A tv show which may have contributed to the changing view of
the PI, especialy as it relates to fantasy and extraordinary
fighting skills, and a new three-dimensionality, is The
Rockford Files. I'd put Jim Rockford up there with the
seminal PIs. (And fwiw, the show was created by Roy
Huggins.)
You could usually count on Jim to get beaten up pretty good
by the goons without getting many good pops off himself. Jim
was tough, and could take a beating, but he didn't hand out
many (or any?) himself. Now that I think of it, he was sort
of a precursor of Rocky in the movies. Rocky took a pounding
from Apollo Creed, but managed to win in the end even though
he didn't do a whole lot of damage to Apollo's pretty face.
Jim Rockford and Rocky Balboa both took a licking and kept on
ticking.
Steve
----- Original Message ----- From: "Gerald So" <
gso@optonline.net> To: <
rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003
4:39 AM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Don't look now, but here come
the eighties
> Bill Denton wrote:
>
> >Mr. So, I noticed, runs a mailing list called
DetecToday, "Dedicated to
> >the new wave of mystery writers (male or female,
mid-1980s -
> >present)...What, if anything, have they decided
over there about
> >hardboiled detectives in the 1980s? Where did
they come from? Where did
> >they go?
>
> We haven't come up with full-fledged theories, but
I'll ask and share the
> results here. Personally, I think hardboiled
detectives are still out
> there, but ideas of toughness have changed.
Characters are more
> three-dimensional. Violent action needs better
explanation.
>
> >Was it in the late seventies/early eighties when
the split happened,
> >people realized the contemporary hardboiled dick
was a fantasy, and they
> >either had to modernize him or write historical
novels?
>
> That sounds about right. TV has a lot to do with
changing views on
private
> eyes/lone ops. Shows like "Magnum, "Simon &
Simon," and "Riptide," had a
> level of fantasy that audiences wouldn't accept
today. With access to
> Court TV and forensic documentaries, viewers don't
quite believe the
> fantasy elements of shows like "Dellaventura" and
"Vengeance Unlimited."
In
> the 80s, these shows might have had three-season
runs. In the late 90s,
> they didn't last a season.
>
> Robert Crais is a good example of the move from
fantasy to realism. Crais
> started Elvis Cole in 1987 as a first-person PI with
military and martial
> arts training, who read Arthurian legend and
collected Disney
> figurines. Today the Cole books are multi-viewpoint
thrillers with more
> emphasis on police procedure.
>
> One author who started and remained consistently
real through the 80s and
> 90s is Jeremiah Healy with John Francis Cuddy. Healy
does play his share
> of tricks with time, stretching two years of story
time over ten
> books. And I notice he hasn't written a Cuddy since
1999.
>
> For those who'd like to join DetecToday, the URL
is
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DetecToday
>
> I also moderate CrimeSeen for discussion of
TV/movies/radio and their
> relationship to crime fiction: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CrimeSeen
>
>
> Gerald
>
> --
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