I remember this show fondly from the Comedy Network. It was a parody of those old detective movies where the gruff private eye would get hired by a sexy young woman to look into a crime and basically come to her rescue. Some funny stuff and the actor was good.
9 Reviews
Ol' Butchy is mostly hit or miss
petemustard3 January 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I've always loved this show. I used to watch it at college at the time it was being put out (season 1), and found it to be comfort food for late night TV viewing in my dorm. While the acting may have been abysmal(purposefully) and the production value less than nothing, the writing was stellar. Butch Patterson was a proto-Kenny Powers, in that he was an anti-hero that dared you to root for him. It was genius, and having had that for my experience, always wondered how it got cancelled.
Greg Lawrence's mono-toned and machined-gunned delivery of his derogatory remarks (self-inflicted or otherwise) was utter genius.
Having said that, I've always wondered how there was so much hate for the show. Everybody knocked it, and talked about the bad acting and bad production. I chalked it up to people missing the entire point of the series.
I recently bought the entire series based on my experience with season one only. What a mistake. While season one continues to make me cry in laughter, the other two seasons are UNWATCHABLE. I remember screaming, "NO! NO! NO! NO!" when I realized that the winning formula for the first season being changed right in front of my eyes.
My complaints of 2nd and 3rd season.
-Full color episodes. The first season operated in a some sort of matte. It gave it a fantastic noire feel. In the following season, it was full blown color. It sucked. Made it seem way more real than it should.
-Bottles are generic labels. First season was littered with a mountain of bottles labelled clearly by real alcohol labels. Season 2 and 3, had generic labels written on them ("vodka"). Makes it seem like a cheap set, but not in a funny way. What happened? Did "Black Velvet" watch season one, and then change their mind about sponsorship?
-Butch Patterson has a personality. This is the worst thing of all. In the first season, Ol' Butchy seemed almost like a robot. His single dimension, and single toned characterization was absolutely hilarious. In the second season and beyond, he has inflection in voice, he winks, and worst of all, he's been humanized a bit. IT'S HORRID.
-Too much focus on other characters. Season one, revolved mostly around Butch. In the following seasons, he almost takes a back seat to the other actors.
I don't know, it's almost like Greg Lawrence took what had been a very clever show, and tried to make it even more clever, and more self-parodying. Which is a problem, because it had that perfect and delicate balance to begin with in season one. Oh well, you know what they say about there being an extremely fine line between clever and stupid...
I still give this series a 7 out of 10, base solely on the strength of season one. However, I'd avoid season 2 and 3 like bird flu. There is NO redeeming values from those episodes. They are unwatchable.
Greg Lawrence's mono-toned and machined-gunned delivery of his derogatory remarks (self-inflicted or otherwise) was utter genius.
Having said that, I've always wondered how there was so much hate for the show. Everybody knocked it, and talked about the bad acting and bad production. I chalked it up to people missing the entire point of the series.
I recently bought the entire series based on my experience with season one only. What a mistake. While season one continues to make me cry in laughter, the other two seasons are UNWATCHABLE. I remember screaming, "NO! NO! NO! NO!" when I realized that the winning formula for the first season being changed right in front of my eyes.
My complaints of 2nd and 3rd season.
-Full color episodes. The first season operated in a some sort of matte. It gave it a fantastic noire feel. In the following season, it was full blown color. It sucked. Made it seem way more real than it should.
-Bottles are generic labels. First season was littered with a mountain of bottles labelled clearly by real alcohol labels. Season 2 and 3, had generic labels written on them ("vodka"). Makes it seem like a cheap set, but not in a funny way. What happened? Did "Black Velvet" watch season one, and then change their mind about sponsorship?
-Butch Patterson has a personality. This is the worst thing of all. In the first season, Ol' Butchy seemed almost like a robot. His single dimension, and single toned characterization was absolutely hilarious. In the second season and beyond, he has inflection in voice, he winks, and worst of all, he's been humanized a bit. IT'S HORRID.
-Too much focus on other characters. Season one, revolved mostly around Butch. In the following seasons, he almost takes a back seat to the other actors.
I don't know, it's almost like Greg Lawrence took what had been a very clever show, and tried to make it even more clever, and more self-parodying. Which is a problem, because it had that perfect and delicate balance to begin with in season one. Oh well, you know what they say about there being an extremely fine line between clever and stupid...
I still give this series a 7 out of 10, base solely on the strength of season one. However, I'd avoid season 2 and 3 like bird flu. There is NO redeeming values from those episodes. They are unwatchable.
One of my favourite series ever!
tsnow422 March 2007
This series is innovative and exceptionally clever, with most of the humor deep under the surface, mocking several genres and sacred cows at the same time. What first appears as extremely juvenile humor, reveals itself over time to be an insightful social and psychological critique with a chilling message: personal control and ambition may be the seductive mantra of the day, but they lead to a disconnectedness from others which can cause the ceiling to fall on you and the floor to drop out from below. And in this series, it happens to characters who are convinced that they are just about to grab the brass ring.
