Line #27 Trivia/Monk


1	* ActorSharedBackground:
2	** Natalie's parents, Robert "Bobby" Davenport and Peggy Davenport, either coincidentally or not, share names with Traylor Howard's real parents, Peggy E. Traylor and Robert M. Howard, Jr. According to ''Monk: The Official Episode Guide'', the writers almost got in trouble, as Traylor recalled her dad saying, "He was like, 'Well are we jerks? I don't want us to be jerks.' And I told him, 'Dad, it's not real!'"
3	** Dr. Charles Kroger is said to be Jewish, much like Stanley Kamel was in real life.
4	** Sharona, just like her actress Bitty Schram, comes from New Jersey.
5	* BackedByThePentagon: In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut," the Air Force allowed the show to shoot on location at Edwards Air Force Base, allowing Creator/JeffreyDonovan to ride around in a then-brand-new F-22 and Creator/TonyShalhoub to run around the flight line.
6	* CaliforniaDoubling: Very blatant in Season 1, which was shot in Toronto, something that's visible in the constantly overcast weather and lack of any recognisable San Francisco landmarks outside of StockFootage. And the Pilot was shot in Vancouver. A lot less blatant from Season 2 onwards, for which production moved to Los Angeles, somewhere that obviously has a much closer architectural style to San Francisco seeing how the cities are just a few hundred miles apart (which also permitted them to shoot on location in the latter city on occasion).
7	* TheCastShowoff: Creator/StanleyKamel had a very strong singing voice, which he got to show off in "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy" when Dr. Kroger sings a few bars of "John Henry."
8	* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/AlfredMolina and Creator/StanleyTucci were also considered for the role of Monk before Tony Shalhoub was picked. Both would be guest star in ''Monk'' episodes and get Special Guest Star billing. Tucci plays David Ruskin in "Mr. Monk and the Actor", [[MetaCasting an actor who's to play Monk in a TV movie]],[[note]] and won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Performance for it [[/note]] while Molina plays Peter Magneri in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man", who has some of Monk's eccentricities.
9	* ChannelHop: When the show premiered in 2002, episodes were broadcast first on ABC and then rerun later that week on USA. Within a few weeks ABC lost interest in the show, leaving it airing on USA only, aside from a brief period in 2008 when reruns were aired on NBC as filler during [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes that year's writers' strike]].
10	* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Creator/StanleyKamel died of a heart attack on April 8, 2008 during the production hiatus between seasons 6 and 7. Rather than cast a new actor to play Dr. Kroger, the producers decided to give Dr. Kroger the same fate. The season 7 premiere, "Mr. Monk Buys a House", is dedicated to Kamel's memory, while also introducing Creator/HectorElizondo as Dr. Neven Bell, to replace the void left by Dr. Kroger for the remaining two seasons of the show.
11	* TheDanza:
12	** Lawrence O'Donnell plays Judge Lawrence Barr in two episodes.
13	** According to the novel ''Mr. Monk Helps Himself'', Agent Grooms's first name is '''Joshua'''. He's played by Josh Stamberg.
14	** "Mr. Monk and the Big Game" features a high school mascot named Jen, played by the up and coming Creator/JenniferLawrence (before she became famous as Katniss Everdeen in ''The Hunger Games'' films and Mystique in the ''X-Men'' prequel movies).
15
16	* DirectedByCastMember: Creator/AdamArkin was involved in two season 1 episodes. He wore a fatsuit to portray bedridden Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale". He also directed "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman".
17	* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: In "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink", Monk's new psychiatrist has one arm. Tony Shalhoub insisted that the character be played by a one-armed actor. The part went to Jesuit priest Rick Curry who was born without a right forearm.
18	* FakeAmerican:
19	** Vancouver-born Canadian actor Jason Gray-Stanford portrays the American Randy Disher.
20	** In "Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra," gravedigger Chris Downey is supposed to be an American, but he is played by British actor Mark Sheppard. In the first scene where he has dialogue, [[OohMeAccentsSlipping his British accent is slipping]].
21	** The first season, because it was filmed in Vancouver and Toronto, gave us lots of Canadian-sounding Californians. These include Michael Hogan (Warren St. Claire in "Mr. Monk and the Candidate"), Linda Kash (Dolly Flint in "Mr. Monk and the Psychic"), Creator/StephenMcHattie (Lt. Adam Kirk in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival"), and Maria del Mar (Monica Waters in "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman").
22	** To some extent, Monk is one as far as his ancestry. Monk has American ancestry. Tony Shalhoub is from Green Bay, Wisconsin and has Lebanese ancestry.
