Monk (season 8)
| Monk season 8 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Release | |
| Original network | USA Network |
| Original release | August 7 – December 4, 2009 |
| Season chronology | |
The eighth and final season of Monk originally aired in the United States on USA Network from August 7 to December 4, 2009. It consisted of 16 episodes. Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, Ted Levine, and Jason Gray-Stanford reprised their roles as the main characters. A DVD of the season was released on March 16, 2010.
Crew
Andy Breckman continued his tenure as show runner. Executive producers for the season included Breckman, David Hoberman, series star Tony Shalhoub, writer Tom Scharpling, and Rob Thompson. Universal Media Studios was the primary production company backing the show. Randy Newman's theme ("It's a Jungle Out There") was continued to be used, while Jeff Beal's original instrumental theme could be heard in some episodes. Newman also wrote a song for the final episode entitled When I'm Gone. The song was accompanied by a montage of past and present characters from the show, leading the series into the final end credits. Directors for the season included Randall Zisk, Michael Zinberg, David Breckman, and Andrei Belgrader. Dean Parisot returned to direct "Mr. Monk and the Badge". It was his only credit in the series, apart from the pilot episode. Writers for the season included Michael Angeli, Andy Breckman, David Breckman, Hy Conrad, Tom Gammill, Dylan Morgan, Max Pross, Salvatore Savo, Josh Siegal, Joe Toplyn, Tom Scharpling, and Peter Wolk.
Cast
All four main characters returned for the final season. Tony Shalhoub returned as former homicide detective Adrian Monk, with Traylor Howard returning as Monk's faithful assistant, Natalie Teeger. Ted Levine returned as the SFPD captain, Leland Stottlemeyer, and Jason Gray-Stanford reprised his role as the lovable but oblivious Lieutenant Randy Disher.
Hector Elizondo returned as Monk's new psychiatrist, Dr. Neven Bell. Emmy Clarke continued to portray Julie Teeger. Virginia Madsen entered the series as Stottlemeyer's new girlfriend (and later wife), Trudy K. Jensen. Melora Hardin reprised her role as Trudy Monk (Monk's deceased wife), and Casper Van Dien returned as Lt. Steven Albright, Natalie's new love interest. Tim Bagley returned to resolve Harold Krenshaw's (Monk's number-one rival) plotline. Craig T. Nelson entered as Judge Ethan Rickover in the penultimate episode. D. B. Woodside entered in the same episode as Monk's physician, Dr. Matthew Shuler. Alona Tal made an appearance in the final episode as Trudy's daughter, Molly Evans. Bitty Schram made a special appearance as Sharona Fleming, Monk's former nurse (Schram was a former cast member, who left during the third season). Other guest stars for the eighth season included Brooke Adams, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Sarah Aldrich, Dylan Baker, Eric Balfour, Ed Begley, Jr., Jack Betts, Kelly Carlson, Ian Paul Cassidy, Shelly Cole, Vince Curatola, Reed Diamond, Mary Beth Evans, Michael Fairman, Mark Harelik, Jesse Heiman, Carol Kane, Bernie Kopell, Wallace Langham, Meat Loaf, Louis Lombardi, John Carroll Lynch, Jay Malone, Jack McGee, Lex Medlin, Jay Mohr, Elizabeth Perkins, Teri Polo, Sarah Rush, Rena Sofer, Daniel Stern, Eric Stonestreet, Karen Strassman, Jack Wagner, Gary Weeks, Christina Vidal, Chandra West, Wade Williams, and Alex Wolff.
