Jason Gray-Stanford listed " Mr. Monk and the Airplane " among his three favorite episodes of the series . Moreover , it was positively received by critics . In The Futon Critic 's ranking of the fifty best episodes of 2002 , it was placed 32nd , with Brian Ford Sullivan stating , " The title of the episode says it all for us . " '' New York Daily News '' s David Bianculli declared " It seems that lots of people are getting on board with '' Monk '' , which is as it should be " , referring to the guest stars of the episode . The guests were said to be one of the " many subtle and silly pleasures " of the episode by Kevin McDonough , a critic for the United Feature Syndicate , while a '' TelevisionWeek '' reviewer praised Marshall performance as a " tour de force guest shot " . Austin Smith of the '' New York Post '' deemed it " a true classic " and said it put " Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan " " to shame " . Chris Hicks from '' Deseret News '' qualified it as " perfection , " and Bianculli stressed " the writing team for '' Monk '' made the most " of it . On the other hand , Joy Press of '' The Village Voice '' called it " a '' Seinfeld '' - like device " in which Monk 's fear of flying was explored " to the point of exhaustion . " At the 55th Primetime Emmy Awards , Shalhoub won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for this episode
55th Primetime Emmy Awards
55th Primetime Emmy Awards
Mr. Monk and the Airplane