Monk and the Lucerne

[Bruce Nunnally]

General Motors’ Buick’s 2006 Lucerne will appear in select episodes of USA Network’s Monk under terms of a sponsorship agreement announced Wednesday.

Season five of Monk debuted on USA Friday, July 7, in its new time slot at 9 p.m. (EST/PST).

In the first episode to feature the vehicle, a real estate agent played by Emmy Award-nominated Sharon Lawrence (Desperate Housewives, NYPD Blue) who is fanatical about her car will hire Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) to investigate a slight scratch on it.

Natalie (Traylor Howard) will begin driving a Lucerne in a midseason episode set to air in January.

“Buick's innovative campaign of ‘Beyond Precision’ and the attention to detail in the all-new Lucerne perfectly align with the discerning and precise skills of Adrian Monk,” USA senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy Chris McCumber said in a prepared statement.

The real estate lady in the episode described her car as a "Lucerne 275" to my hearing. It was very nice integration of the product into the show, followed by commercials on the Lucerne. We laughed that no one has done this smooth a job since the character of Lisa (lease a) Catera was introduced on "Chicago Hope" followed immediately by a Catera commercial.