Episodes
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | 1 | "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show" | Randall Zisk | Jack Bernstein | August 7, 2009 | 5.14[1] |
| Monk is thrilled to serve as a bodyguard for his favorite actress (Elizabeth Perkins), a former child star whose life is in danger after the publication of her tell-all book, until he learns the hard way how different she is from her television alter-ego. | ||||||
| 111 | 2 | "Mr. Monk and the Foreign Man" | David Grossman | David Breckman and Justin Brenneman | August 14, 2009 | 5.31[2] |
| Monk finds himself increasingly drawn to a case involving a visiting African man (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who is investigating his beloved wife's hit-and-run death–a case that strongly resonates with Monk. | ||||||
| 112 | 3 | "Mr. Monk and the UFO" | Kevin Hooks | Michael Angeli | August 21, 2009 | 5.16[3] |
| Monk and Natalie get stuck in a small town in the Nevada desert when their car breaks down, and a woman soon turns up dead on a nearby hiking trail. Monk and a local sheriff (Daniel Stern) suspect the woman's murder is connected to a recent UFO sighting. | ||||||
| 113 | 4 | "Mr. Monk Is Someone Else" | Randall Zisk | Salvatore Savo | August 28, 2009 | 4.98[4] |
| At the behest of an FBI agent (Reed Diamond), Monk assumes the identity of his doppelganger – a deceased hit man – in an effort to foil a mob execution. | ||||||
| 114 | 5 | "Mr. Monk Takes the Stand" | Mary Lou Belli | Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan | September 11, 2009 | 4.82[5] |
| Monk's phobias threaten to undermine a big murder case when an aggressive defense attorney (Jay Mohr) targets the detective's unconventional methods in court. Monk plans on retiring, when an unsolved murder is thrown his way. | ||||||
| 115 | 6 | "Mr. Monk and the Critic" | Jerry Levine | Hy Conrad | September 18, 2009 | 4.88[6] |
| When a young waitress is murdered at a fancy hotel, Natalie immediately suspects a critic (Dylan Baker) who was attending a play at a nearby theater to be the killer, but Monk believes that she is obsessed with this critic ever since he gave Julie a bad review in the play. | ||||||
| 116 | 7 | "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse" | Andrei Belgrader | Joe Toplyn | September 25, 2009 | 4.74[7] |
| Voodoo appears to be the only explanation when unmarked dolls sent to three completely unrelated people accurately predict their deaths. But trouble comes when Natalie is the recipient of a voodoo doll that predicts that she will die by decapitation. Monk must consult the owner (Meat Loaf) of the voodoo shop that produced the dolls to bring down the real killer. | ||||||
| 117 | 8 | "Mr. Monk Goes to Group Therapy" | Anton Cropper | Joe Ventura | October 9, 2009 | 4.37[8] |
| When Monk's insurance company refuses to pay for more individual therapy sessions, Monk joins Dr. Bell's therapy group, where somebody appears to be murdering his fellow patients one after one. Soon, Monk and Harold Krenshaw (Tim Bagley) begin suspecting each other to be the culprit. | ||||||
| 118 | 9 | "Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk" | Tawnia McKiernan | Peter Wolk | October 16, 2009 | 3.98[9] |
| Natalie tries to throw a surprise birthday party for Monk while he investigates the mysterious death of an office building's janitor after he is thrown down a trash compacter. Stottlemeyer, meanwhile, begins seeing a writer (Virginia Madsen). | ||||||
| 119 | 10 | "Mr. Monk and Sharona" | Randall Zisk | Tom Scharpling | October 23, 2009 | 5.42[10] |
| Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) returns to San Francisco to handle legal issues related to her distant uncle Howie's recent death, which occurred when he fell down a flight of flagstone steps on a golf course. But when Monk sees photos of the accident, he determines that there has been foul play, to Sharona's consternation. Monk soon finds himself torn between the fact that Natalie's and Sharona's ways of working with him are so different. | ||||||
| 120 | 11 | "Mr. Monk and the Dog" | David Breckman | Beth Armogida | October 30, 2009 | 4.69[11] |
| Monk reluctantly adopts a dog while looking into the suspicious disappearance of its owner, and finds an unexpected bond with the pet. | ||||||
| 121 | 12 | "Mr. Monk Goes Camping" | Joe Pennella | Tom Gammill and Max Pross | November 6, 2009 | 4.26[12] |
| To woo the lone holdout on the reinstatement committee (Wade Williams), Monk accompanies Lieutenant Disher on a scouting trip with the man's troublesome son (Alex Wolff), where nature is not the only thing the troop has to fear. He does eventually woo the man who was against him, but is so happy he does not hear that the majority is against, leaving his friends in a state of confusion. | ||||||
| 122 | 13 | "Mr. Monk Is the Best Man" | Michael Zinberg | Joe Toplyn, Josh Siegal, and Dylan Morgan | November 13, 2009 | 4.39[13] |
