TV is the New Reading

‘Andy Barker, P.I.’ is a hoot

I don’t know why Andy Richter has such trouble finding a hit.

First off, he’s funny as all get out. He has this instinctive voice for the nebbish but lovable schlub that’s mostly funny because we’ve run across him in some form or another in our day-to-day life.

And while he’s intelligent and his characters are not dummies, per se, there’s an everyman resonance and a broad accessibility to the roles he takes on.

Here’s hoping he’s struck gold with his latest project – not just for him, and not just because I’ve been rooting for life’s underdog since his second-banana days on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” but because this is a genuinely funny show and I’d love to see it last a good long time.

In his midseason production in the title role of “Andy Barker, P.I.” – with the delightful tagline “accountant by day, private investigator by accident” – his character has hung out his shingle as a certified public accountant at a nondescript strip mall.

And ... that’s it.

For a good long while, in fact. Bad buzz, bad marketing, this insanely hopeful sense that merely renting an office will mean success — whatever the situation, no one’s coming into Andy’s office even to clean it.

He’s about to give up when a femme fatale slinks in through the front door in the campiest homage to every noir detective flick ever filmed. He eez last hope. She meesplaces how-you-say boyfriend, drops wad of cash on Andy’s desk for-to-be-finding-heem and vanishes as mysteriously as she appears.

It slowly dawns on Andy that she was actually looking for Lew Staziak, a retired private investigator who’d had that office suite before Andy did.

Andy tracks meessing boyfriend using the sort of approach an accountant might take – his income tax paperwork. It isn’t until Andy tracks down Staziak himself, played by Harve Presnell – who was also the father-in-law in “Fargo” – that he learns what’s really going on, and that he’s probably been set up.

Part of the joy in this show is the, er, manageability of everyone’s grand plans. Clea Lewis (“Ellen”) is adorable as Andy’s wife who is a little flustered with her husband’s impulsive viewing of the episode of “Judging Amy” they had TiVo’d and were saving for that evening.

She forgives him, of course. He just got so excited.

Along with Staziak, Andy gets some help from other folks in the strip mall, and he’s still the best accountant he can be. A daring rescue and a high-speed chase doesn’t interfere with an on-the-fly reorganization of a client’s retirement package to include a college fund for his youngest.

It gives him the same rush as hitting the equals sign and getting the same answer as is on the worksheet.

He’s just that good.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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