text: mr. monk and the candidate " mr. monk and the candidate " is the two - part pilot episode of the american comedy - drama detective television series monk . it introduces the character of adrian monk ( tony shalhoub ) , a private detective with obsessive – compulsive disorder and multiple phobias , and his assistant sharona fleming ( bitty schram ) , as well as police officers leland stottlemeyer ( ted levine ) and randy disher ( jason gray - stanford ) . in this episode , monk investigates an assassination attempt on a mayoral candidate . first envisioned in 1998 , monk went through development hell due to difficulties to find an actor to the main role . after successfully casting shalhoub , the series ' first episode was shot in vancouver , british columbia in 2001 . " mr. monk and the candidate " was written by andy breckman and directed by dean parisot . when the episode first aired in the united states on the usa network on july 12 , 2002 , it was watched by 4 . 8 million viewers . the episode was generally well received by critics , with most of the praise regarding shalhoub 's performance as the title character . plot in the past , adrian monk ( tony shalhoub ) was a san francisco police department 's investigator , but the death of his wife , trudy , led him to develop depression , obsessive – compulsive disorder and multiple phobias . now , as a private detective , monk investigates the murder of nicole vasquez ( michelle addison ) . later , a shooting occurs during a campaign rally , resulting in the bodyguard of mayoral candidate warren st. claire ( michael hogan ) getting killed . the incumbent mayor orders captain stottlemeyer ( ted levine ) to bring monk in on the case , and , as monk 's former supervisor , reluctantly , he does . monk meets st. claire , his wife miranda ( gail o 'grady ) , and their advisor gavin lloyd ( ben bass ) , and walks to the site where assassination attempt occurred . he discovers vasquez was a volunteer for the st. claire 's campaign . when he goes to st. claire campaign headquarters and questions a volunteer about vasquez , that volunteer later dies under suspicious circumstances , enhancing monk 's suspicion about a link between the vasquez and st. claire cases . monk 's assistant sharona fleming ( bitty schram ) suspects that st. claire 's wife miranda was the person who ordered her husband 's assassination . sharona 's theory is supported by the fact that st. claire is worth $ 150 million , but monk thinks about other hypotheses , including one in which miranda is having an affair with one of st. claire 's assistants . things become clearer in monk 's mind when he watches a news report on the assassination attempt . monk regroups everyone at the place of the campaign rally to recreate what happened that day . he explains that the assassin was not hired to kill warren st. claire , but to kill the bodyguard instead . when vasquez had discovered that lloyd was embezzling campaign funds , he approached the bodyguard about murdering vasquez . as the bodyguard refused to carry out the murder , lloyd had him killed . to prove his theory , monk shows a photograph of lloyd looking at the direction of the shooter just after the shots were fired . monk proves that lloyd 's sight line was obstructed , and that the gunshot 's echo would have masked the direction of the shot . as such , it was impossible that lloyd could have known where the shots were coming from unless he already knew where the gunman would be . production monk was originally envisioned as an inspector clouseau type of show by an american broadcasting company ( abc ) executive . learning about it , co - creator david hoberman came up with the idea of a detective with obsessive – compulsive disorder in 1998 . this was inspired by his own bout with self - diagnosed obsessive – compulsive disorder . initially , michael richards was considered , but abc and touchstone ( now abc studios ) worried that the audience would typecast him for more comedic roles after his previous work as cosmo kramer on the sitcom series seinfeld . hoberman revealed that the casting sessions were " depressing " . usa network 's executive vice president jeff wachtel stated that looking for the right actor to portray monk was " casting hell " . after two years of search , the producers still had not found an actor to play the part . as distributors of the show , abc and touchstone , could not find a lead actor , it entered in development hell . this situation remained until jackie lyons , a former abc 's executive who joined usa , recommended monk to her boss , wachtel . trying to change usa 's reputation of " a muscles - and - mayhem " network , wachtel and then usa president