Poor, poor Darren McGavin.

Did you notice how quickly he rushed through his part in that scene? Every scene with him was like that. He just did his bit, got the fuck out quickly and collected his check.

I couldn't believe they put such an awful show on the air. What was more unbelievable were the convoluted reasons they came up with for the guy to shrink himself down.

I mean, you would think that a private detective would have plenty of reasons to shrink down to a small size. It would be the perfect way to get past security or spy on people. So why did the writers have him shrink down?

Well, in one episode, Small & Frye were hired by the daughter of a famous violinist to recover her father's stolen Stradivarius which had been passed on to him by his teacher and mentor. Frye doesn't use his shrinking ability at all to find the violin. He and Small track it down with regular detective techniques. Unfortunately, there's a small mishap and the violin is smashed when the thief tumbles down some stairs during his escape attempt. It is then they discover the violin has always been a fake. Apparently, the teacher gave his student a counterfeit Stradivarius as a sort of "magic feather" that gave the violinist the confidence to become a world-class artist.

So they get another violin and give it to him. However, to make him think it's a real Stradivarius, Frye has to shrink down, sneak into his room and glue a fake Stradivarius label inside the violin. Unfortunately, the violinist comes back into the room at that very moment to practice with Frye TRAPPED INSIDE THE VIOLIN!

Hilarity fails to ensue, despite what the laugh track was trying to tell us.