The first season of Monk originally aired in the United States on USA Network from July 12 to October 18, 2002, which consisted of 13 episodes. Tony Shalhoub, Bitty Schram, Ted Levine, and Jason Gray-Stanford were introduced as portraying the main characters. Tony Shalhoub portrayed Adrian Monk, the titular character, an OCD homicide detective from San Francisco, who was removed from the force after the murder of his wife. A DVD of the season was released on June 15, 2004.