Veronica Clare

''Veronica Clare'' is an American crime drama created by Jeffrey Bloom that aired nine episodes on Lifetime between July and September 1991. The title character, played by Laura Robinson, is a private investigator and the co-owner of a restaurant and jazz club in Chinatown, Los Angeles. She pursues only cases that interest her, often finding these herself, and refuses payment. Clare solves cases using her intelligence and intuition. The supporting characters consist of her close friends and co-workers, played by Robert Beltran, Tony Plana, Christina Pickles, Robert Ruth, Robert Sutton, and Wayne Chou. The series incorporates elements of film noir.

Lifetime developed ''Veronica Clare'' as one of its first original scripted programs, along with ''The Hidden Room'' and '' Confessions of Crime''. Bloom created the show's premise after imagining Lauren Bacall as a Los Angeles detective. Gil Mellé composed the soundtrack, which uses jazz to create its ambience. Episodes were shot in May and June 1991 in a television studio in the San Fernando Valley and on-location in Los Angeles.

After nine of its commissioned 13 episodes aired, Lifetime placed ''Veronica Clare'' on hiatus and later canceled it. The series was not released on DVD or any streaming service. In 1991 and 1992, the episodes were rebroadcast as four television movies. Critics praised Bloom's script for the first episode, but criticized the show's storylines, look, and tone as well as Robinson's performance. The series attracted feminist analysis with a focus on Clare's role as a female private investigator.

Premise

Story and characters

The title character of ''Veronica Clare'' ( Laura Robinson) is a private investigator and partial owner of an Art Deco restaurant and jazz club in Chinatown, Los Angeles. Clare often investigates cases that help women while using her club as a place to meet potential clients and suspects. She is the show's narrator, and at the end of each episode, she writes about her cases to a former lover in letters signed "Love, Veronica". However, she does not mail any of these letters, and the name and gender of her lover are never explicitly stated. Throughout the series, Clare is portrayed as mysterious, although there were plans to explore more of her past in future episodes had the show continued beyond its first season. In the pilot episode, a flashback provides some information on her backstory, and she is referenced as a detective's daughter.

Clare only accepts cases that interest her and refuses any payment for her work. The series has very few action scenes as Clare does not perform hand-to-hand combat with men or participate in car chases. Although she owns a Walther PPK, she uses it only for self-defense; political theorist Philip Green wrote that the series portrays Clare's "skill as a private investigator" as her "weapons". Television critic Mark Dawidziak described Clare as operating on her own "extremely personal code of ethics" throughout the episodes. According to author Derrick Bang and the Associated Press's Jerry Buck, the series portrays Clare as a "private eyeful", and Buck explained this was done through scenes in which she uses her "seductive charms" during investigations. Clare often uses her intelligence and intuition for her cases, and because of this, Robinson described the show as a "cerebral drama" about "the cat-and-mouse game played by Veronica and her adversaries".

Robinson characterized Clare as a loner, and Dawidziak noted that she had few close friends. Clare lives alone in a hotel suite, a living situation that media studies scholar Eithne Johnson called "impersonal" and "anti-domestic". Despite this, the ''Missoulian'''s Jon Burlingame noted that the show often surrounds her with "offbeat settings and people". She co-owns her club with Duke Rado (Robert Beltran), who is the show's male lead character. Green argued the series presents Rado only as Clare's business partner, and not as her love interest or as a "source of wisdom and authorization for her". Clare's best friend is Kelsey Horne (Christina Pickles), a former spy who owns a store selling rare books. Nikki Swarcek (Tony Plana), a Polish expatriate and a lieutenant for the Los Angeles Police Department, is attracted to Clare. Other supporting characters include Sergeant Tweed (Robert Ruth), bartender Rocco (Robert Sutton), and valet Jimmy (Wayne Chou). Series creator Jeffrey Bloom emphasized ''Veronica Clare'' was not focused on its ensemble cast, explaining "they're in for 10 percent of the time hileVeronica is there 100 percent".

Style and comparisons

''Veronica Clare'' borrows elements from film noir, including "first-person narration, smoke-filled rooms, period cars and skin-tight dresses". Clare is shown driving a vintage white Mercedes coupe. Episodes also include camera angles similar to those used in noir films. Bonnie Baker, writing for ''The Arizona Republic'', described the series as resembling "a '40s movie that's been colorized by Ted Turner". While episodes draw inspiration from detective fiction published in the 1940s, Dawidziak viewed its stories as having a more "90s sensibility".

Journalists considered ''Veronica Clare'' to be similar to detective fiction by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Critics characterized the series' tone as "low-key", specifically in reference to its narration, as well as cold and distant. Episodes have elements of humor, such as when Clare's aunt said she could tell a gangster was a "man of dubious integrity" because "he never even provided a pension plan".

The series frequently uses jazz, which was composed by Gil Mellé, as part of its ambience. Some of these instances are diegetic as Clare's club features jazz music, which is sometimes played with "unusual combos" of instruments such as a combination of piano, bass guitar, and accordion. The show's background music often features covers of George Gershwin and Cole Porter's music, such as a jazz version of the 1926 song " Someone to Watch Over Me", and the theme music has a " bluesy sax, piano and bass".

Critics compared Clare to Veronica Lake and ''Veronica Clare'' to a 1940s noir starring Lauren Bacall as the private investigator instead of Humphrey Bogart. Television historians Tim Brooks and Earle F. Marsh believed this "Lauren Bacall look" was evoked by Clare's hairstyle and mysterious persona. While promoting ''Veronica Clare'', Robinson referred to her character as a combination of Bogart's strength and intelligence as well as Bacall's looks and wit. She also viewed Clare as an adult version of Nancy Drew, but doubted that the show's producers shared her opinion. Journalists have associated the character with other fictional detectives, such as Mike Hammer, Nick Charles, Philip Marlowe, and Sam Spade. Paul Henniger, writing for the ''Los Angeles Times'', compared Clare's "rapid-talking, short, staccato outbursts" to Jack Webb and supporting characters to those in the television show ''Peter Gunn''.

Production

Background

Television network Lifetime developed ''Veronica Clare'' in 1991 as one of three original scripted programs, along with ''The Hidden Room'' and '' Confessions of Crime''. Each of the shows feature elements of mystery or suspense; ''The Record'''s Virginia Mann described ''Veronica Clare'' as having the lightest tone of the three programs. This was the first time Lifetime had its own television shows, although in 1989, the network acquired ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'' to produce new episodes following its NBC cancelation. Mass communication professor Eileen R. Meehan and media studies professor Jackie Byars identified these shows as part of an "emergent period" of Lifetime, describing them as the network's "first experiments" with original dramas.

In 1991, Patricia Fili, the senior vice president of Lifetime's programming, explained that the network would invest $1 billion into its original programming over a decade and identified ''Veronica Clare'' as part of this strategy. Mike Hughes, while writing for the Gannett News Service

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