The Good Guys: Bradley Whitford & Colin Hanks Take Dallas

The Good Guys is a new FOX action comedy from Matt Nix, the creator of the USA Network hit series Burn Notice, and stars Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) and Colin Hanks (Roswell) as an old-school cop and a modern-day detective solving crimes in Dallas.

Bradley Whitford as Dan Stark

In the 1970’s, Dan Stark (Whitford) and his partner Frank Savage were big-shot Dallas detectives who were heralded as American heroes after saving the Governor’s son.  But 30 years later, Stark is a washed-up detective who spends most of his time drunk or re-hashing his glory days.  His new partner, Jack Bailey (Hanks), is an ambitious, by-the-book and overall good detective who is a bit too snarky for his own good.

Because of his habit of undermining himself, Jack is given the thankless task of babysitting Stark and working on petty thefts, or pursuing a Code 58 – the Dallas police code for routine investigations – with Stark.

The cast also includes Jenny Wade (Reaper) as Assistant District Attorney Liz Traynor, a quick witted former girlfriend of Jack’s who hasn’t gotten over yet, and Diana Maria Riva (Side Order of Life) as the detectives’ boss Lieutenant Ana Ruiz.

Whitford and Hanks have terrific comic timing in this new buddy cop series. In a recent conference call with journalists, they answered some questions about the new series, giving viewers a taste of what to expect from the two of them.

Asked about filming on location in Dallas, Hanks said, “Well, it’s not ideal considering our lives are based in another state, but that’s part of joining the circus is you’re going to be playing out-of-town dates, so we sort of know that going in.  Dallas is a fantastic place to shoot and a fantastic place to be.  I could think of a lot of other places I’m really glad I’m not in right now.  They’ve got great crews out here, all very talented, very nice, very easy-going people that are fun to work with, who are very talented and very good at what they do.  And when you’re doing the grind of a TV show, you’re very grateful when you’re working with good people.  The city, I think, has been very helpful, and we’ve shot pretty much sort of all over the place.  No one’s yelled at us for ruining their day or anything like that or ruining their commute, so…”

The Good Guys feels like a throwback to some of the cop shows from the ’70s and ’80s, which led to this hilarious exchange when Whitford and Hanks were asked if they were reminded of shows they liked when they were younger:

Colin Hanks as Jack Bailey

Whitford: “Colin emerged from the womb much more recently than me.”

Hanks: “So you watched Leave it to Beaver and I watched C.H.I.P.S., is that what you’re implying?”

Whitford: “No, I really didn’t watch, I didn’t watch those shows. What was the one? For some reason, I watched the one with Cannon, with the big fat guy who would waddle when he ran. You know what I’m talking about?”

Hanks: “Matlock? I don’t know.”

Reporter: “I think that was Jake and the Fat Man.”

Hanks: “Oh, Jake and the Fat Man.”

Whitford: “Yes.”

Hanks: “Well, the name’s then – it’s all there in the title.”

Whitford: “Yes.”

Hanks: “It’s all there in the title. That’s like all those buddy sort of cop shows of that era, like that’s definitely like the vibe. That’s like the template for a little bit of our show. A flavor, if you will. But I sort of feel like it fits well in that canon of show – and canon is a very favorable word – but I think we also sort of have our own twists that make the show sort of unique and, more importantly, ours are – this is a comedy. I mean, we’re blowing stuff up and we’re chasing bad guys and we’re doing all that stuff too, but this is really much more of a comedy than any of those shows were, so it’s sort of poking fun in a homage-y kind of way, if homage-y would be used as a word.”

They followed up this with a pitch for why Americans should watch their show this summer instead of  going outside: air conditioning. Also, Whitford feels that “there’s way too much connecting going on out there. Watch some TV, America.”

The Good Guys will air a special preview tonight at 8 PM, returning on a weekly basis starting on June 7 at 9 PM.