Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: Sweating Bullets

February 28th, 2005

Filed under: TV

Sweating BulletsIn the early ’90s, CBS ran a series of crime shows after the late news known as “Crime Time After Prime Time.” This was before CBS lured David Letterman from NBC, and the shows folded soon after Letterman started.

Each night was a different one-hour show. There were a wide variety of shows including Silk Stalkings and Forever Knight, which both went on to glory elsewhere (Stalking on USA and Knight in syndication). I also recall a show about a judge by day, turned leather-clad motorcycle vigilante by night.

The best show, however, was Sweating Bullets. Taking place in the Florida city of Key Mariah, the main character was Nick Slaughter, a former DEA agent turned down-on-his-luck private eye. His partner was Sylvie Girard, a former travel agent. I don’t remember their exact connection; I think the first episode was Nick clearing Sylvie of a murder charge, and she decided to quit her travel agency job and became a partner in the detective business. There were also the detective show staples: the tough cop with a heart of gold and the friend who owns a bar. The show was light hearted, cheaply produced, but fun. It could probably be summed up best as a low -rent Moonlighting meets Magnum P.I.

After Crime Time After Prime Time ended, Sweating Bullets limped along in syndication for a year or so before finally being cancelled. (In some markets it was known as Tropical Heat instead of Sweating Bullets - it still had the same nice West-Indian sounding theme song though).

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5 Responses to “ Monday’s Guilty Pleasure: Sweating Bullets ”

  1. Layne
    February 28th, 2005 at 8:37 pm

    Ah, nostalgia for Canadian-produced syndicated crap…funny thing is, some of those genre shows were actually nominated for Gemini awards, aka the Canadian Emmys.

  2. the Comics Shrew
    February 28th, 2005 at 8:43 pm

    I also recall a show about a judge by day, turned leather-clad motorcycle vigilante by night.

    … That would be Dark Justice, which was one of my guilty pleasures.

  3. Scott
    February 28th, 2005 at 10:17 pm

    Ah yes, that was the name!

  4. Lyle
    February 28th, 2005 at 10:45 pm

    I used to be a fan of “Crimetime after Primetime” which also included Scene of the Crime an anthology series EP’ed by Stephen J Cannel which used the same cast in every episode (playing different roles, natch).

    I also recall Dangerous Curves which surprisingly turned out to be far less exploitative than the title suggested. (IIRC, it was about an investigation agency completely staffed by women. The show itself — unless I’ve suppressed the memories — was jiggle free and the protagonists were all good at their jobs.)

    There was an earlier version of “Crimetime after Primetime” which included a cute detective show called Diamonds where a acting couple playing detectives in real life buy an agency as a publicity stunt and end up running when their show is cancelled.

    I remember liking Sweating Bullets quite a bit… then again most of Crimetime was pretty enjoyable stuff.

    I watch too much TV.

  5. Scott
    March 1st, 2005 at 10:00 am

    I remember watching Scene of the Crime a few times, and not particularly liking it, the mysteries just weren’t that good. “Crimetime After Primetime” started my junior year in college, so I watched it way too much myself (what? you expected me to study?)

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