Ellen: Morgan, P.I.

Ellen: Morgan, P.I.
ABC
January 10, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
B

I ended up liking this Dava Savel story more than I expected, even though it lays down the groundwork for a triangle among Paige, Spence, and Detective Matt Liston (Dan Gauthier, who was one of Sam's better one-episode boyfriends on Who's the Boss?).  A plague of robberies have broken out in the neighborhood of Ellen's bookstore.  She and her friends, especially Spence, play amateur detectives, but Paige is mostly interested in attracting young, good-looking Detective Liston.  Spence wants to see if he and Paige have been fighting so much because of sexual tension, but at this point she's not at all interested.  The romantic lines cross over, along with some pretty good slapstick with Ellen, and it's even nice to see Spence play hero in the end.  (Well, at the very end, the thief charges Spence with assault.)

Noelle Hannibal is as always an uncredited Customer.