He makes 'Monk' just right

By Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant, 6/18/2003

For a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder, someone who can't resist straightening a picture or cleaning a window smudge, you could scarcely find a
more challenging setting than a murder scene.

The blood, the mess, the chaotic rummaging for evidence!

The disorder cost private detective Adrian Monk his job on the San Francisco police force, but the department still relies on his expertise, despite his fear of germs -- not to mention heights, crowds, and general chaos.

That situation makes for a TV series so quirky that it landed its star, Tony Shalhoub, as a Golden Globe winner for outstanding comedy. ''Monk'' became such a
standout on USA Network -- where it was the highest-rated original scripted series in the history of basic cable -- that a broadcast network, ABC, decided to pick it up in reruns.

''Monk'' begins its second season Friday on cable, and from the looks of the initial episode, there's even more of the comedy bits Shalhoub develops in the
character of Monk, spending as much time arranging chess pieces as playing them and taking forever to write his name on a chalkboard as a substitute teacher
so he can get it just right.

''I have to be careful not to go way over the top in every role I do,'' Shalhoub says via e-mail while on location for the new season. ''But there are those rare times when doing Monk when I'm actually given license to go over the top. And most of the time it works.''

Shalhoub, who had a variety of roles in TV and movies before he landed the gig on ''Monk,'' calls the role ''fun but challenging.''

''It affords me the opportunity to play serious moments and comic moments back to back,'' he says.

Cocreated by Andy Breckman of ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''Late Night With David Letterman,'' and David Hoberman, the USA Network hit has been a comedic
bonanza for Shalhoub.

''I am given a lot of leeway,'' he says. ''The writers open the door, describe the sequence -- but not in too much detail. Then I am allowed to build on their idea.

''I go as long as I possibly can with the `business' such as the chalkboard, and then they cut it down in editing.''

At the same time, he's taken care not to exploit or poke fun at what is a very real disorder.

''We're always sensitive about portraying OCD'' -- obsessive-compulsive disorder -- ''as a real illness, which can be quite funny at times but also sad.''

In fact, he says, Monk has ''become sort of a poster boy or hero'' for those who live with the disorder.  The success of the show has been a surprise to him.  He
said he was ''stunned'' when he won a Golden Globe in comedy over such popular shows as ''Friends'' and such critically acclaimed comedies as ''Curb Your
Enthusiasm.''

Married to the actress Brooke Adams, Shalhoub has a New York theater resume that includes roles in ''Waiting for Godot,'' ''Conversations With My Father,'' ''The Heidi Chronicles,'' and ''The Odd Couple,'' as well as the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of ''Henry IV Part 1,'' and ''Richard III.''

The second season of ''Monk'' begins Friday night at 10 on the USA Network.
 

SUZANNE C. RYAN