Detective in the House (1985)

Debuting March 15, 1985. CBS, 9/8pm Central

Detective in the House was a light-hearted drama featuring Judd Hirsch as Press Wyman, a mechanical engineer who has made a highly questionable mid-life career change to fulfill a longtime dream of becoming a private detective. He regularly seeks the guidance of retired PI Nick Turner (Jack Elam), who is quite the character, living in a house with only lawn furniture and his pet rat. While Press pursues his dream, wife Diane (Cassie Yates) goes back to work as a teacher to earn the real family income. Along with his new career, Press deals with typical family life with three kids: teenagers Todd (Meeno Peluce) and Deborah (Mandy Ingber), as well as the younger Dunc (R.J. Williams). Howard (Glynn Turman) was the attorney who lived next door. The premiere episode has Press hired to track down a former movie actress, ostensibly to star in an instructional video. However, the client secretly intends to kill her. Meanwhile, Press deals with Todd wanting RATT concert tickets and Dunc’s issues at soccer practice.

Now almost entirely forgotten, this Judd Hirsch vehicle (originally titled House Detective) aired on Friday nights as a mid-season replacement for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘶𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘻𝘻𝘢𝘳𝘥, ending its run short of a full seventh season. Six episodes of 𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 was ordered as a test run; if it performed well, it would be back in the fall. It would not return. Produced by Lorimar Productions, the show was created by Gary Adelson and Gil Grant, who had previously worked on Eight is Enough. The quite decent theme song was called “What are you Waitin’ For?” and was composed by Craig Safan if IMDB is correct, with vocals by Jon Joyce.

Hirsch spoke about the show in a 1989 TV Guide article. “The show should have been over five minutes after it started,” Hirsch declares. “It was bad. It was really bad. The production values were terrible. They didn’t pay people well. And I was stuck in it. I deliberately set out to be the worst person I’ve ever met myself. I said, ‘I’m going to do this until they can’t take it anymore and get rid of me’.” Gil Grant laid blame for the show’s failure with the writing as well as Hirsch. “I think he is a brilliant actor. But in being such a perfectionist, he hindered us.”

Judd Hirsch turns 90 the day I write this; his next series was Dear John. Cassie Yates next had a stint on Dynasty. This was Meeno Peluce’s final TV series before he pursued his education and went into professional photography. Mandy Ingber was next in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘴, then played Baby’s cousin Robin on 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨. R.J. Williams went into voice acting for a number of animated series including Dink, the Little Dinosaur, Paddington Bear, and TaleSpin. He was also the host of Wake, Rattle & Roll, a weekday afternoon Disney Channel series that was basically a wraparound for animated Hanna-Barbera cartoon segments. In 2007, he founded Young Hollywood, a celebrity/lifestyle website, and he is an angel investor.

A partial recording of the pilot episode “Whatever Happened to…?”, directed by Bill Bixby, is up at YouTube via JD’s Retro Archives (below). 𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 only ran for the initial six episodes before being taken off the air, disappearing into obscurity…not even bootleg DVDs seem to exist for this show.

Some background information sourced from Television Obscurities and the reference book Television Introductions: Narrated TV Program Openings since 1949 by Vincent Terrace.

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