23	** Another Canadian posing as an American is Rossif Sutherland as Vic Blanchard in "Mr. Monk and the Other Detective".
24	* {{Feelies}}: When the first season boxed set of DVD's was first released, it included a single, factory-sealed antiseptic wipe.
25	* HideYourPregnancy: Traylor Howard became pregnant with her first child before shooting began for the second half of season 5. To avoid causing problems, it was necessary for writers to position Natalie during scenes such that her midsection and below is hidden by items like bags, tables, or car doors. This is evident in "Mr. Monk Makes a Friend" and "Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy". In "Mr. Monk Is at Your Service," the writers took advantage of Traylor's pregnancy by incorporating it into the episode. For most of her scenes, Natalie stands or sits in positions that make it so that we see only the section above her chest, (like behind a desk or leaning against her car with the driver's side door open). However, when she needs to rescue Monk from her old obsessive boyfriend, she wards off his advances [[PillowPregnancy by stuffing a pillow down her chest]]. For these scenes, they just filmed her like they would in normal episodes, like in the first half of the season. Other episodes like "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm" and "Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital" just reduced Natalie's presence.
26	* TheOtherDarrin:
27	** Three actresses played Trudy Monk: Creator/StellinaRuisch for the first two seasons, Creator/MeloraHardin for all appearances from "Mr. Monk and the Game Show" onwards, and Creator/LindyNewton for flashback scenes with a younger Trudy in "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion".
28	** Dale "the Whale" Biederbeck, Monk's recurring ArchEnemy, is played by a different actor in each of his appearances because [[IncrediblyLamePun the role is too large for one guy to carry]]. He's played by Creator/AdamArkin in "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale," by Creator/TimCurry in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail," and by Creator/RayPorter in "Mr. Monk Is On the Run, Part II".
29	** Sharona's ex-husband Trevor Howe appears twice, but he is played by Frank John Hughes in "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect", and by David Lee Russak in "Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf".
30	** Stottlemeyer's son Jared has changed actors multiple times, as he ages: in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame," he's played by Cameron Cush, and by child actor Creator/{{Jesse James\|actor}} in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Wife". In Jared's DayInTheLimelight episode, "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert", he's played by John Kyle Hansen.
31	** Sharona's son Benjy is played by Kane Richotte in the season 1 pilot, as well as all of his appearances in season 2 and season 3, but is played by Max Morrow for all of season 1 except the pilot episode. This is because Richotte's episodes were filmed in Vancouver and also in Los Angeles, while episodes with Morrow were shot in Toronto, and the respective actor couldn't travel to Toronto for filming.
32	** The only relatives of the main characters who are played by the same actors in all of their appearances are Adrian's brother Ambrose (John Turturro), Sharona's sister Gail (Amy Sedaris), Stottlemeyer's first wife Karen (Creator/GlenneHeadly), as well as Natalie's daughter Julie (Emmy Clarke) and parents Bobby and Peggy (Michael Cavanaugh and Holland Taylor).
33	** Molly Evans was portrayed in "Mr. Monk and the End, Part II" by Creator/AlonaTal. For the TV movie ''Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie'', she is portrayed by Caitlin [=McGee=].
34	* OutOfOrder: While for the most part many of the episodes can be watched as procedural episodes without much concern for continuity, this happens a few times due to the episode-airing schedule not being the same as the production schedule:
35	** "Mr. Monk Gets Married" was produced during the first half of season 2 (the late summer 2003 schedule), but aired as the penultimate episode for the second half of season 2 that aired in February 2004.
36	** "Mr. Monk is on the Air" was shot in the summer of 2006, but aired as part of the second half of season 5. This is noticeable through the fact that Natalie is back to driving the Jeep Grand Cherokee she drove in the first half of the season, when she'd only traded it for a Buick Lucerne just prior to "Mr. Monk and the Leper".
37	** "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman" was the seventh episode aired in season 1, but the third to be filmed, which accounts for why Stottlemeyer and Disher suddenly seem to have regressed to being openly antagonistic towards Monk after they had begun to mellow towards him in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival".
38	* ProducedByCastMember: Creator/TonyShalhoub was Monk as well as one of the show's executive producers.
39	* RealLifeRelative: Quite a number of people in Creator/TonyShalhoub's actual family have appeared on the show.
40	** Creator/{{Brooke Adams\|Actress}}, Shalhoub's wife, appears several times (always as different characters):
41	*** In "Mr. Monk and the Airplane" as Leigh Harrison, a flight attendant who is driven crazy by Monk's antics. She is later interviewed by James Novak in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", where it is shown that she has developed a fear of flying and also was driven to drinking, which was also implied by her final appearance in the former episode.
