Sadly, all good things must come to an end.  After 7 wondrous seasons, USA Network’s Monk is set to begin the eighth and final season.  As the series concludes, all of your questions will be answered.  In addition to the return of Sharona and resolution to Monk's efforts for reinstatement to the SFPD, the final episodes will concentrate on solving the murder of Monk’s beloved wife, Trudy.  As the season kicks off, Monk is thrilled to act as a bodyguard to his favorite actress, a former child star (Perkins) who published a tell-all book, when an attempt is made on her life.

Also, as part of the final season, USA Network will present the first, live action, original Web series on http://www.usanetwork.com called Little Monk, which is a spin-off of the critically acclaimed series.  Little Monk will premiere during an all new episode of Monk on Friday, August 21st with a two-minute sneak peek.  Viewers can then go online for the conclusion along with additional webisodes to run weekly.

Series star, Tony Shaloub, recently answered questions about his character, and the long successful run that the show has enjoyed.  Monk, will premiere its eighth and final season on Friday, August 7^th, at 9:00/8:00 central. 

Question> What’s the lasting impression you want audience members to take from watching your show and watching you?

 Tony>  That’s a great question.  I think, if I had to choose one thing, I would say that I would want people to take away this idea that sometimes people’s problems or neuroses are really the things that are kind of a blessing in disguise, and even though there’s, you know, sometimes there’s pain associated with these things that sometimes in the face of adversity with obstacles to overcome, people can really kind of soar and find their higher selves and I think that’s what we’ve tried to do on the show is we’ve portrayed this character as someone who turns his liability, his liabilities into assets per his life.  And that there’s – and I hope that when we get to the end – I don’t know this for sure, but I hope when we get to the end of season eight that we’ll have seen some real healing from Monk, and I believe in that.  I believe that there is healing and that there is change, and that all of those things are – they are just really, really key to all of our lives. 

Question> Did you have any input into the changes on Monk? From the ads, it seems that he’s sort of looser and more comedic. You  mentioned that you really wanted to do a Galaxy Quest II.  Do you have a preference for comedy or drama or horror, because you’ve done Thir13en Ghosts, and you had a big part in 1408?

 Tony>  Well, I don’t really have a preference, to be honest.  In fact, my preference, my only preference is to have a lot of variety and diversity in the material that I work on.  I’ve been so fortunate throughout my career, when I was doing theater, more theater than anything else, and when I was doing films that I got a chance just to do a broad range of things.  In fact, a lot of my choices that I made were about that very thing.  Every project that I had an opportunity to do or chose to do, I wanted it to be different from the last thing I did, and I think that’s why I have a good, you know, I had kind of a diverse kind of résumé.  I’m really – it’s what I set out to do as an actor originally.

Question> Have you found that the longer you play Monk, that the differences between you, Tony, and the character has eroded, which is to say, have you become more like him, and he more like you, over the years?

 Tony>  I would say yes, absolutely.  I mean, I resisted it for a long time.  I wrestled with it.  I fought with it.  I was in denial about it and all of that.  But inevitably, you know, there have been some – you know, as I said, in interviews too.  I feel like I’ve been infected in some way by this character.  Tendencies, you know, minor tendencies that I’ve had in my life prior to Monk have just kind of ballooned and expanded and it’s inevitably.  I mean, I just, there’s no point in trying to – I’ve given up trying to resist it.  I’ve had to just surrender to it.  I mean, I’m hoping that when Monk is over that I’ll have some period of recovery, but I’m not holding my breath.

Question> How is the final season structured?  The season premiere seemed like a very standard, great, hilarious episode, but when do we get into the wrapping of things up?

 Tony>  Excellent question.  What the writers have in mind is to do, you know, as you said, our normal standalone episodes for the first, I would say, 11, because we’re doing 16, as usual.  So the first 11, I would say, are going to be standalone, and then the last 5 is when we’ll be kind of connected.  They’ll have a connected tissue, and we’ll start to get into the wrap up, not just of Monk, but of some of the other characters as well.  Then what they want to do is the final two episodes, number 15 and 16, it’ll just be one story, a two-part, you know, aired in two segments.  Just to follow – that episode, I mean that two-part will involve the wrap up of Trudy’s murder, you know, the solving of Trudy’s murder.

