Sons of Thunder

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Sons of Thunder
Genre	Drama
Running time
Creator(s)	Aaron Norris Chuck Norris
Starring	James Wlcek Marco Sanchez Dawn Maxey Alan Autry
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	CBS
Original run	March 9, 1999–April 17, 1999
No. of episodes	6

Sons of Thunder was a television show that ran from March to April of 1999 on CBS. It was a spin-off of Walker, Texas Ranger.

The two-hour pilot, Sons of Thunder, was shown as episode 5.24 of Walker. This episode introduced the characters of childhood friends Carlos Sandoval, a Dallas PD Detective, and Trent Malloy, an Army officer and a protégé of Walker.

When Rev. Thunder Malloy, a close friend of Walker, dies from a heart attack, his son Trent returns home and, eventually, quits the Army to stay. Walker and his partner Trivette go after a serial cop killer who has Carlos on his list, which Trent ends up getting involved in by accident when he saved Carlos' life and later helped Walker and Carlos take down the criminal.

During seasons 6 and 7 of Walker, Carlos and Trent appeared on 16 episodes (one of these episodes included a Hayes Cooper story to which both actors appeared in a dual role). During these episodes, Trent opens his own martial arts dojo as well as a protection agency to either help people who are too scared to go to the police or who the police can't help. Sometimes he has Carlos assist him in some of his cases and at other times they help Walker on several of his cases, which often involve personal issues, or Trent turns over his current case to Walker.

Finally, on 1999, they got their own spin-off series, which only lasted 6 episodes. Carlos resigns from the PD after his partner is murdered by a serial killer. He teams up Trent to find the assassin and they later decide to form their own private investigation firm.

One curious note takes place in the pilot episode. Trent refuses to carry firearms in his role as a private investigator, and Walker is concerned. Walker offers Trent a small pouch, containing several shuriken, popularly known as "throwing stars", and asks him to carry them on his person for protection. These items are illegal for carry in virtually all cities in the United States, making it highly unlikely that a law enforcement officer would encourage anyone to carry them.

Why "Sons of Thunder" was not picked up for the fall 1999 CBS line-up was perplexing to many involved with the show. While replacing Walker Texas Ranger (which was on hiatus) in the 8 o'clock Saturday night time slot, the show beat Walker's ratings of the previous two seasons. Producers Chuck and Aaron Norris assumed that the show would be given a season's full of episodes to try and make it on to the CBS Line-up. But CBS passed on the show citing budget concerns.

In a recent interview while doing promotion for his upcoming movie "Edison", Marco Sanchez went into further detail as to the demise of "Sons of Thunder". "We taped 7 episodes, 6 which aired. I think that last one aired in late March 1999, and the ratings were everything that we could have hoped for. I went to California for a week, and when I returned ready to do pre-production on the fall season, they told us that CBS passed on the series. We were all pretty devastated".

"CBS informed Chuck that the series was just too expensive, and if they could slash the budget, then maybe they would give us some time during the fall. Chuck and Aaron Norris didn't think they could justify cutting up the show, just to get it on the air. It would not have lasted 4 episodes. So, they decided to just end the project. We were all pretty much left out in the rain holding umbrellas. I know Chuck felt terrible for me and Jimmy(Wylcek), because at the time season 8 of Walker Texas Ranger was well into pre-production. And they had brought in Judson Mills and Nia Peebles to work on the series, to pretty much replace Trent and Carlos. He asked us to stick around Dallas, and he would work us into the show, as the season went along. But we knew that it was not our place. Rumors were that it would be the last season of the series, but they went on to make 1 more. Jimmy had his family in California, and we just needed to go home".

"About a year ago, I got a call from Aaron Norris. He told me that they were going to work on a series of made for TV movies for Walker Texas Ranger. CBS had given them the go-ahead for four movies, and they wanted to revive the charchters of Trent and Carlos. I was sent some rough drafts of scripts, which were pretty interesting. But that's the last I ever heard from them. I'm not sure if they decided to go in a different direction, or what. But they did air a Walker Texas Ranger movie on CBS last month, and I did get to watch it. And I really enjoyed it. Chuck and everybody over there were nothing but good to me. I appreciate everything they did for me and my career".