gideon Oliver:
This show starring Louis Gossett jr. as an anthropology professor slash detective was a pretty good crime drama.
It was part of the 2- hour ABC Mystery Movies that at one time included Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife. This one did not last.
The pilot and stars Anthony LaPaglia as the bad guy.
Gideon Oliver was based on the Aaron Elkins mystery novels.
The story, involving Satanists, is convoluted and goes in circles a lot before its closure. Good acting, very inferior writing. Guess which one killed this show?
Viewers do get a look at New York's 42nd Street before it got Disneyed.
Touching Evil
2004 American version of the British show.
The episode on the Brilliant But Cancelled DVD is a few shows in the series so it takes a viewer a while to figure out what is special about agent David Creegan and what the show's premise is.
This is a mix of X-Files style camera work and Medium –Creegan was shot in the head and this gives him some kind of extra perception.
The story about animal mutilations and a group of weird teens is inferior TV writing.
Johnny Staccato:
The first episode on Crime Dramas is 1959's Johnny Staccato. Like most shows of the period musical clues are obvious.
Tempted features a very young Elizabeth Montgomery who needs help from jazz musician Johnny Staccato (John Cassavetes) and a story about a valuable necklace.
There is a certain comic element in this series that is entertaining.
By today's standards this show is stilted but it is entertaining and the writing better than in other shows on this DVD.