42	*** In "Mr. Monk and the Kid" as Abigail Carlyle, an abducted violinist's mother.
43	*** In "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm" as Sheriff Butterfield. All of a sudden, the scene where Monk goes square dancing very terribly with her (while looking visibly uncomfortable for the entire scene) becomes a thousand times funnier, especially since he brings up Trudy during the scene.
44	*** In "Mr. Monk and the Badge" as Edith Capriani, a CrazyCatLady that Monk gets fed up with for pulling him away from other cases.
45	** Tony's brother Michael Shalhoub has played:
46	*** In "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny," he plays Ron Abrash, a former radicalist who Monk and Stottlemeyer question as a person of interest in a kidnapping. Which makes the part where Monk says, "I've been smoking THE TRUTH, MAN!" that much funnier when you consider just exactly who Tony is saying this line to.
47	*** In "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head," Michael plays Ned, the beekeeper whose farm Roger Zisk crashes his car into when trying to cover up bee stings that he'd received the night before when dumping Debbie Barnett's dead body on a roadside.
48	*** In "Mr. Monk Is the Best Man," Michael is the minister who presides over Leland and T.K.'s wedding ceremony.
49	** Tony's sister Susan Shalhoub Larkin is Linda Kloster's housekeeper in "Mr. Monk and the Genius" (the one who drops the tray and discovers the body).
50	** Tony's nephew Tony Larkin is the shushing monk in "Mr. Monk and the Miracle."
51	** Rachel Dratch, who plays Julie Parlo in "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny," is producer Daniel Dratch's sister.
52	* ThrowItIn:
53	** Randy's epic struggle in "Mr. Monk and the Leper" to remove some embarrassing photos of him with acne in Dr. Polanski's waiting room. The scene was supposed to be a simple swipe, but the set designer had glued the pictures on so strongly that Jason Gray-Stanford couldn't do the swipe. This explains why Randy looks confused when he pulls on the photo and it doesn't come off - it's because Jason is expecting it to simply come off without much effort (like it was hanging from a nail hammered into the wall). So without breaking character, he grabs the chain pen on the receptionist's desk and tries to use that to pry the picture off, eventually ending up ripping out part of the plaster with the photo.
54	** Traylor Howard's [[HideYourPregnancy pregnancy]] was worked into "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service".
55	** In "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night," the part of the scene where Stottlemeyer and Disher grab Monk's pickpocketed wallet from Gully at the bar was added by Ted Levine and Jason Gray-Stanford. By ad-libbing this bit, they make it clear that they know Gully is buying them drinks on a wallet that is not his. They play along with it – essentially thinking, "Drinks on Monk!" Only on their exit do they end any pretense, and take Monk's wallet back; in other words, they have been one step ahead of Gully the entire time. This also proves that Stottlemeyer and Disher are not as oblivious as they may sometimes act.
56	* UnderageCasting:
57	** In "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man," the 115 year old Miles Holling was played by Creator/PatrickCranshaw. The actor playing his octogenarian son Hiram Holling was Bill Erwin, who was actually ''older'' than Cranshaw by a few years.
58	** Dan Hedaya, who plays Monk's father Jack Monk Sr. in "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad," is only 13 years older than Creator/TonyShalhoub.
59	* UnfinishedEpisode: During production of season 3, an episode was written that would have seen Monk and Sharona solving a murder while on a cruise. The cruise line company that owned the ship was okay with it until they started making numerous demands. The producers eventually decided it was more trouble than it was worth and scrapped the episode. The script didn't go to waste though; Hy Conrad later salvaged it and adapted it into the novel ''Mr. Monk Gets on Board''.
60	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
61	** In "Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend," there are some production stills that suggest that Monk's confrontation with Linda at her house was to happen on her front lawn, not in her bedroom.
62	** [[http://www2.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/ep_actor.html This production blog]] for "Mr. Monk and the Actor" indicates that the way in which Monk discovers the gun used in the pawn shop owner shooting was a lot different originally. The final version has the gun being found in a downspout. Originally, a kid was to pick up a discarded gun, thinking it was a toy. Natalie would start playing "shootout" with the kid, until Monk deduced it was the murder weapon and it had a round in the chamber, followed by a suspenseful hide-and-seek game in which the last round was fired at Monk and Natalie. An actor was actually cast, but the scene was not filmed and was cut for time.
63	** [[http://www2.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/ep_newshrink.html The USANetwork.com production blog]] for "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink" shows that the plot formula went through a lot of idea changes. The idea that the piece of incriminating evidence was to be found in a vaccum bag had floated around for years. Hy Conrad claimed that they even considered at one point having the killer dismember the victim, then place the individual remains in a self-cleaning oven and turn them into ash. He would then vacuum out the remains and have a vacuum cleaner bag filled with his victim. For a comedic show like ''Monk'', this was considered too gruesome. Then there came to settling on a cleaning lady being the murder victim (Theresa Mueller). Then, to make sure some personal involvement was given to a series regular, they decided that the cleaning lady should be killed while in the middle of cleaning Dr. Kroger's office, fulfilling something else the writers wanted to do - give Stanley Kamel a DayInTheLimeLight episode.
64	*** Once this had been done, a few ideas as to how Dr. Kroger would be involved floated around. Having Dr. Kroger help Monk solve the case had to be shot down because this would ruin the clinical doctor-patient detachment. This is the reason why Dr. Kroger doesn't show up during any of the investigation scenes and why the scene where Dr. Kroger and Monk investigate Francis Merrigan's office has them peer through the window instead of breaking into the office.
65	** [[http://www2.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/blogs/ep_birdsandbees.html The production blog]] for "Mr. Monk and the Birds and the Bees" indicates that originally the incriminating photo of Julie and Tim Sussman with Rob Sherman in the background was to be taken at a Tunnel of Love attraction, and Monk chasing Rob Sherman to get the photo disks back would have happened on that attraction. However, it was too expensive to build one on a soundstage and they couldn't find a similar attraction at a real theme park.
66	** Creator/JohnRitter, Creator/HenryWinkler, Creator/DaveFoley, and Creator/MichaelRichards were considered for the role of Monk.
67	** Music/QueenLatifah was the original choice for Sharona.
68	** The Season 3 opening episode, "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan", was originally written as a {{Crossover}} with ''Series/LawAndOrder'' (USA Network and NBC share the same parent company).
69	** "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger" was originally supposed to feature Music/RingoStarr as the musician accused of murder. However, since the crime involved the victim being shot in an alley, the producers thought it too reminiscent of Music/JohnLennon's assassination. They also considered Music/BrianWilson and Music/JamesTaylor before deciding to go with Music/WillieNelson.
70	** [[WordOfGod According to Hy Conrad]], one script that never got filmed was an episode called "Mr. Monk Is At Sea". It would have been aired in 2004 as part of season 3 (likely taking the place of "Mr. Monk and the Game Show") and would have involved Monk and Sharona investigating a set of murders on a cruise ship. While Creator/USANetwork approved of the script, it never got filmed because cruise lines were pretty sensitive about the notion of a murder being committed on their ships or someone falling overboard. They wouldn't budge, even when the writing team tried changing the killer's identity and lowered the body count. Even attempting to use the floating ''Queen Mary'' hotel in Long Beach for shooting fell through. Although the script was still brought up whenever the writing team was running short on ideas, it became the team's white whale, "Episode 126". Only in 2013 did Hy Conrad contact Daniel Dratch, who acquired the "Mr. Monk Is At Sea" script from the vault. The script was thus rewritten and published as ''Mr. Monk Gets on Board'', with Natalie taking Sharona's place, some new subplots were written in, and the cruise makes a visit to Mexico that allows for Captain Alameda from "Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico" to get involved. The concept of Monk investigating a murder at sea itself would be used in season 7 for "Mr. Monk Is Underwater".
71	** In 2012 USA had series creator Andy Breckman write scripts for two potential ''Monk'' [[ReunionShow reunion movie]]s. One would have had Monk get married again and move to France, only to have his new wife try to kill him. The other would have had Monk run for mayor of San Francisco in order to help Molly Evans investigate corruption at City Hall. The network ultimately decided against producing either movie.
72	** Randy's original last name in the pilot was Deacon. Which led to a stealth joke: the first two letters of his and Stottlemeyer's first and last names put together spells "Lestrade" ('''Le'''land '''St'''ottlemeyer and '''Ra'''ndy '''De'''acon).
73	** Adrian Monk was originally going to be named Adrian Rodriguez, but the show's creators decided to change it to Monk after [[LineOfSightName seeing a sign for a street named "Monk Place"]] in San Francisco.
74	* WordOfSaintPaul: According to Andy Breckman, Tony Shalhoub played Monk as if he were a virgin (meaning he never even had sex with his wife Trudy).
75	* YouLookFamiliar: Marc Vann (who crime drama fans in general would also recognize as Conrad Ecklie from ''{{Series/CSI}}'') is the VictimOfTheWeek in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater" and a museum curator in "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door".

Context Trivia / Monk