MR. MONK AND THE ASTRONAUT
by Joe Toplyn
This episode, a "howdunit," came about the way many episodes do. We try to think of a cool, impossible crime, then figure out the clever way it might have been committed.
For a long time the writers had been kicking around the idea of a killer astronaut with the perfect alibi: he was in outer space at the time of the murder. But we couldn't think of a satisfying way for the guy to have actually done it.
Finally, my co-writer, David Breckman, hatched the idea of a garage door opener that strangles people, and we were good to go. A missed opportunity: we didn't make a product placement deal with Craftsman or Genie.
Astronaut Steve Wagner is played by Jeffrey Donovan, who starred in the USA series "Touching Evil." He does a terrific job -– he even looks like an astronaut. The writers believe that Wagner, with his murder machine, may be the most cold-blooded killer Monk has ever faced.
We considered many possible names for Wagner's employer, but none were cleared by our lawyers –- frustrating. Apparently, there are a lot more aerospace companies than you might think.
Then a writer noticed the name Robert Altman on a video cassette we had rented to research our "Fashion Show" episode. Bingo. Altman Aerodynamics. Writing for "Monk" is as easy as that.
"The Spacewalk" is an astronauty cocktail I created for this episode. I have no idea whether or not it's drinkable. If you'd like to find out, it's two-thirds vodka ("rocket fuel") and one-third blue curacao ("outer space"), plus the olive, cherry, and onion ("heavenly bodies"). It's a drink Monk might appreciate; it looks like Windex.
I named the neighbors' dog, Hector, after my own family dog, which died (of natural causes, thank you) while we were writing the episode. Kind of a little tribute.
The Air Force people we dealt with couldn't have been nicer or more professional. At their request, we tweaked the script so that the episode would reflect how an Air Force base might operate in the real world, as opposed to in Monk-world.
Security was tight at Edwards, where the air base scenes were shot. About 50 real-life Airmen appeared as extras in the episode.
At first, we thought Monk would be chasing an F-16 Fighting Falcon, but at the last minute we were thrilled to get the use of the new F/A-22 Raptor stealth fighter. I'm told it's pretty cutting edge technology.
So consider this a TiVo alert to all our fans who work for Chinese military intelligence (hi, Colonel Han).
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