THE LEOPARD SPOT

My quest to find another fictional professional football team called the Condors continues. They were the home team in the latest episode of 'Monk' ("Mr. Monk Makes The Playoffs"), and I know they've been used before.

Tuesday I eliminated one possibility - the "Sudden Death" episode of 'Murder, She Wrote' from the first season (March of 1985). I already knew that the main team involved was the Leopards, but I was hoping we'd hear the name of at least one other team they played against. The culmination of the episode took place at a game, but the announcers never once mentioned the name of the opposing team.

Later today I plan to watch the football-themed episode from the first season of 'McMillan & Wife' (like the 'MSW' episode, via Netflix Online); maybe I'll find what I'm seeking there. And that would be really great, since Stuart McMillan had been the Police Commissioner in San Francisco, where 'Monk' takes place.

Once I realized there wasn't much chance that any other football team was going to be mentioned during the episode, I was able to concentrate more on finding any other points of Toobworldian interest.

The book about 'Murder, She Wrote' confirmed this - the location for this episode was never stated. We don't know what city or what state is home for the Leopards, even though their future location was a major point of contention between some of the characters.

Because of the logistics of filming, everything about the surroundings suggested California, but I'd like to avoid that if possible; so many professional football teams are already located there on the Left Coast. 'Monk' had the Condors, my current Ahab-like O'Bsession; '1st & 10' had the California Bulls, and the most recent episode of 'Psych' had the Thunderbirds, which apparently called Santa Barbara home.

We were given a clue as to where it could be situated during their on-field practice. The team wore two types of helmets, each with a different logo. One team had the leopard-head logo, as seen here on Coach Pitillo's team wind-breaker; the other side's helmets were adorned with the letter "S".

I suppose this could stand for "scrimmage"? But I'm thinking it's an alternate design for when they play either home or away. And the "S" stands for the city with which they're affiliated.

Wherever the city was located, it had to be close enough for Mavis Krueger to take a last-minute flight from Las Vegas in the afternoon and arrive in the early evening that same day. So I'm thinking Sedona, Arizona, or Savannah, Georgia.

It definitely has to be somewhere the team can play without the fans having to wear winter clothing. (Although it aired in March of 1985, the football season is long over by then. This game and the murder that led up to it, probably happened in the early fall of the previous year, 1984.)

I'm leaning toward Savannah, Georgia, if only so that at some point (off-screen, of course), somebody on the team would end up needing the services of Ben Matlock, attorney from Atlanta!

BCnU!

Toby O'B