Frank Whaley

(S03E19) I was a little disappointed that this week's episode didn't start with a woman in her underwear, but the later appearance of Julie Bowen's pregnant stomach more than made up for it.

I was also a little put off by the appearance of Frank Whaley because I remembered what a tool I thought he was the day I worked with him on Buddy Faro. What I had forgotten is what a fine actor he is. His performance in this episode was perfect. In a very short amount of time he was able to create a character that I knew enough about to actually care what happened to him. His flashback scenes, in particular, were very good.

(S01E07) They changed it up a bit this episode. We've had some pretty standard mysteries during the early run of Psych, but this time they gave us a little twist on who committed the crime. Plus, there seemed to be two crimes happening at the same time that didn't correlate to each other. Well, at least in the beginning they didn't connect.

It began with the murder of a local doctor who was a client of the pharmaceutical company Gus worked for. Shawn and Gus thought this was going to be their case until a man came into their office ranting that a ghost was trying to kill him. In a change of pace Shawn was not interested in taking the case while Gus was raring to go.

After that things got a bit weird for our duo. First, while spending the night at their client's house, the 'ghost' started a fire in the living room. Then, someone tried to slam their car into Gus' sub-compact. Nothing made sense. Then, Gus and Shawn discover an attic full women's clothes, wigs and makeup. It turns out that their client may have been housing more than one person in his head.

This news instantly reminded me that Dennis Farina can be really funny in a comedy. You can see the movies Out of Sight and Get Shorty for examples, or try to track down copies of this short-lived CBS show from a few years back, Buddy Faro.

Farina starred as Buddy Faro, a famous private eye who disappeared in 1978 and is found twenty years later by Faro buff and fellow P.I. Bob Jones (Frank Whaley). It's hard to describe the plot (plots aren't that important anyway, as long as the cast and writing is good) except to say that the two team up to solve cases, and Faro tries to get by as a Rat Pack-type old school guy in an Internet world. To top off the casting, Allison Smith (Kate and Allie, The West Wing) played an actress who helped the duo, and Charles Robinson (Night Court) played a character named "El Jefe."

This shows seems like a natural for DVD (a cult show, short-lived, you can fit the whole run in one set), so I hope we see it some day. There are actually several episodes that never even aired.