Dick Spanner, P.I.
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Dick Spanner, P.I. is a 1986 Stop Motion miniseries by Gerry Anderson and Terry Adlam. It consists of twenty-two six-minute shorts, divided half-and-half into "The Case of the Human Cannonball" and "The Case of the Maltese Parrot". It homages and parodies the detective stories of Pulp Magazines past, especially Raymond Chandler, and the Film Noir genre. The series has been uploaded to YouTube.
Tropes used in Dick Spanner, P.I. include:
- Androids and Detectives: Dick Spanner is both.
- Catch Phrase: "Jumpin' Jehosapher!", "Another dumb move...", "Hell's bells!", and "Guess I can't win 'em all."
- Cliff Hanger: Most episodes end with one -- usually not with Dick hanging from a cliff, but falling from it.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Dick's native city is nicknamed "The Big Pear", and he visits "Ivywood". (Mexico's just Mexico.)
- First-Person Smartass/Private Eye Monologue: What pulp detective story would be complete without it?
- Hardboiled Detective: Dick Spanner, P.I., of course.
- Running Gag: Dick rummaging in his pockets and pulling out the wrong thing (often something that he had hoped for the last time he rummaged).
- Shout Out:
- The opening pokes fun at Star Wars, with the "Not so long ago in a parallel universe not far from here..." title card and the long spacecraft flying from overhead (complete with "Caution Long Vehicle" bumper sticker).
- Some of the city detritus includes a cube from the Terrahawks series (which Anderson and Adlam both worked on).
- Speaking Simlish: Because the main source of dialogue is Dick Spanner's narration, the actual conversation of the characters is often simplified (though occasionally they just echo his narration of their conversation). For foreign characters, the dialogue generally consists of food and clothing of whatever country, spoken rapidly in the appropriate accent.
- Visual Pun: Hoo boy. For the sake of your liver, don't make a drinking game out of it!
- Visual Innuendo: Most establishing shots of "The Big Pear" focus on a suntan advertisement, consisting of a woman with a "big pair".
- Wretched Hive: Pretty much every place seen in the series.
- X Meets Y: Guy Noir meets Inspector Gadget.