TVXOHOF, 07/2011 - AMOS BURKE

Here it is, the middle of July, I'm on the eve of my vacation, and I forgot to induct a new member into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame for the month. And I better do it now, because by the time I get back, it'll be time to induct our August Westerner!

And so, we're inducting the wealthiest police detective in all of Telemerica:

AMOS BURKE

This month's choice was spurred by a memorial induction back in May - Honey West. (She was chosen in tribute to Anne Francis, who died earlier in the year.)

Honey West is a multiversal who got her start in a series of novels, but her life in Toobworld began with an episode of 'Burke's Law'. From there she launched into her own series and finally returned to 'Burke's Law' decades later (but now with the married name of "Best".)

The main character of 'Burke's Law' was the type of detective you could probably only find in Toobworld - Amos Burke was a millionaire who didn't bother to lead a life of leisure. Intead he was a captain in the Homicide Division of the Los Angeles Police Department. Eventually he became the chief of the bureau.

(As such, certain LAPD detectives may have worked for him - Lt. Columbo, Pepper Anderson, Dennis Becker, Baretta, Hunter, Starsky & Hutch, and the Major Crimes squad - but before Assistant Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, known for her skills as 'The Closer', joined the team.)

In its third season, Amos Burke became a globe-trotting spy who answered to "The Man" - 'Burke's Law' became 'Amos Burke, Secret Agent'. At first it was the Toobworld Central ruling that this was an Amos Burke from an alternate TV dimension. Same man, different life.

But because I wanted to make Mr. Sin (a character played by Michael Dunn) into an alias for Dr. Loveless, I needed to keep the show's reboot in Earth Prime-Time.

So now Amos Burke took a sabbatical from the LAPD at the government's request and worked as an intelligence operative.

Again, only in Toobworld.

By the early 1990's, we learned that not only had Amos Burke resumed his duties with the LAPD years before, but he was now in charge of the Homicide Division but also that he was working with his son Peter.

(This is not the same Peter Burke who now works for the FBI in New York, as seen in 'White Collar'. But he could be a nephew to Amos Burke.)

So Captain Burke's candidacy for membership in the Hall does have a bit of a grey area. There are two versions of 'Burke's Law' - the original and the sequel - and then there's the sequel of 'Amos Burke, Secret Agent'. (While it followed immediately after the original series, it had a radical change in premise as well as a new title. Claiming it as a different series is the same argument made regarding 'Archie Bunker's Place' during Archie's induction.)

Add to that Amos Burke as the introduction to Honey West, so his show had two sequels and a spin-off. If you search Inner Toob for 'Burke's Law', you'll see that I've made plenty of theoretical connections to other shows as well.

Besides all of that, Amos Burke was quite the colorful character, highly prized in Toobworld's Tele-folks Directory.

And that's why he's "Mr. July" for 2011 in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame.

BCnU!