doug herzog , decided to charge on monk , " a cerebral series " . wanted to cast tony shalhoub , " someone who could bring the humor and passion of monk to life " , as monk . shalhoub initially was not interested , but after his manager 's insistence and the fact the pilot director was dean parisot , he accepted . parisot declared , " the pilot was a strong collaboration between myself , david hoberman , andy breckman and tony shalhoub . " sharona 's character was originally written as an african - american , but bitty schram , who " had this great maternal thing crossed with an east coast - type " , according to shalhoub , was cast instead . ted levine was cast in an audition in vancouver , british columbia as " the main cop " . jason gray - stanford accepted to work on it when he became aware of shalhoub and parisot 's involvement . he originally auditioned for the role of deputy mayor and , as he was not cast , parisot invited him to read for disher . gray - stanford agreed as he became excited to try for the role of levine 's sidekick . the pilot , originally developed as a tv film , was written by breckman and filmed in the fall of 2001 in vancouver . originally shot in 35 mm film , it was changed to super 16mm for budget reasons when usa acquired it . reception " mr. monk and the candidate " was first broadcast in the united states on the usa network at 9 pm est on july 12 , 2002 . according to nielsen media research , the episode was viewed by an estimated number of 4 . 8 million viewers with a 3 . 5 household rating . this rating made it the highest rated program on cable television that night . although judith s. gillies , writing for pittsburgh post - gazette , pointed it debuted in a period when other networks offer less competition , broadcasting & cable 's writer allison romano said the numbers were " impressive " . traylor howard , who replaced schram as monk 's assistant in the middle of the third season , elected it as her favorite episode along with " mr. monk vs. the cobra " . in the futon critic 's brian ford sullivan ranking of the fifty best episodes of 2002 , it was placed 17th . david bianculli , a writer for new york daily news , said the pilot " not only establishes the character of monk , it establishes the perfect tone for the show , a delicate but deft blend of wry humor and tender drama . " united feature syndicate 's critic kevin mcdonough praised the " whimsical " direction , and added " monk is not easy to love , but shines as a funny and fresh alternative to summer reruns . " it was also called " fresh and funny " by entertainment weekly 's bruce fretts , and a " invigorating " " fresh spring breeze in the middle of summer " by the washington post 's tom shales . variety 's phil gallo praised the " breezy gait of the storytelling , the nicely explained quirks of a brilliant mind and tony shalhoub 's sterling characterization " in his review . tom gliatto , a people 's critic , declared " this is probably not a clinically accurate portrayal of an ocd sufferer , but shalhoub 's gentle earnestness keeps it from being gimmicky . " san francisco chronicle 's tim goodman praised how ocd was used " creatively from humor to sadness . " chris hicks of deseret news declared , " this pilot episode is good enough to be a theatrical film ; in fact , it 's better than most features — funny , warm , character - driven and loaded with hilarious vignettes . " ethan alter of media life stated " [ t ] here is one funny scene in the pilot " , while criticizing the writing and direction . he also said the plot is unveiled in a " plodding , visually dull " way , especially when shalhoub is not present . however , alter wrote monk is " far from a bad show " , calling shalhoub " the best thing " about it . david zurawik , in a review for the the baltimore sun , said the major problem of it is trying to combine comedy and drama with detective fiction . zurawik , however , praised breckman and who " combine to deliver one of the most weirdly appealing television sleuths since richard belzer 's detective john munch of homicide : life on the street . " anita gates from the new york times declared , " there is a breakthrough of sorts in this episode , and it 's disappointing in its predictability " . shalhoub " is not the only reason to watch " monk , according to gates who praised the series for a joke " that even six feet under might hesitate to do . " although said " story - wise , there 's nothing in monk that makes the show terribly different " from other shows of the genre , rob owen of pittsburgh post - gazette praised shalhoub 's portrayal of monk as well as monk itself , calling him " welcome addition to tv 's eccentric sleuths " .