Emmy Clarke

Monk is an American comedy-drama detective television series created by Andy Breckman.

It premiered on the USA Network on July 12, 2002, and concluded on December 4, 2009, with 125 episodes broadcast over eight seasons.

The series follows Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), a private detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder and multiple phobias, and his assistants Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) and Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard).

Monk works with the San Francisco Police Department in solving unconventional cases while investigating his wife's unsolved murder.

The show also incorporates elements of comedy and drama in exploring the main characters' personal lives and struggles.

The series received critical acclaim and was nominated for several awards, winning eight Emmy Awards, one Golden Globe Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Although ABC initially refused Monk, they did air repeats of the show on ABC between June–November 2002, and then again between March–May 2004.

Monk followed a consistent format of airing half of its 16 episodes in midyear and the second half early the following year, with the exception of the first season, which broadcast entirely from July through October 2002, and the final season, which broadcast entirely between August and December 2009.

On January 12, 2006, USA Network announced that Monk had been picked up through at least season six as one of the "highest-rated series in cable history."

An in-joke reference to this contract renewal was also inserted into the episode "Mr. Monk and the Big Reward", which aired around this time.

Season five premiered Friday, July 7, 2006, at 9:00 pm Eastern time.

This marked the first time change for the program, which aired at 10:00 pm during its first four seasons.

The change allowed the show to work as a lead-in to a new USA Network series, Psych, another offbeat detective program.

Previously aired episodes of Monk began airing on NBC Universal sibling network NBC April 6, 2008.

NBC eyed the show because its block with Psych could be plugged into NBC's schedule intact.

The shows were being used to increase the scripted programming on the network as production of its own scripted programming ramped back up following the writers' strike.

Ratings for the broadcast debut were well below NBC averages for the time period.

The show came in third behind Big Brother 9 on CBS and Oprah's Big Give on ABC.

Although set in the San Francisco Bay Area, Monk is for the most part shot elsewhere except for occasional exteriors featuring city landmarks.

The pilot episode was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, with some location shooting in San Francisco, and the subsequent season-one episodes were shot in the Toronto, Ontario, area.

Most of the episodes from seasons two through six were filmed in the Los Angeles area.

These include the sets for Monk's apartment, the police station and Stottlemeyer's office, Dr. Kroger's office, and Natalie's house.

In season two, episode eight, a building for the Toronto Star can also be seen in a cut scene.

In the later part of season four, some on-location filming was done in San Francisco.

Many portions of the episode "Mr. Monk and the Big Reward" were noticeably shot on location, including a climactic chase scene where Monk and Natalie are chased by three bounty hunters.

It held the record for the most-watched scripted drama episode in cable television history from 2009 to 2012 (broken by The Walking Dead) for its series finale with 9.4 million viewers.

On March 15, 2023, Peacock ordered a Monk follow-up film, titled Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie, with the main cast returning and Breckman writing the script.

The film premiered on December 8, 2023.

Adrian Monk was a brilliant San Francisco Police Department homicide investigator, but the death of his wife, Trudy, exacerbated his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and led him to develop depression and multiple phobias.

After refusing to leave his house for over three years, Monk, with the help of his nurse and assistant Sharona Fleming, begins working as a private detective and consultant for the police while continuing to investigate Trudy's unsolved murder.

Monk helps Captain Leland Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Randy Disher solve baffling cases with the goal of being reinstated on the police force.

Following Sharona's departure from San Francisco, Monk finds a new assistant in Natalie Teeger, a young widow and single mother.

While Monk's personal challenges and compulsive habits often cause problems and frustration for both himself and those around him, his observational skills and keen attention to detail enable him to solve cases through unconventional means.

His 312 phobias include germs, needles, birds, heights, dentists, milk, death, snakes, lightning, mushrooms, crowds, enclosed spaces, and more.

According to an interview with executive producer David Hoberman, ABC first conceived the series as a police show with an Inspector Clouseau-like character with OCD.

Hoberman said ABC wanted Michael Richards, who had starred as a private investigator in The Michael Richards Show two years earlier, for the show, but Richards turned it down.

Hoberman brought in Andy Breckman as creator, and Breckman, inspired by Sherlock Holmes, introduced Dr. Kroger as a Doctor Watson-like character and an Inspector Lestrade-like character who eventually became Captain Stottlemeyer.

Although ABC originated the show, the network handed it off to the USA Network.

USA is now owned by NBC (NBC Universal).

Monk was the first Touchstone Television-produced show aired on USA Network instead of ABC.