The list of Watsons that have filled the silver screen, the television tube and trod the boards now seems endless. We have covered two score and two at this point. Some bad but the vast majority pretty darn good in the part. My friend Dr. Dan Andriacco asked me a few months back what I would do when I ran out of Watsons. I sit here at the kitchen table looking at the names of another dozen to cover. And while I search for a photograph of the next Watson (Frederick Lloyd) I have to consider that there will be another Watson to come in New York. It appears there will be no end to it.

It is really an astounding thing that 130 years after the Good Doctor met the Great detective that we the audience are still so fascinated by the concept of a rational, thinking man. Maybe it is the fact that we look about us in our daily lives and see so much that does not make sense that we crave to know there is such a thing as reason and order in the world, and if we could just be like Holmes (or at least Watson) we could put all aright.

I’ve gone back and relooked all the Watsons we have covered so far (after printing it all out and putting it in a 3-ring binder, I hate reading off a computer!) and I still come up with the same evaluation of my top Watsons: David Burke, Edward Hardwicke, and Kenneth Walsh. (one has to look past Matt Frewer as Holmes and evaluate Walsh as Watson to get a proper picture.)

I hope Watson fans have found these little essays useful.