Question> What was the deciding factor to make this season the final season?

 Tony>  Well, I think there were a lot of things at play there.  I mean, long conversations that I had with Andy Breckman, you know, one of the co-creators and the main writer.  We’ve been talking all along about how many seasons to do, how many episodes that he had in him, you know, as the writer.  He, at one point, said that he didn’t think really he had more than six seasons, and then he kind of got a gigantic second wind, and we did the seventh, and we weren’t sure when we were doing the seventh if the network was going to go with us on the eighth.  But to make a long story short, we all kind of agreed that the eighth season would be it for all of us.   I think it will have 124 episodes by the end of the eighth season, and I think we’re all ready to resolve the storyline and move on to other things.  We certainly don’t want to go too long and have the quality start to wane and just limp to the finish line.  We want to go out while we’re still really, we feel really that we’re doing great work and delivering really strong episodes.  We want to go out on a high.

Question> How many of the old faces for past episodes are we going to see as a way of saying good-bye this last season?

 Tony>  Well, we’ll certainly, I’m sure you’ve probably read because there’s been a lot of publicity about Sharona coming back.  Bitty Schram is going to come back for episode – I believe it’s episode number 12, which will start shooting in September.  And they want to bring that character back and kind of wrap it up and kind of give that a good send off.  A lot of people really missed that character and the dynamic between Monk and Sharona.  And so we’re all looking forward to that.

 Of course, we’ll see Harold Krenshaw comes back, one of my favorites.  He’s the other OCD patient who is always kind of in competition with Monk, played so brilliantly by Tim Bagley.  He’s going to return for at least a couple of episodes. 

 And well, that’s it.  I mean, of course, Dr. Bell, the psychiatrist will be in a number of episodes.  I don’t think – people have asked if we’re going to see Ambrose.  I don’t really think that's in the cards simply because that’s … John is so busy.  It’s difficult to schedule him in.  I mean, if I had my way, we’d do kind of what Seinfeld did and bring back almost every guest star there ever was on the show, but ours is going to go in a different direction.

Question> How involved were you with the development of the character of Monk, and are there any clues that point to the potential killer for Trudy besides the garage?

 Tony>  Well, I wasn’t really there when the character was created.  The script was around for a number of years before it came to me, although I do feel that I’ve had some significant input.  When I came to the project, the script and the character was somewhat different, and I had long conversations with Andy Breckman about kind of morphing the character more towards to what I wanted to do, more to my strengths.  The original script that I read was somewhat more – was a little more slap sticky, and I wanted to emphasize the kind of darker aspects of this character and more … and so that was a conversation that a lot of the producers had in the beginning.  And I think Andy did such a great job morphing what he had originally written to fit me and what I wanted to do. 

 As far as the other clues, well, I don’t want to give away too much before these episodes air because I think it’s going to be a lot more interesting for people to discover things as we go along.

Question> A big loss for your show throughout these years was the loss of Stanley Kamel as Dr. Kroger. And we know kind of how Monk is dealing with the loss of the character, but can you tell us a little bit about Tony dealing with the loss of Stanley?

 Tony>  You know, it’s been really tricky, and we all speak … it’s almost as if he has never left us because his name comes up in stories, and anecdotes come up about him all the time on the set.  And he’s missed, but we try to sort of keep him alive in our – you know, keep in our midst.  He was there from the very, very beginning, from the pilot episode, and I have to say, you know, those scenes, those Dr. Kroger scenes in the pilot were so important, just in terms of my process, my discovery of who Monk was.

 I think those scenes in particular were the most informative for me and the richest.  They really, really helped me to kind of define the parameters of this guy, of my character.  So, yes, I kind of carry that with me and have for all these seasons.  And now, when I’m in these sessions, these scenes with Hector Elizondo, who plays Dr. Bell, I can’t even go into these scenes without just this little – I sort of do this little internal toast, as it were, to Stanley Kamel because he was the original doctor.  I like to think that he’s kind of there in those sessions with me.  He is missed.

