T. and T.

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T. and T.
Format	Drama
Starring	Mr. T Alex Amini Kristina Nicoll David Nerman Ken James Catherine Disher Jackie Richardson Rachael Crawford Sean Roberge David Hemblen
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	65
Production
Running time	25 minutes
Broadcast
Original airing	January 11, 1988- May 26, 1990

T. and T. is a Canadian-produced television series, in production from 1987 to 1990. The series premiered in first-run syndication in January 1988, later moving to new episodes on the Family Channel in 1990. It was a starring vehicle for Mr. T.

The opening voice-over set-up the premise:

“

T.S. Turner was a city-smart kid fighting his way off the street, until he was framed for a crime he didn't commit. Amy Taler was a young crusading lawyer. She mounted an appeal to put Turner back on the street, this time in a suit and tie, working as a private detective. Together they are -- T. and T.

”

The regular cast included Mr. T himself along with Alexandra Amini as Amanda "Amy" Taler, Kristina Nicoll as Terri Taler (who replaced her sister as Turner's new partner in 1990), and David Nerman as Decker, the owner of the gym where T.S. boxed and, eventually, set his own headquarters. Also appearing, early on, were Amy Taler's secretary Sophie (Catherine Disher); Det. Jones (Ken James), who sometimes worked alongside T. and T.; and in season two, teenage orphan Joe Casper (Sean Roberge), who lived with Decker. For the first two seasons, Turner lived with his Aunt Martha (Jackie Richardson) and teenage cousin Renee (Rachael Crawford), upon getting out of jail and cleaning up his life. In the third season, a new detective, Dick Hargrove (David Hemblen) assisted the team.

The first season had lots of violence and fight scenes, which glorified Mr. T's familiar image. Originally, when T.S. was on the hunt for the bad guys, a stylized routine would take place where he would retire to his locker room, change out of his pinstripe suits and don a leather street jacket, in preparation for vigilante justice. At the start of the second season, this routine was dispensed with, as plotlines started centering around social and environmental issues that T.S. and Amy began taking on in their work. Season three, however, saw a return to violent stories. This was despite the fact that T. and T. was now airing on the Family Channel, which generally had some limitations to the amount of sex and violence allowed on their programming. Another show that had premiered on the Family Channel that same year, The New Zorro, also had violent scenes (which would have been hard to do without), but less so in comparison to earlier Zorro works.

The series' theme song was performed by Merry Clayton.

Toronto punk band bunchofuckingoofs played the bad guy street gang on the pilot episode and were regular extras on the set for all three seasons

According to lore among Toronto production staff, Mr. T reportedly ate various forms of chicken for every meal of every day during shooting, on more than one occasion lambasting staff at the Inn on the Park for failing to demonstrate the desired level of diversity in their chicken preparations.^{[citation needed]}