SHOWBIZ 7’S: Seven great detectives from TV and film

The new private eye comedy "Andy Barker P.I." arrives Thursday on NBC and it's not a moment too soon! Andy Richter stars in the title role and is accompanied by the always-delightful Tony Hale (Buster from "Arrested Development").

In honor of the show's big debut, producer and co-creator Jonathan Groff tells us his seven favorite detectives from TV and film.

1. Columbo. With Archie Bunker and Lou Grant, the most memorable male TV character of the 1970s. I remember him solving a crime by figuring out that the victim hadn't tied his own sneakers, that someone else had put them on after he'd been murdered and then the body had been put on an exercise bike to make it look like he'd had a heart attack.
   
   
2. Jake Gittes from "Chinatown." Has all the great film-noir private eye moves (e.g., putting a cheap watch under the tire to be crushed when a car pulls out, to ascertain the time the suspect was on the move), but in the weary, sour world of 1970's filmmaking, he's never really able to penetrate the mystery and just gets chewed up at the end. Fantastic.
   
   
3. Humphrey Bogart's Phillip Marlowe in "The Big Sleep." In the opening scene in the hothouse with the eccentric rich guy, Marlowe sweats through his shirt in minutes. With William Hurt in "Body Heat" and Albert Brooks in "Broadcast News," some of the best on-screen sweating in American cinema.
   
   
4. Elliot Gould's Phillip Marlowe in Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye." I actually haven't watched this in years, but I remember a long, slow scene in which he opens a can of food for his cat. Somehow compelling.
   
   
5. Stewart McMillan in "McMillan & Wife." Not actually a detective, but rather, San Francisco police commissioner. Mostly on this list because "wife" was played by Susan St. James, often clad in a 49ers jersey and little else. Interestingly, its success spawned a spate of "…and Wife" copycats, including the ill-fated CBS news program "Cronkite and Wife."
   
   
6. Nick and Nora Charles from 1934's "The Thin Man." Andy Richter is influenced by this one, and wanted his character to have a small dog and drink 700 martinis an episode. Conan [O'Brien, an executive producer] and I had to put our foot down.
   
   
7. It's my list, so I get to put Lew Staziak, the retired P.I. whose office Andy Barker inherits. Played by Harve Presnell, Lew says things to Andy like (regarding Russian mobsters): "Don't get me wrong, there's nothing I like better than kicking the brown bread out of a bunch of Commies high on potato juice, but I'm out of the game. You got yourself into this mess, let's see if you got the Mike & Ikes to get yourself out." Man, I'd watch that show.