The acting is intentionally terrible--for some of the cast, this is a reflection of weak abilities (I had never heard of most of these players before this series and haven't seen them since), while for others it clearly has taken hard work and concentration to 'act down' to this level.
The main character, Butch Patterson, is a remarkable hero, someone who seems shallow and transparent, motivated by the most basic of male instincts. This is someone who everyone thinks they know and understand, both for the cast and for the audience. Personally, though, I have never met anyone like this and hope I never do. Underneath the irritating but beguiling exterior, revealing itself through incidents of 'unbelievable luck for such a dumb guy', is a deep, dark and calculating character who gradually sucks all of the supporting characters into a vortex of disaster. He gives most of them a chance for redemption until the final stroke but does not help them to achieve it. In a Biblical context, Butch is a Fallen Angel who lets self-assured people reveal just how spiritually naked they really are.
This series is well worth looking at again if you had negative feelings about it the first time.
The acting is intentionally terrible--for some of the cast, this is a reflection of weak abilities (I had never heard of most of these players before this series and haven't seen them since), while for others it clearly has taken hard work and concentration to 'act down' to this level.
The main character, Butch Patterson, is a remarkable hero, someone who seems shallow and transparent, motivated by the most basic of male instincts. This is someone who everyone thinks they know and understand, both for the cast and for the audience. Personally, though, I have never met anyone like this and hope I never do. Underneath the irritating but beguiling exterior, revealing itself through incidents of 'unbelievable luck for such a dumb guy', is a deep, dark and calculating character who gradually sucks all of the supporting characters into a vortex of disaster. He gives most of them a chance for redemption until the final stroke but does not help them to achieve it. In a Biblical context, Butch is a Fallen Angel who lets self-assured people reveal just how spiritually naked they really are.
This series is well worth looking at again if you had negative feelings about it the first time.
Not Great But Not Awful Either
MikeSNation7 February 2017
I watched season one and part of the next season. The big problem with this show is I think they ran out of ideas. I'd give the first season 6.5 out of 10 if it was on its own which is very high compared to other shows on the same Canadian Comedy Network which were pretty well universally awful. Unfortunately season two dragged it way down. The acting was nothing special but the lead guy was OK and got some laughs, again you have to compare it to other like shows on the same Canadian Comedy Network, if so you see that it deserves a bit of a bump. If they had not done a second season or just waited until they were ready or had better ideas, the show would have held up a lot better. Maybe their budget got slashed or something, who knows? Worth checking out if it ever comes on in reruns again.
Brilliant Film Noir Naive Parody
doug171714 February 2011
You'll hate it or love it. Entirely self effacing main character with no scruples beyond getting drunk and getting laid. Lawrence's dialogue is brilliantly obscene and the main focus of a show with the most threadbare of plots. Whenever you start to empathize with Butchy, Lawrence takes it away by plumbing even greater depths of debasement and depravity. The other characters are cartoonish except perhaps Blanche, but the show works. Don't expect great season enders, as the entire series is a merely vehicle for Lawrence's brilliant humour. Show ran for three seasons with at least a dozen episodes each. Pretty good for Canadian fare, you'll walk away or laugh and pour yourself a drink.
Blah
marchingbandgeek17 December 2013
This show wasn't very funny. I see what they were trying to do but they didn't pull it off very well. It was still better than most of the other shows you would see on the comedy network but that doesn't make it good. I think the show deserves a better rating than the 2.0 out of 10.0 it has on IMDb right now but it still should only be about a 4.0, which is I think generous. The show was put together well and looked professional but the characters were the kind of same stock characters for film noire parodies that you have seen before and seen done better. The show didn't really make me laugh much but I appreciate what they tried to do and at least they were doing interesting stories. The people who did this are the same people who did Kevin Spencer which I think was a pretty good show.
Not Funny
randycoates21 February 2008
Butch Patterson: Private Dick was not funny at all. I would say it is easily one of my least funny shows that ever aired on The Comedy Network, which is saying a lot when you realize that's the network that aired Gutterball Alley, Kevin Spencer, Comedy at Club 54 and reruns of Air Farce (the only thing worse and less funny than Air Farce is old reruns of Air Farce).
The main character (obviously Butch Patterson) wasn't funny and he wasn't a very good actor. The jokes were all very juvenile and you could see them coming from a mile away. The worst part of the show was the cheap, amateur production values.... I know that Canadian shows all have that same problem because of funding but it just looked bad. It all could have been forgiven if the show was funny but it just wasn't at all.
The main character (obviously Butch Patterson) wasn't funny and he wasn't a very good actor. The jokes were all very juvenile and you could see them coming from a mile away. The worst part of the show was the cheap, amateur production values.... I know that Canadian shows all have that same problem because of funding but it just looked bad. It all could have been forgiven if the show was funny but it just wasn't at all.
Super Duper
mrryanscott-1553028 July 2018
Funny Stuff
brice-945-4100277 July 2018
This show was funny, it seemed like it had a very cheap budget though. Some of the jokes were pretty clever and I like the idea behind the show of doing a parody of old detective movies. The lead guy was pretty funny but nobody in this was a great actor or anything. The writing was not the best with very thin stories and predictable twists but like I said there were some good jokes.
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