Tenspeed and Brown Shoe

A too short series that was pure Stephen J. Cannell at the height of his television career.

The hardboiled private eye excerpts from a series of mysteries that had Cannell's photograph on the back; the peculiar and wonderful relationship between the main characters; the longing for a different life; it all added up to a wonderful series that should have lasted for much longer.

Jeff Goldblum was wonderfully befuddled, yet earnest in a most endearing way. Ben Vereen was tolerant and amused, drawn to this most unlikely private investigator.

The humor was unusual and the scripts did not pander to the lower level. It was a most wonderful year that ended way too soon.

An email from SJC himself states that he hopes to release it on DVD...someday. I think someday has arrived, boss. If you can release Renegade, you can release this one. Please?

This was one of the most creative shows ever to appear on U.S. TV. The chemistry between Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen was perfect for this type of dry, understated comedy. I hope some enterprising cable TV programmer picks it up and re-runs it one day soon. I believe it will find a new and bigger audience 20 years later.

This series was one of the BEST of its time. I was SHOCKED when it did not continue to run in 1981. It was witty. Jeff Goldblum was the 'perfect' actor for the character of a nerdy stock-broker-turned-Mickey-Spillane-wannabe detective, paired up with Ben Vereen who portrayed the role of con-man-extraordinaire that mimicked the roles of a vast array of characters... in order to close their cases. I especially enjoyed listening to Jeff Goldblum's voice (In the background) as he would sit and read the Mickey Spillane book as he sat at his desk. It was 'pure genius' for the producers to include the book-reading episodes into the script. The plots and 'action' were believable and fun-oriented. In other words, it was a CRIME for this series to end so quickly. Now that DVD's of old movies and TV series are available, I have waited... and waited... and WAITED for Ten Speed and Brown Shoe to be released on DVD. I'M STILL WAITING!

John Mangum JuSen4Me@EC.RR.Com

I too remember this show from a very young age. I wasn't even five years old when it premiered on ABC, yet I can vividly recall the theme song. They actually showed reruns of it back when I was in grammar school, and I never forgot it. Well,according to Amazon.com, "Tenspeed and Brownshoe: The Complete Series" will be released on DVD in March of this year! I'm ordering my copy ahead of the release date so I suggest you guys check it out. At the price they're offering I doubt there'll be any extras but that's fine with me. It's true that the chemistry between Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen was easy and natural. Because the actors liked each other, their character's friendship seemed genuine. They were so mismatched and from totally different backgrounds, and yet they worked so well together. I was such a sucker for private eye novels and TV shows, and I loved how Stephen J. Cannell played with that genre's conventions on this show in particular. Neither of them had law- enforcement backgrounds; one of them had been on the wrong side of the law most of his life and the other one was as straight-laced as could be. Yet they were legitimate private eyes, combining their unique talents to solve the mystery while making us smile along the way. I loved how they went back and forth with each other; nowadays, this type of banter is par for the course, but in 1980 it was so ahead of it's time. Anyway, just wanted to let my fellow fans know the news.Thanks!

In my opinion this is Stephen J. Cannell's greatest creation. The series was kind of a -What if Jim Rockford split in two? The shy, dream-laden private-eye want-to-be and the accomplished con artist team up to solve various mysteries. Goldblum and Vereen are cast perfectly. This was television fun at it's best with the homage to the pulp detectives and the MacGyver of disguises. The villains were typical Cannell with mobsters to motorcycle gangs, but these two heroes made the endings, for me, much more satisfying because of the clever characters. Saddest is how this series was miss-scheduled by ABC and destroyed in the ratings by CBS.