| While investigating the charred corpse of a shooting victim found in a park, Monk must figure out who is making anonymous threats against Captain Stottlemeyer and his fiancée (Virginia Madsen) on the eve of their wedding. Guest stars Teri Polo and Carol Kane. | ||||||
| 123 | 14 | "Mr. Monk and the Badge" | Dean Parisot | Hy Conrad and Tom Scharpling | November 20, 2009 | 5.30[14] |
| Monk finds his return to the police force to be more challenging than he expected when a rookie police officer is murdered, and he suspects it may be linked to the informant who gave information that allowed the police to apprehend a vicious serial killer. | ||||||
| 124 | 15 | "Mr. Monk and the End (Part One)" | Randall Zisk | Andy Breckman | November 27, 2009 | 5.82[15] |
| Monk is called to the murder of a doctor (Ed Begley, Jr.) at the location where he first heard the news of Trudy's (Melora Hardin) murder. Monk quickly is set on the trail of a man (John Edward Lee) he believes in involved, who is also targeting Monk. Meanwhile, Natalie is reunited with Lt. Albright (Casper Van Dien). | ||||||
| 125 | 16 | "Mr. Monk and the End (Part Two)" | Randall Zisk | Andy Breckman | December 4, 2009 | 9.44[16] |
| Monk pursues the killer (Craig T. Nelson) of his wife (Melora Hardin) in the series finale. He is unable to capture the culprit, "the Judge", as he commits suicide, but learns that Trudy had a child with "the Judge" back in her college days that is still alive and is very much like her. With the case of Trudy's murder solved, Monk now has conquered his phobias and spends time with his new stepdaughter. | ||||||
Awards and nominations
Emmy Awards
- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series (Tony Shalhoub, nominated)
- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics (Randy Newman, won)
Screen Actors Guild
- Outstanding Actor - Comedy Series (Tony Shalhoub, nominated)
References
- ↑ Seidman, Robert (August 11, 2009). "iCarly, Burn Notice, The Closer, Royal Pains, WWE RAW and Monk top week's cable shows". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ↑ "The Closer, WWE RAW, NASCAR, Royal Pains & Monk Top Week's Cable Shows". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. August 18, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Updated: The Closer, WWE RAW, & True Blood Top Week's Cable Shows". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. August 25, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: Wizards of Waverly Place, The Closer, WWE RAW & Royal Pains". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. September 1, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: USC, VMAs, iCarly and True Blood finale...". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. September 15, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: Monday Night Football, WWE RAW, Hannah Montana and Monk...". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. September 22, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: Monday Night Football, WWE RAW, Monk top weekly cable chart". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. September 29, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: Record-breaking Monday Night Football, MLB playoffs on TBS, NCIS, WWE RAW, and Wizards of Waverly Place top weekly cable charts". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. October 13, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: Monday Night Football, MLB playoffs, Hannah Montana and NCIS top weekly cable chart". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. October 20, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: Football, Baseball Monk, White Collar, Jeff Dunham, and Sons of Anarchy top weekly cable chart". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. October 27, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "USA IS "WHITE" HOT!". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. November 3, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: NFL Football, SpongeBob and Fanboy & Chum Chum top weekly cable charts". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. November 10, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: NFL Football, iCarly and Suite Life on Deck top weekly cable charts". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. November 18, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "White Collar added 52% to its 18-49 ratings with Live+7 for 3rd episode". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. November 24, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: NFL & College Football, Monk and iCarly top weekly cable charts". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. December 2, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Cable ratings: Patriots-Sants, Monk finale and iCarly special top weekly cable charts". TV by the Numbers. Zap2it. December 8, 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2014.