This day in 2002 marked the debut of the detective series, Monk.

The series, which ran eight seasons on the USA Network, starred Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, a gifted detective whose career was derailed by a nervous breakdown brought on by the tragic, mysterious death of his wife.

Plagued by myriad phobias and extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder, Monk is able to work as a police consultant with the help of a nurse/assistant, played the first three seasons by Bitty Schram, and later by Traylor Howard. Supporting cast also included Ted Levine as Captian Stottlemeyer, a long-time friend of Monk and head of the homicide division of the San Francisco Police Department, and Jason Gray-Stanford as Lt. Randy Disher.

For his role as Monk, Shalhoub received eight consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and won three times, in 2003, 2005 and 2006.