L'homme à la Rolls

I well remember the first incarnation of Burke's Law with Gene Barry as the rich old money cop who came to crime scenes in his Rolls-Royce and after an hour of time visiting the guest star lineup inevitably solved the crime. It was a great show for two seasons and then someone had the bright idea to make Amos Burke a secret agent. Show never made it after that.

Thirty years later Amos Burke is with the LAPD again and is now a senior consultant as befitting a senior citizen. He got married and widowed in the interim and had a son. The son grew up to be Peter Barton and he's now a homicide cop with the LAPD.

Now they both go to crime scenes in style. At least Gene Barry does. Barton preferred more understated modes of transportation.

It was a nice show, but I guess it was too late to get this souffle to rise again.

I liked the show and wished it could of lasted longer than it did, although I suppose it is a miracle that such a high styled campy escapist detective show like this would even have been revived in the mid-Nineties and went for 27 episodes! In the Fifties to the Seventies this sort of entertainment designed for the small screen went over reasonably well, but now I suspect that there are more humorless TV viewers than ever who possess little patience and even less appreciation of anything with a sense of old school style and flair that BURKE'S LAW had in abundance. Such folks enjoy formulamatic fare like the nightly news, Fox News and CSI and a million copycat shows, they don't and won't try to get something like BURKE'S LAW, which is too bad...

Such easy to understand and digest TV shows around at the same time like MURDER SHE WROTE and MATLOCK were designed to appeal to similar tastes, but with BURKE'S LAW you had to have a more fine tuned appreciation of wit, well timed sarcasm and style plus a tongue in cheek sense of humor to fully appreciate the gifts and sheer force of personality and presence that Gene Barry brought to the screen in his role and to enjoy the campy proceedings at hand. Despite being at the helm of other successful series and in many films, Gene Barry IS Amos Burke, he owns that role!

If you are reading this, then chances are you already know about the original BURKE'S LAW and what it is about, and as others have already written about how the storyline was updated for the 1990's. On this 1990's version, Burke was still as sharp as ever, big name guest stars abounded just like in the Sixties, and for a little while CBS looked like it had showcased a nice revival of a classy Sixties favorite to its lineup. Too bad they didn't order another season

I love detective stories. I saw them all: Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, even the short-lived Blacke's magic. The revived Burke's Law would have been a welcome addition, if not for the derivative style. It's the same plot device over and over again, a murder, one suspect leading Burke and Son to another suspect, then finally calling all suspects in one room and Burke eliminating the non-murderers before naming the real one. Even Agatha Christie knew how to manipulate the storyline so it wouldn't be the same story as the last one. Sadly, the new Burke's Law was just trying to be the next Murder She Wrote without the variety. It feels like it's trapped in the 1930's, like those cozy murders in an English cottage.

The only positive thing: it's in color!

As a child, I remember sitting with the folks and watching the original"Burke's Law" series in the 1960's. I recall being intrigued with the character's signature, "It's Burke's Law" witticisms each episode. Fast forward thirty years, and Gene Barry was every bit as dashing as before, and the witticisms were still pure entertainment.

Watching Amos Burke, now a widower with a grown super handsome son, Peter Burke, allowed the testosterone to flow nicely. I certainly enjoyed watching the show in color, and the story lines, while not always fresh, were certainly engaging. Guest appearances by some top notch actors and actresses kept the episodes fresh. Dom DeLuise in his recurring guest role was the cherry on top.

I truly believe the revival series could've last a couple of more seasons easily. It was a mid-season replacement, premiering on Friday,January 7, 1994, in the 9 p.m., also known as the "Friday Night Death Slot," so the series had two strikes against it going in.

Well, maybe my summary will take place of puurakek's, but he (or she?) is totally right! (so read this summary) In one episode (the one w/ Robert Vaughn) there was an identical twin brother who took place of the murdered one, and I only thought, please, don't let this be the one who is believed to be the murdered one and who took his brother's place after he murdered him. Guess what? But somehow I like that show, I don't think it's a total waste of money like "Baby Talk". I don't think, I could stand this show for more than one season, this was enough, but for one season the show was fine. I would have wanted a second or third season of Mr. Merlin, or a new concept.