The snoopers

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Television series
German title The snoopers
Original title Tenspeed and Brown Shoe
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1979 to 1980
length 45 minutes
Episodes 12 + 1
genre Thriller
idea Stephen J. Cannell
music Mike Post
First broadcast January 27, 1980
German-language
first broadcast		 September 23, 1980

Die Schnüffler (original title: Tenspeed and Brown Shoe ) was an American detective and crime series that was produced by Paramount in 1979/1980 on behalf of ABC . After the pilot episode, only twelve more episodes were created, only nine of which were broadcast on Das Erste in Germany from September 1980 .

The series is about the private detectives Early LeRoy Turner ( Ben Vereen ) and Lionel Whitney ( Jeff Goldblum ), an unequal couple: Turner is a former probationer, the lanky Whitney draws his knowledge from trivial novels. His hero is the narrow-gauge sniffer Mark Savage from the pen of crime writer Stephen J. Cannell (a kind of cameo of the series inventor).

In the style of the fictional character, Whitney and Turner stumble from one mishap to the next while solving their criminal cases in a charmingly unconventional way. The constant topic is the financial difficulties of the two, which Turner in particular knows how to solve creatively but often beyond legality. He draws on skills from his criminal past, which he also uses to solve the cases. Running gag is that these scenes are introduced acoustically with the sound of a bicycle bell. Whitney, on the other hand, adheres strictly to the law, which often leads to funny conflicts between the two. Nonetheless, Whitney supports his friend when it comes to tricking Turner's probation officer .

A stylistic element of the series is the background narration when Whitney reads in Mark Savage books:

  • Mark Savage, you are a really great man! she whispered. My knees shook holes in my blue worsted trousers, my nerves trembled and vibrated like ten pounds of lemon god food on a cracked china plate.
  • Yes, she was fragile and they tried to kill her. (...) Lilian, who had managed to slip past my high-walled, alarm-equipped personality.
  • The two cops had blown the door of my Hollywood office, kicked the hinges away, and came in quickly and dangerously. The big one had a face like a blueberry pie that had exploded in the oven ...

occupation

Episode guide

  1. The fall of the sad dancer
  2. The fall of the vulnerable angel
  3. The case with the corpse in the closet
  4. The case with the great unknown
  5. The case of the gullible millionaire
  6. The case of the hot-blooded gangster
  7. The case of the repentant crook
  8. The fall of the falls
  9. The case with the hot diamond

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