Hot licks & private dicks

It's been almost 50 years since Craig Stevens and Lola Albright sat at Mother's each week, sharing a cigarette and listening to smokey jazz late into the night until a pair of creepy lugs would waddle in to escort them outside and into the back of some crimelord's limousine. Those were great times...

But what I really want to talk about is Eyes, the coolest private eye series on TV since, well, since Lola treated Craig's head wounds.

Hey, its soundtrack may not be Henry Mancini, but I highly recommend this new ABC show (Wednesday nights at 10:00).

Tim Daly is terrific as Harlan Judd, owner of Judd Risk Management, a high-tech investigations firm that hires itself out to only the wealthiest clients for only the most discreet jobs. Each hour-long episode is packed with crosses and doublecrosses, blackmail, kidnappings, and plenty of sex and violence. Oh, and a lot of humor. The writing is top-notch. The entire cast is great, with Rick Worthy being a standout.

Eyes has only been on the air for two weeks. I understand the ratings have been good (it follows the popular Lost and Alias on ABC's Wednesday schedule). But just in case Eyes suddenly vanishes into the quagmire of doomed series, catch it now.