''Andy Barker, P.I.'' is an American detective

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

television series starring

Andy Richter Paul Andrew Richter (born October 28, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and talk show announcer. He is best known as the sidekick for Conan O'Brien on each of O'Brien's talk shows: ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Night'' and ' ...

produced and broadcast by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, and co-starring

Tony Hale Anthony Russell Hale (born September 30, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role in the Fox comedy series '' Arrested Development'' as Buster Bluth. Hale played Gary Walsh on the HBO comedy ''Veep'' from 2012 until ...

Marshall Manesh Marshall Manesh (born August 16, 1950) is an Iranian-American actor. Biography When Manesh was young, his father died; he was raised by his mother, from whom he feels he got his strength to make it in show business. He went to the United S ...

Harve Presnell George Harvey Presnell (September 14, 1933 – June 30, 2009) was an American actor and singer. He began his career in the mid-1950s as a classical baritone, singing with orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States. His career re ...

, and

Clea Lewis Clea Lewis (born July 19, 1965) is an American actress, best known for her television role as Ellen's annoying friend, Audrey Penney in Ellen DeGeneres' sitcom '' Ellen''. Personal life Lewis was born in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to a write ...

. Richter plays Andy Barker, a certified public accountant who reluctantly becomes a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

after he is mistaken for the former office tenant, a private eye, now retired. Andy develops a taste for solving cases, assisted by the former P.I., a film buff owner of the downstairs video store, a surveillance-expert restaurateur, and as time goes on, his wife. The show was produced for one season, and was scheduled to run a six-episode, five-week course starting Thursday, March 15, 2007, on NBC. However, the series was cancelled and removed from the Thursday lineup after the fourth episode aired. The final two episodes aired on Saturday, April 14.

Development and production

On March 7, 2006, NBC announced the ordering of the pilot episode, which was written by creators and executive producers Conan O'Brien and

Jonathan Groff Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor and singer . He began his career on Broadway, rising to prominence for his portrayal of Melchior Gabor in the original production of '' Spring Awakening'' (2006-2008), for which h ...

. The series is shot single-camera, and is presented without a laugh track. In early March 2007, NBC published all six episodes of ''Andy Barker, P.I.'' on the NBC website prior to its broadcast premiere. NBC premiered ''Andy Barker, P.I.'' with another detective-themed show, ''

Raines ''Raines'' is a seven-episode American police procedural television show starring Jeff Goldblum as a police detective who hallucinates the victims whose murders he is investigating. Created by Graham Yost, the series was short-lived, airing ...

''. Both shows, available on the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

, offered free downloads of the pilots for a short time. The show is set in the fictional Los Angeles neighborhood of "Fair Oaks, California". The real

Fair Oaks, California Fair Oaks is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sacramento County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade– Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 32,514 at the 2020 census, up fro ...

, is near

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

Cast

Early promotional images released to promote the series feature the early cast set for the show — Andy, Simon, Lew, Wally, Ruth, and Jessica. The roles of Ruth (Andy's wife) and Jessica (Andy's "assistant") were later renamed and recast before the show's debut. Ruth Barker, later renamed Jenny Barker (performed by

), was portrayed by

Amy Farrington Amy Farrington (born September 20, 1966) is an American actress and model who is best known for her role as Stacey Devers on ''The Michael Richards Show''. Farrington currently portrays Detective Lt. Piper Lynch in the CBS drama series ''S.W.A.T ...

. Jessica, later renamed and reworked into Nicole (performed by

Nicole Randall Johnson Nicole Randall Johnson (born December 9, 1973) is an American actress, writer and producer. Johnson is most notable for her membership in the recurring cast of performers on the sketch comedy series ''MADtv''. Biography Johnson was born in Los ...

), was portrayed by Ion Overman in these images. These roles were presumably recast after the early photo shoot and prior to the filming and further development of the series as Farrington and Overman were not seen in the series itself.

Cast

as Andrew "Andy" Barker: A middle-aged certified public accountant, who after starting his own firm in the pilot, he reluctantly takes on a missing-person case brought to him by a mysterious Russian-

accented A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

woman who mistakes Andy for the former tenant, a real P.I. In subsequent episodes, Andy takes on (or is thrust into) cases that usually involve his friends and family and which he must solve in addition to his accounting duties. *

as Jenny Barker: Andy's wife, she first disapproves, but gradually warms to his new side profession. Andy and she have an infant daughter named Molly and at least one son. Andy mentions that his son went through a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

phase in "Dial M for Laptop." *

as Lew Staziak: The retired tough-as-nails cynical P.I. and prior tenant of Andy's rental office, Lew becomes Andy's mentor and aide, with mixed consequences. Lew antagonizes Simon, suffers from alektorophobia (fear of chickens), and his memory lapses cause trouble for Andy. Mickey Doyle, Lew's unscrupulous former partner, was the villain of the episode " The Lady Varnishes." *

as Simon: Manager of the "Video Riot" rental store, he has extensive knowledge of movie trivia. He befriends Andy, and designates himself an investigative partner. *

as Wally: An

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

restaurant owner, he "went overboard with patriotism after 9/11," and has excellent surveillance equipment.

