Tony Shalhoub returned to his iconic character of Adrian Monk for a long-awaited movie in the 2023 TV schedule, called Mr. Monk's Last Case. The project debuted for Monk fans with Peacock Premium subscriptions almost exactly fourteen years after the original series came to an end on USA, but that didn't mean a new cast of characters to surround the titular character. Mr. Monk's Last Case recruited nearly all of the key actors from the original run of the series to reprise their roles for one more mystery. Tony Shalhoub spoke with CinemaBlend about one absent character he originally wanted in the movie.
Written by original series creator Andy Breckman, Mr. Monk's Last Case brought back Ted Levine as Leland Stottlemeyer, Traylor Howard as Natalie teeger, Jason Gray-Stanford as Randy Disher, Melora Hardin as Trudy Monk, and Héctor Elizondo as Dr. Bell in addition to Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk. The movie was full of nods to the past even as it told a brand new story. When I spoke with Shalhoub and Breckman, I asked if there was anybody who they wanted to bring back but were unable to, and the leading man shared:
I thought, early on before we actually saw the script, that there might be a way to weave Ambrose, Monk's smarter, more troubled brother, into it. But in the end, I understood why. I mean, Andy had only so much story and we couldn't spread it too thin. We had to serve all of our regular characters really well. Stottlemeyer and Disher and Natalie and even Dr. Bell and Trudy too. We had to serve those characters fully, and had we brought more of the recurring characters in, it would have gotten a little bit diluted, I'm afraid.
In Tony Shalhoub's early vision for Mr. Monk's Last Case, John Turturro would have reprised his role as Monk's brilliant but severely agoraphobic brother Ambrose. Although Ambrose only appeared in a few of the show's 125 episodes, he was a memorable character, and Turturro won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance back in 2004. Monk had a knack for attracting talented stars for guest appearances!
Shalhoub – who won the Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy three times for Monk – ultimately understood why Ambrose wasn't the right fit for the movie. Creator Andy Breckman went on to comment on another character who didn't appear as part of Mr. Monk's Last Case's new caper:
I'm glad we found a way to get Sharona in, at least through a side door.
While Bitty Schram was not part of the cast of Mr. Monk's Last Case, she did appear in the flashback that opened the TV movie. Sharona was Monk's original assistant and arguably key to the early success of the series, which would run for a total of eight seasons. Fans might have been happy to see Schram reunited with Tony Shalhoub fresh off his time on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but the flashback was still a nice tribute to the former Monk mainstay. If you haven't checked out the movie yet, take a look at the trailer:
It remains to be seen if this was the first of multiple new Monk projects with Shalhoub reprising his role in more elaborate ways than his surprise return during COVID lockdowns, but USA Network may be returning to scripted shows following Mr. Monk's Last Case's release and the wild success of Suits via streaming. As for the original series, you can find all eight seasons of Monk as well as the new TV movie streaming on Peacock now.
