Warren St. Claire, but to kill the bodyguard instead. When Vasquez had discovered that Lloyd was embezzling campaign funds, he approached the bodyguard about murdering Vasquez. As the bodyguard refused to carry out the murder, Lloyd had him killed. To prove his theory, Monk shows a photograph of Lloyd looking at the direction of the shooter just after the shots were fired. Monk proves that Lloyd's sight line was obstructed, and that the gunshot's echo would have masked the direction of the shot. As such, it was impossible that Lloyd could have known where the shots were coming from unless he already knew where the gunman would be. Production Monk was originally envisioned as an Inspector Clouseau type of show by an American Broadcasting Company (ABC) executive. Learning about it, co-creator David Hoberman came up with the idea of a detective with obsessive–compulsive disorder in 1998. This was inspired by his own bout with self-diagnosed obsessive–compulsive disorder. Initially, Michael Richards was considered, but ABC and Touchstone Television (now ABC Studios) worried that the audience would typecast him for more comedic roles after his previous work as Cosmo Kramer on the sitcom series Seinfeld. Hoberman revealed that the casting sessions were "depressing". USA Network's executive vice president Jeff Wachtel stated that looking for the right actor to portray Monk was "casting hell". After two years of search, the producers still had not found an actor to play the part. As distributors of the show, ABC and Touchstone, could not find a lead actor, it entered in development hell. This situation remained until Jackie Lyons, a former ABC's executive who joined USA, recommended Monk to her boss, Wachtel. Trying to change USA's reputation of "a muscles-and-mayhem" network, Wachtel and then USA president Doug Herzog, decided to charge on Monk, "a cerebral series". Watchel wanted to cast Tony Shalhoub, "someone who could bring the humor and passion of Monk to life", as Monk. Shalhoub initially was not interested, but after his manager's insistence and the fact the pilot director was Dean Parisot, he accepted. Parisot declared, "The pilot was a strong collaboration between myself, David Hoberman, Andy Breckman and Tony Shalhoub." Sharona's character was originally written as an African-American, but Bitty Schram, who "had this great maternal thing crossed with an East Coast-type", according to Shalhoub, was cast instead. Ted Levine was cast in an audition in Vancouver, British Columbia as "the main