Notable guest stars

as Nicole: An unmotivated file clerk with an attitude who appears in the pilot episode. However, after Andy costs her the clerk job by stealing files, she matter-of-factly hires herself as his unwanted assistant in "Fairway My Lovely". Simon is infatuated with her, but she ignores his advances. She has a deaf brother and is fluent in reading lips. Nicole is heavily featured in promotions, but is a supporting character in just two episodes. *

Vanessa Branch Vanessa Lynn Branch (born March 21, 1973) is an English-born American actress and model. She is best known in the United States as the Orbit Gum girl for its series of television commercials (her catchphrase is "Fabulous!"). Early life Bran ...

as Nadia Kerensky ("Pilot") *

Gary Anthony Williams Gary Anthony Williams (born March 14, 1966) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He voiced the character of Uncle Ruckus on '' The Boondocks'', and a number of video game characters. He also appeared on the television series '' Weeds'' ...

as Ron ("Pilot") *

Traci Lords Traci Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma; May 7, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She entered the adult film industry using a fake birth certificate to conceal that she was two years under the legal age of eighteen. Lords starred in adult f ...

as Loretta Crispin ("Dial M For Laptop") * Sarah Christine Smith as Alicia ("The Big No Sleep") *

Amy Sedaris Amy Louise Sedaris (; born March 29, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Most recently, she has appeared in both ''The Mandalorian'' (2019–2020) and '' The Book of Boba Fett'' (2022) as Peli Motto. She played Jerri Blank in the ...

as Rita Spaulding ("The Lady Varnishes") *

Edward Asner Eddie Asner (; November 15, 1929 – August 29, 2021) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild. He is best remembered for portraying Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' a ...

as Mickey Doyle ("The Lady Varnishes") * James Hong as Jon Leibowitz ("The Lady Varnishes") * Peter Allen Vogt as Guy Helverson ("Fairway, My Lovely") * Jesse L. Martin as his '' Law & Order'' character Detective Ed Green ("The Big No Sleep") *

Nestor Carbonell Nestor may refer to: * Nestor (mythology), King of Pylos in Greek mythology Arts and entertainment * "Nestor" (''Ulysses'' episode) an episode in James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' * Nestor Studios, first-ever motion picture studio in Hollywood, ...

as Dr. Cey ("The Big No Sleep")

Episodes

After the pilot, the titles of all the episodes are plays on the titles of actual classic mystery and private-investigator films. The title "Fairway, My Lovely" is based on ''

Farewell, My Lovely ''Farewell, My Lovely'' is a novel by Raymond Chandler, published in 1940, the second novel he wrote featuring the Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the screen three times and was also adapted for the stage and rad ...

''; "Three Days of the Chicken" is based on '' Three Days of the Condor''; "Dial M for Laptop" is based on ''

Dial M for Murder ''Dial M for Murder'' is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was b ...

''; "The Big No Sleep" is based on ''

The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angel ...

''; and "The Lady Varnishes" is based on ''

The Lady Vanishes ''The Lady Vanishes'' is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1936 novel ''The Wheel Spins'' by Ethel L ...

''. * Note: the final two episodes were aired on a Saturday at a special time of 8:00 and 8:30.

Home media

Shout! Factory released ''Andy Barker, P.I.: The Complete Series'' on DVD on November 17, 2009.

Reception

Critic reviews were positive in the ''L.A. Times'' ("quietly delightful"), Entertainment Weekly (B+), and a 73% score based on 24 critic reviews at

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Some reviewers were reserved: ''Chicago Tribune'' ("some laughs, but the show fails to truly catch fire").Review-a-palooza Part 2.
Chicago Tribune. Maureen Ryan, March 14, 2007

U.S. television ratings

Weekly rankings based on Fast National ratings.Zap2It Ratings
Rating and Share.L.A. Times Calendar Live Ratings
Viewers and Rankings.18-49 Ratings
Media Life Magazine (18-49 numbers)

References

External links

* {{Conan O'Brien 2007 American television series debuts 2007 American television series endings 2000s American sitcoms Television shows set in Los Angeles English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television Television series by Conaco