''Secret Agent Man'' is an American spy-fi television series that aired on

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

from 7 March to 28 July 2000. The series was created by writer Richard Regen.

Premise

''Secret Agent Man'' starred

Costas Mandylor Costas Mandylor (born Costas Theodosopoulos; 3 September 1965) is an Australian actor. He made his film debut with a supporting role in '' Triumph of the Spirit'' (1989) before a lead role as Frank Costello in the crime drama film '' Mobsters'' ...

as Monk, a gallivanting

secret agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

, who was one of a team of agents that included Holliday, played by Dina Meyer and Davis, played by Dondre Whitfield. The team reported to Brubeck, played by

Paul Guilfoyle Paul Vincent Guilfoyle () (born April 28, 1949) is an American character actor. He was a regular cast member of the CBS crime drama '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', on which he played Captain Jim Brass from 2000 to 2014. He returned for ...

. The periodically appearing guest villain is the former agent Prima, played by

Musetta Vander Musetta Vander (born Musetta van der Merwe; 26 May 1963) is a South African actress. Biography In 1991, Vander landed her first notable role, portraying Zander Tyler in seven episodes of the action-adventure TV series '' Super Force''. In 19 ...

. All the lead characters share the last names of jazz musicians:

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, includ ...

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop ...

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

and

Louis Prima Louis Leo Prima (; December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American trumpeter, singer, entertainer, and bandleader. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he ...

Cast

Main

as Monk * Dina Meyer as Holliday * Dondre Whitfield as Davis *

as Brubeck

Notable guest stars

as Prima * Grace Park as Louann *

John de Lancie John Sherwood de Lancie, Jr. (born March 20, 1948) is an American actor, best known for his role as Q in various ''Star Trek'' series, beginning with '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' in 1987 and leading up to the third season of '' Star Tre ...

as Marshall Gilder *

Diane Farr Diane Farr (born September 7, 1969) is an American actress, producer, and writer. Her television roles have included FBI agent Megan Reeves in '' Numb3rs'', the firefighter Laura Miles in '' Rescue Me'', and the division chief Sharon Leone in ...

as Trish Fiore * Ivana Milicevic as Laura Tupolev *

Lola Glaudini Lola Glaudini (born November 24, 1971) is an American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Elle Greenaway on CBS's ''Criminal Minds'' and for her role as Deborah Ciccerone-Waldrup on HBO's ''The Sopranos''. Early life Glaudini is of ...

as Helga Devereaux * Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Rachel *

Alexondra Lee Alexondra Lee is an American actress, dancer and producer. She is a television producer of such shows as Oxygen's "The Real Murders of Atlanta" (seasons 1-3), "Murder and Justice: Martha Moxley", Magnolia's "In With The Old", A&E's ''Marcia Clark ...

as Nurse 613 *

Wade Williams Wade Andrew Williams is an American actor. He is known for his various character roles, and for a major supporting role as correctional officer Brad Bellick on the Fox television series ''Prison Break'' and Father Cronin on ''The Bernie Mac S ...

as Greg

Production

''Secret Agent Man'' was originally scheduled to premiere on UPN in September 1999, but was pushed back to a midseason premiere in August 2000 due to the desire to give the show's producers more time to work on props and special effects. It also did not have a traditional one-hour pilot filmed, and was instead ordered to series by UPN on the strength of just a presentation reel. Only 12 episodes were produced and broadcast before the series was cancelled due to poor ratings.

Theme song

The series used an updated version of the 1960s hit, “ Secret Agent Man”, performed by Supreme Beings of Leisure, for its

theme song Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

. Because the

Johnny Rivers Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella; November 7, 1942) is a retired American musician. He achieved commercial success and popularity throughout the 1960s and 1970s as a singer and guitarist, characterized as a versatile and influential art ...

version of this song was used as the theme song for American broadcasts of another television series, the 1960s British TV series, ''

Danger Man ''Danger Man'' (retitled ''Secret Agent'' in the United States for the revived series, and ''Destination Danger'' and ''John Drake'' in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again ...

'' (primarily broadcast in the U.S. as ''

Secret Agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

''), there were some mistaken impressions that this series was somehow a spin off or

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

of the earlier program, but other than the theme song, no connections were made evident.

Episodes

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the series has an aggregated score of 0% based on 10 critic reviews. The website’s consensus reads: "With stilted acting and genre cliches galore, ''Secret Agent Man'' is one spy show that should be disavowed by viewers at all costs."

References

External links

*
Variety Series Information

2000 American television series debuts 2000 American television series endings UPN original programming American spy television series Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows filmed in Vancouver {{US-drama-tv-prog-stub