Question> You’ve had a lot of great guests over the years.  Do you have a favorite, and is there a favorite you’ve worked with this year?

 Tony>  It’s so hard for me to pick a favorite because there have been so many great ones, and I’ve had the chance to bring friends of mine on the show, I mean, people that I’ve worked with in the past like Stanley Tucci and John Turturro and people that I’ve always wanted to work with like Laurie Metcalf.  But I have to say, of all of the seasons, and of all of the guest stars, the most thrilling for me was last season working with Gena Rowlands on Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door.  She was such a tremendous influence on me when I was a student and studying acting.  I was a devotee of John Cassavetes movies and the movies she did even separate from him.

 I was the one who actually when we were casting that particular episode, The Lady Next Door, there were a number of names on the list, and I pitched her name.  And I was stunned and thrilled to find out that she wanted to do it.  And then working those eight days with her was just, you know, I felt really, when we finished that episode, I felt like I could retire, that I had done everything I needed to do now.  She was so gracious and so good, and of course she’s been nominated for an Emmy for that episode too, so I will hopefully see her at the Emmys in September.

Question> What was the process you went into in the research to try to make sure you didn’t go over the top and play the character in an offensive way?

 Tony>  The process was really one of - it’s a process that I use and have used in approaching other characters, which is to find out – you know, knowing that it’s a comedy and to find out what – in any comedy, what I try to do is I try and find out what are the more serious aspects of the character.  And, conversely, when I do a serious role, I try and find out what’s funny about the character.  And the beauty of this particular character is that I’ve had the opportunity to do both comedy and drama within one series, one character. 

 So I guess to answer your question, it’s really digging out the – when you’re doing the comedic moments, digging out what’s really, really at stake and what is the most important and most serious thing to the character, which I believe informs the comedy.  And then conversely, you know, when the moments are really dark and poignant, trying to infuse those with an unexpected and sometimes inappropriate or seemingly inappropriate comedic flash, you know, a little spark of something absurd or comedic.  That’s been my approach. 

Question> Do you have a particular favorite episode of Monk.

 Tony>   Man.  This is so difficult because I have so many that are just so near and dear to me.  I kind of will reframe the question in the answer, I think.  The ones that – I will say the ones where I think we did, where we’ve done the best, in other words, those episodes where we did 100% of what we set out to do or 100% of how we imagined the show should be in a perfect world when we’re doing our job – just the best.  Those episodes would be, I would say, the first John Turturro episode where we meet the character of Ambrose.  That was called Mr. Monk and the Three Pies. 

 Another favorite of mine was Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine because it was a chance for me to do this character almost as a different character – see a different part of him emerge.  We did an episode that we just shot in the first part of season eight, which will be airing in about a month.  It’s called Mr. Monk is Someone Else, and it’s an episode where it’s basically … assume this character of a man who looks just like him, but the character happens to be a professional hit man for the mafia, and this character dies, and Monk is asked to take on, you know, to take this guy on and become him.  And so those opportunities to kind of transform within the character are really, really challenging and satisfying. 

Question> Trudy’s murder has been one of the most successful narrative arcs in television history. Do you think it should be solved or left for the audience as more of a McGuffin?

 Tony>  I really think it should be solved.  I know there are people who say that maybe it shouldn’t because that would mean that there would be life for this character beyond the series and that possibly the solving of Trudy’s murder would cure him in some way or take down his OCD symptoms, and then the character wouldn’t really be the character that we’ve come to recognize.  But I really feel that we’ve worked this storyline so delicately and for so long that I think we owe it to not just the audience and to ourselves, but to the character of Monk and to the character of Trudy that we’ve created.  I think we should solve it.

Question> Now just because USA is bringing the series to an end doesn’t mean another network down the line, a couple of years or so, wouldn’t pick it up. Is this a choice that you’ve thought about that maybe you would contemplate a return to the character down the line in a couple, three years perhaps?

 Tony>  You know, I’ve given that a lot of thought.  I feel like I’m ready to put this character to rest, but by the same token, I never say never, and circumstances could change, and I could change my mind.  Certainly I’ve been known to change my mind.  I just think time will tell.  I would never ever rule something like that out.  I hope that answers your question. 

