Pacific Station (TV series)

Pacific Station
Genre	Sitcom
Starring	Robert Guillaume Richard Libertini Ron Leibman Joel Murray Megan Gallagher John Hancock
Opening theme	"Rescue Me"
Country of origin	USA
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
Production
Running time	30 mins.
Production company(s)	KTMB Productions Touchstone Television
Distributor	Buena Vista Television
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 15, 1991 – January 3, 1992

Pacific Station is an American situation comedy aired in the United States by NBC as part of its 1991 fall lineup. The series was created by the team of Barry Fanaro, Mort Nathan, Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman.

Synopsis

Pacific Station centered around Detective Bob Ballard (Robert Guillaume), a wisecracking veteran cop who had been assigned to Pacific Station in Venice, California, apparently usually a dumping ground for eccentric and/or incompetent officers. Even more eccentric were the suspects the officers of Pacific Station brought in, as many were from nearby Venice Beach, a celebratedly off-center locale. The other officers of Pacific Station included Detective Richard Capparelli (Richard Libertini), fresh from treatment for his psychological problems, Detective Sandy Calloway (Megan Gallagher), and the brown-nosing Detective Al Burkhardt (Ron Leibman). In command of this hodgepodge was the recently promoted, immature, mother-fixated Captain Ken Epstein (Joel Murray), who had received the place which logic dictated should have gone to Bob. Frequently blustering his way through the station was Deputy Commissioner Hank Bishop (John Hancock), who never let anyone forget for a moment that he was a deputy commissioner.

Richard Libertini had just recently worked with creators/producers Fanaro, Nathan, Speer and Grossman on NBC's equally short-lived The Fanelli Boys the previous season.

Scheduling

Despite (or perhaps because of) the program's obvious similarities to ABC's long-running hit Barney Miller, Pacific Station was a ratings failure, due to competition from ABC's Top 30 show America's Funniest People and CBS's Top 10 hit Murder, She Wrote. It was put on hiatus in October 1991. Brought back in a new time slot in December, it fared no better and was permanently cancelled in January 1992.

Title Sequence

The opening theme for Pacific Station was an in-house cover of Fontella Bass' classic R&B hit "Rescue Me". The sequence began with shots of Venice Beach attractions, followed by the view of a police truck driving into the parking lot of the station as the title appeared on-screen. This proceeded into more videotaped scenes of the show and cast.

References

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows