"Keen Eddie" is an old-fashioned cop show wrapped in shiny new packaging — or, perhaps, hundreds of years of history.
Essentially, there's not anything new about this Fox series, originally slated as a midseason replacement show and finally making it on the air tonight at 8 on Ch. 13. But there is something different — it's filmed in London.
Mark Valley stars as Eddie, an unorthodox (of course) New York City police detective who makes a really big mistake early in the first episode. He's persona non grata to the NYPD, and — very much against his will — is shipped off to England to help wrap up the case he bungled in New York.
It's light, comedic fare with a British accent. Which is very much by design on both counts on the part of executive producers Warren Littlefield (NBC's former chief programmer) and Simon West (the director of movies like "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" and "Con Air").
"We're in an environment now where the average household is up to a hundred channel choices here in the U.S.," said Littlefield. "That's staggering. So what do you do in order to have the audience look at a promo, look at a moment of your show on the air and go, 'Wait a second — what is that? That doesn't look like everything else.'
"So when Simon and I first started talking we said, 'Let's do something that doesn't look, doesn't sound like anything else that's out there.' "
So they decided to set the show in West's home country. "Immediately, that separates you from everything else out there," Littlefield said.
"I wanted to do a show that stood out on American TV because the only reason I'd go into it is if it somehow was different," West said. "And so setting it in London, for me, made it stand out on TV. And when we tested it, that's the thing that scored the highest was the location, actually, above everything — the fact that it was in a different world with these different-sounding people."
But, again, "Keen Eddie" is sort of an old show in a new package. Instead of procedural drama like "CSI," this is a throwback to cop shows of the '70s in a lot of ways. Littlefield and West discussed "classic American television" they "grew up with" — shows like "Columbo" and "McCloud."
"Those characters were larger than life. They had a great sense of humor. They were on a mission, and they played the world of humor as well as stakes for them as characters," Littlefield said. "And the more we talked about it we said, 'You know, looking across the landscape, where are those guys? . . . Maybe there's a place where we could start and reinvent that notion for today's audience — and set it in London.'
"It's really a character show with humor . . . . The cases are a set-up as an excuse to have fun and to spend time with these characters and enjoy their company," West said.
As you can quickly surmise, Eddie isn't going anywhere even when the case is solved. Instead, he's going to be the brash American in the midst of the staid Brits — a character designed to be quirky amid a lot of other quirky characters. There's his sexy new flatmate, Fiona (Sienna Miller), with whom sparks fly; his not entirely straightlaced partner, Monty (Julian Rhind-Tutt); and his entirely straightlaced boss, Superintendent Johnson (Colin Salmon).
There's even a quirky dog named Pete (real name: Dozer).
"There's going to be a lot of fish-out-of-water stuff because one of the things that's deceptive about London, from my experience, you think, 'Oh, they'll understand what I'm talking about because they speak English.' But it's not always the case," Valley said. "And I think that in London, to a certain extent, they like their Americans kind of brash and loud . . . so they can compartmentalize and judge us and stuff like that."
Which is exactly what "Keen Eddie" does — compartmentalize British and American characters. But with an eye toward humor, some of which works and some of which doesn't.
It's actually a pleasant enough show that's entertaining and sometimes even funny. And, given that it's airing in July and August when about the only original programming on the networks is either some permutation of "American Idol" or "Joe Millionaire," "Keen Eddie" looks that much more attractive.
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com