SF detective ‘Monk’ returns, reveals the real Tony Shalhoub had coronavirus (2024)

Tony Shalhoub broke news in both his fictional and nonfictional worlds, returning as San Francisco detective Adrian Monk from the TV series by the same name — then announcing his positive test for coronavirus.

Shalhoub appeared on “The At-Home Variety Show” on NBC’s Peaco*ck streaming service, introduced Monday, May 11, by host Seth MacFarlane as “a guy who played a germophobe long before it was a key to survival.”

“I hope you’re all being careful and following the protocol. We really are all Monk now,” Shalhoub said from his New York apartment. “Last month my wife (actress Brooke Adams) and I came down with the virus and it was a pretty rough few weeks, but we realized so many other people have and had it a lot worse.”

“Monk” ran 2002-09, starring Shalhoub as a super-smart city detective who is hampered by obsessive-compulsive disorder, including fears of heights, enclosed spaces and germs. Shalhoub now stars in Amazon Prime’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

While the series was mostly shot in Los Angeles and Vancouver, Shalhoub and the “Monk” filmmakers visited San Francisco frequently during the show’s eight seasons to shoot exteriors.

During an interview with The Chroniclein 2003, Shalhoub said the show “plays off of everyone’s kind of deep-seated feelings about their environments.”

“Most people just rise above them, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not in there,” he said. “For Monk, they’re not in the back of his mind. They’re in the forefront.”

Now those fears are on everyone’s minds, front and center. Shalhoub and several “Monk” cast members, including Capt. Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), Lt. Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) and Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), reunited in character on a videoconference, where Shalhoub-as-Monk microwaved his mail, socially distanced from his computer and was chided by his friends for hoarding because he was “down to my last 12 cases of hand sanitizer.”

“It’s not hoarding, Randy, if you bought them 20 years ago,” Monk said.

After revealing his coronavirus diagnosis, Shalhoub was interrupted by the 7 p.m. New York public cheers for frontline workers.

“At-Home Variety Show”: Short-form video series airs weekdays, featuring NBC stars past and present and raising funds and awareness for Feeding America, United Way and Americares.