Question> Do you ever foresee maybe doing specials in the future?  And also, what are you going to miss the most about playing this character that you’ve played for so long?

 Tony>  Well, to answer your first question, I assume you’re talking about like a TV movie or something of the character the way Colombo did.  I don’t really see that being so likely just because I think I’m going to be – I’m hoping that I’m going to be busy with other things.  Maybe I’m deluding myself. 

Question> After you’re done with Monk, are you going to take a nice long vacation, or will we get the pleasure of seeing you more on the big screen?

 Tony>  Well, I don’t want to take too long a vacation, although I do think I need a break.  I start to – whenever I take too long a break or don’t work a while, all my demons start to resurface, and I go a little nuts.  And I did work on an independent feature this past winter, which I hope will be coming out soon called Feed the Fish, a movie that I acted in, but also co-produced, and a really nice … so we’re looking for distribution to sell this picture, so people should look for that.

 But beyond that, I want to really, really take some time for myself to decide which direction to go next.  I might do some theater for a year before I do any more television.  I think I need a break from hour long episodic for a while.

Question> How much freedom you have to kind of riff on the OCD?  It seems like there are moments in different episodes are just complete adlib where you’re just playing that personality trait more for the comedic effect.  How much freedom do you have to just kind of take an idea and run with it?

 Tony>  Well, I have an enormous amount of freedom.  In terms of dialog, I try to stay really close to the script.  We all do, but we do have a writer with us on the set every moment, and we’re always pitching ideas to this writer/producer and seeing what we can get away with.  But as far as physical behavior and things that I discover that may not be in the script, but are, but we discover in whatever environment we’re in, whether it’s somewhere outdoors or somewhere in an office or wherever the setting may be.  I’ve been able to kind of just find things and work with them.  That’s what’s really been so exciting because it’s kind of, there’s an endless, believe me, playing an OCD character with some of those tendencies myself, there’s an endless, endless array of stuff to become preoccupied with out there in the world, whether it’s intentioned by the script or completely unintentional.

Question> A number of seasons ago, it looked like Monk could actually solve Trudy’s murder.  Has it always been the plan to wait until the final season to possibly solve it, or were there ideas along the way to solve it, and then continue on in a different plot angle?

 Tony>  No, I think from as far back as I can recall, it was always part of Andy Breckman’s agenda to save the wrap-up until the end, I think the biggest reason being that it keeps Monk in a bit of a fog, and it keeps him on his heels, this unresolved, this one case that he just cannot figure out, and that he’s just too close to, to figure out.  And so I think it was always part of his plan.

Question> What has made a career in this industry rewarding for you?

 Tony>  Well, a number of things.  Having the opportunity to work in all three different mediums: theater, film, and television.  Having the opportunity to work with people that I really respect, and having, most importantly, which was my original objective from way, way back was to have longevity in the industry.  It was never really one of my goals to gain tremendous amount of celebrity or make a tremendous amount of money necessarily.  But it was very important to me when I set out that I would be able to do it for a long period of time and not burn out too quickly or not paint myself into a corner necessarily by doing one thing, which is another reason why I think it’s a healthy and a perfect time to bring Monk to an end because there are other things that I really want to do.

Question> Sometimes when it’s life and death, Monk can overcome the OCD, but we know he’ll never be completely without it.  How do you figure the season will find him in terms of the OCD, solving the case with Trudy will give him a little more control, or will he spin further out because there won’t be that big goal?

 Tony>  No, I think it will give him some – I think it will actually help him, and it will give him some kind of peace and some kind of – and in that peace, his OCD symptoms will begin to, you know, significantly drop away.  And when that happens, I think he’ll be able to move forward in his life.  You know, he won’t feel so paralyzed.  He won’t feel so – he won’t have such an aversion to being with other people.  He might even, who knows – I don’t know because the writers haven’t revealed this to me, but he might even be able to find love and romance in his life again.  All those things, I think, remain, you know, all those things are on the table and are good possibilities.