The Idea of Another “Terriers” Series in Ocean Beach Just Won’t Go Away

The idea of another shoot for the wonderful but short series Terriers – filmed in Ocean Beach – just won’t go away.

Why, just the other day, Matthew Lickona at the San Diego Reader brought it up. He raised the point that of all the detective shows shot in San Diego (Simon & Simon, Veronica Mars, High Tide, Grand Slam, Coronado 9, Sarge, Harry O and Terriers) – ONLY Terriers is ever mentioned as a series to revive. (Editor’s note: I haven’t heard of many of these shows – but I do recall a San Diego TV show about San Diego city police way back in the Fifties and early Sixties maybe?)

Terriers – if you’ve never watched it – ran for one season only in 2010 – and was filmed entirely in Ocean Beach and parts of San Diego. It’s been described as “a kind of a Beach noir” where Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James played Hank Dolworth and Britt Pollack as a duo of unlicensed private investigators. It was cool, it was funny – and Logue and Raymond-James reveled within a great camaraderie.

One of the on-going plots during the first year episodes was their investigation of a wealthy La Jollan conspiring to buy up all the property in OB and Point Loma in order to expand the San Diego airport – and of course, make millions.  Season One is on Netflix. And oh, CraveOnline named it the best drama on television for 2010.

Why did it last only one year? Piss poor marketing. But that’s another story.

Because in the meantime Lickona at the Reader says series co-creator Ted Griffin and his company are willing to come back and make another season. As per Lickona:

Bad marketing. The name first of all. And this dog in the main ad never even appeared in the show.

Co-creator Ted Griffin picked up the notion of a couple of down-and-outs investigating a wealthy man from the 1981 Jeff Bridges mystery Cutter’s Way. That was set in Santa Barbara; when it came time to find a home for Terriers, San Diego was cheaper.

Craig Brewer, who directed the pilot (along with Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan), discovered the show’s spiritual home turf in Ocean Beach; at the time, Griffin’s knowledge of San Diego was limited to the Hotel Del, the zoo, and Del Mar. “Ocean Beach was a Bohemian, ‘Go fuck yourself, Starbucks’ neighborhood,” recalls Griffin, “which very much informed the series after the pilot.”

Lickona quotes Griffin as saying making Terriers was “the closest of anything I’ve worked on to what I saw in my head or had in my heart. One of the few things I’ve really wanted to watch.”

We’re happy to hear this. We thoroughly enjoyed the series when it was on and we offered reviews and critiques and other jewels of the show. And it’s interesting that people still talk about it.

TERRIERS: L-R: Donal Logue as Hank Dolworth and Michael Raymond-James as Britt Pollack in TERRIERS premiering on FX. CR:Patrick McElhenney / FX

A little over a year ago, we ran a post about FX teasing a potential revival:

… Terriers was a cut above almost ever other series. CraveOnline even named it the best drama on television for 2010, and it was also widely recognized by other outlets. Since its cancellation, Terriers has been rediscovered on Netflix and there may yet be some hope that the series could return.

According to Deadline, FX Networks CEO John Landgraf was asked about a possible Terriers revival during the Television Critics Association Press Tour. In response, Langraf replied, “I’m not saying we’ll never do a reboot because I guess we will at one point.” He later added that often reflects on Terriers and his decision to cancel it. …

Logue and Raymond-James reunited earlier this year for a Terriers panel at the ATX TV festival, and both have expressed a willingness to reprise their roles if executive producers Shawn Ryan and Ted Griffin returned.

Also, see this: “Terriers” – Another Look at the Neo-Noir TV Series Filmed in Ocean Beach from April 2016.

We say, ‘bring ’em on.’