T. J. Hooker

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T. J. Hooker
James Darren, William Shatner, and Heather Locklear, in a fifth season publicity shot.
Genre	Police drama
Creator(s)	Aaron Spelling
Starring	William Shatner Adrian Zmed Heather Locklear Richard Herd James Darren
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	60 minutes (ABC) 90 minutes (CBS)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC, CBS
Original run	March 13, 1982 – May 28, 1986
Links
IMDb profile

T. J. Hooker was a weekly American police drama television program starring William Shatner. The series premiered as a mid-season replacement on March 13, 1982 on ABC-TV and ran on ABC prime time through May 4, 1985. The show starred William Shatner in the title role as the 15-year veteran police sergeant T. J. Hooker. The supporting cast included Adrian Zmed as rookie Officer Vince Romano, Heather Locklear as Officer Stacy Sheridan (season 2 onwards), and Richard Herd as Captain Dennis Sheridan as personnel in the fictional "LCPD" academy precinct. At the start of its second season, James Darren became a regular cast member, as Officer Jim Corrigan.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Audience and critical reaction 3 Cancellation, revival and syndication 4 Main cast 5 Recurring cast and notable guest stars 6 Episodes 7 U.S. television ratings 8 DVD releases 9 Trivia 10 External links

[edit] Synopsis

After his partner was murdered, veteran plainclothes Detective T.J. Hooker was reverted to his former role as Sergeant, and returned to the beat to rid the streets of the type of criminals responsible for his partner's death. Back in uniform, Hooker was assigned to train the academy recruits, and was partnered with brash, sometimes hot-headed young rookie Vince Romano. With Romano much his junior, Hooker acted as his trainer and mentor on both a professional and social level. The age difference generally being the key hook of the partnership, the pair quickly became fast friends and a good team.

Outside of his work, Hooker was divorced as a result of his work putting a strain on his marriage, but was still friendly with his ex-wife, nurse Fran. Hooker was a lady's man, but was still trying to adjust to being single once again. Lee Bryant was the original actress to portray Fran; the part was reprised by a different actress later on.

Hooker's tough, no-nonsense demeanor saw him often clashing with station Captain Sheridan, but he always got the job done and was highly respected as a result. Introduced at the start of the second season was attractive Officer Stacy Sheridan, the daughter of Captain Sheridan. Initially brought in to fill Officer Vicky Taylor's shoes, by the end of the season she had progressed to patrolling with Jim Corrigan (James Darren), another veteran cop much in the mold of Hooker.

From the second season onward, Hooker and Romano (Unit 4-Adam-30), and Sheridan and Corrigan (4-Adam-16) usually worked closely together to tackle cases. The addition of Corrigan and Sheridan's partnership added an extra dimension to the show, sometimes with whole plots revolving around one or both of them.

For the final season, the series moved from ABC to a late-night slot on CBS. Along with the move, Adrian Zmed chose to leave the series to pursue other projects, leaving Hooker to patrol alone or to generally work as more of a trio with Stacy and Jim.

Occasionally unintentionally hilarious, largely thanks to Shatner's so-straight-it's-camp performance of moral speeches to young offenders or Romano, the series nevertheless was a hit; and in its prime, with its blend of good humor mixed in with "on the streets" grittiness, followed in the footsteps of Starsky and Hutch and the like to become the popular cop shop of its time.

[edit] Audience and critical reaction

Although the show was briefly very popular with viewers, it was derided by critics and real-life police officers for its hackneyed, formulaic approach to drama and its clichéd portrayal of law enforcement. Some of the weekly cases (like the earlier series Adam-12) involved a relative or an old friend; the villains immediately announced their criminal nature from the moment they appeared on screen; and no opportunity to show some skin was missed (short-shorts or tight leotards on women, or Zmed bare-chested or wearing a tight T-shirt were frequent fare). The police team's adversaries included Latino street gangs, snipers, Bible-preaching psychos, stalkers (before the term was coined), medical bone-mallet-toting cross-dressers, baby-faced arsonists, and vengeful ex-cops. There were no pretensions of high-quality drama in this series, as was typical with an Aaron Spelling-produced cop show.

