Variety is reporting that ABC is bringing back Raymond Chandler's quintessential forties hardboiled detective Phillip Marlowe, while according to the Hollywood Reporter Fox has ordered a pilot of a detective series called New Amsterdam, which features a centuries old New York city gumshoe who has been around since the Dutch ran Manhattan.

In today's trendy TV world of gory forensic autopsies and ripped-from-the-headlines police procedurals Chandler's wisecracking shamus should stand out like a tarantula on a slice of angel food (apologies to R.C.).  Still ABC is intrigued by the possibilities of Marlowe, a Los Angeles-set, hour-long, character-driven series spiced with a healthy dose of noir elements including femme fatales, power-mad tycoons, and seedy lowlifes.  No word yet on who will portray Chandler's hero who has been played in previous incarnations by such notables as Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery, Robert Mitchum, James Garner, and Powers Booth.

While the detective in Fox's New Amsterdam may be considerably older than Marlowe, the fantasy elements in this series about an apparently ageless crime-solver actually might make it more in tune with modern sensibilities.  It should be interesting to see if either of these series will make the grade.