[edit] Cancellation, revival and syndication

Hooker was canceled by ABC in the summer of 1985, but the series survived when CBS picked up the show and produced new episodes that were longer than the normal 60-minute fare and were shown later at night (part of the CBS "Crime Time After Prime-Time" showcase during the late 80's/early 90's). Original shows finally were canceled in 1987, though the finale aired on May 28, 1986. Starting in 2005, the A&E Network re-broadcast the entire Hooker series, running one episode per weekday in the early hours of the morning.

[edit] Main cast

William Shatner — Sergeant T.J. (Thomas Jefferson) Hooker
Adrian Zmed — Officer Vince Romano
Heather Locklear — Officer Stacy Sheridan
Richard Herd — Captain Dennis Sheridan
James Darren — Officer Jim Corrigan

[edit] Recurring cast and notable guest stars

Shatner's fellow Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy guested in and directed an episode of the series. In addition, both Sharon Stone and Tori Spelling both guest-starred in episodes long before they were well-known actresses. "T. J. Hooker" featured many notable character actors in recurring roles throughout the series, including:

Hugh Farrington as Det. Pete O'Brien (18 episodes, 1984–1986)
Paul Kent as Corter (6 episodes, 1982–1985)
Nicole Eggert as Chrissie Hooker (5 episodes, 1982–1983)
Lee Bryant as Fran Hooker (4 episodes, 1982–1983)
Robert Miano as Alex Lucas (4 episodes, 1982–1985)
James O'Sullivan as Det. Conrad (4 episodes, 1982–1985)
Shawn Weatherly as Claudia Cole (4 episodes, 1983)
Robert Davi as Joseph Picartus (2 episodes, 1982–1984)
Mickey Jones as Dave Bowman (2 episodes, 1982–1984)
Jim Brown as Detective Jim Cody (2 episodes, 1983–1984)
George Cheung as Dr. Coe (2 episodes, 1983–1984)
Mike Genovese as Lucky Robinson (2 episodes, 1983–1984)
Peter Brown as Lt. Drummer (2 episodes, 1983)
James Hong as Dr. Hong (2 episodes, 1983)
Alex Rocco as Capt. C. Danza (2 episodes, 1984–1986)
Tina Lifford as Lorraine Barr (2 episodes, 1984–1985)
Al White as Freddie (2 episodes, 1984–1985)
Mary-Margaret Humes as Lisa Temple (2 episodes, 1985–1986)

[edit] Episodes

[edit] U.S. television ratings

[edit] DVD releases

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first two seasons on U.S. DVD on August 9, 2005.

DVD Name	Cover Art	Region 1
Season 1 and 2		August 9, 2005

[edit] Trivia

• The LCPD Headquarters/Academy was in actuality the American Film Institute's Motion-Picture Library in Los Angeles.
• Hooker's initials actually stand for Thomas Jefferson, but this was rarely used in the series. Even his wife referred to Hooker by his last name. Incidentally, T.J. is the reverse of J.T., the initials of Shatner's earlier role as Captain Kirk in Star Trek.
• The 1987 film RoboCop paid homage to T. J. Hooker in the form of a form of a futuristic cop show called T.J. Lazer, a favorite program of Officer Murphy's (RoboCop's) son.
• While never actually given away in the series, LCPD is actually said to stand for "Lake City Police Department".
• Hooker and Romano's radio call sign for their "black and white" was "4-Adam-30", and radio calls were very similar to those of Los Angeles Police Department, using three bursts of a 900 Hz tone, using LAPD-type radio codes, and the officers acknowledging with roger. The series itself was produced in the Los Angeles area, and the call sign denoted a two-officer unit ("Adam") based in the LAPD's Hollenbeck division ("4"), with "30" as a supervisor unit.
• While hosting Saturday Night Live, in a T. J. Hooker spoof, Shatner (as Hooker) spent the entire segment on the hood of a criminal's car and even fell asleep there; the criminal abandoned the car while Hooker slept.
• Three actors appeared in the Star Trek Universe. William Shatner portrayed the imfamous Capt. James T. Kirk on Star Trek, James Darren had a recurring role as a holographic lounge singer named Vic Fontaine on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Richard Herd portrayed Admiral Owen Paris on Star Trek: Voyager.

[edit] External links

• T. J. Hooker at the Internet Movie Database