613 T.J. Hooker

First  viewed  : 1983

I  always  referred  to  this  as  "Toupee"  Hooker  in  reference  to  the  obvious  syrup  sported  by  William  Shatner  throughout  the  series. Contrary  to  popular  wisdom,  this  was  not  the  first  regular  TV  vehicle  for  Shatner  since  Star  Trek; he  had  a  starring  role  in  the  forgotten  Barbary  Coast  in  the  mid-seventies  but  his  re-emergence  here  as  a  paunchy  ex-detective  who  decides  to  go  back  on  the  uniformed  beat   was   almost  certainly   due  to  the  popularity  of  the  first  Star  Trek  movies.

Forget  Shatner  though, the  real  reason  for  tuning  in  was  Heather  Locklear, a  pocket-sized  Farrah  Fawcett  lookalike  who  joined  the  cast  in  the  second  series  as  a  rookie  officer. The  producers  wasted  few  opportunities  to  make  use  of  her  assets  with  storylines  regularly  calling  for  her  to  wear  a  bikini  or  go  undercover  as  an  exotic  dancer  or  other  such  devices. The  third  member  of  the  core  trio  was  Adrian  Zmed  as  Officer  Romano  who looked  up  to  Hooker  as  a  mentor.

T.J.  Hooker  was  something  of  a  throwback  to  seventies  shows  like  Starsky  and  Hutch  in  contrast  to  more  earnest  fare  such  as  Hill  Street  Blues  or  Cagney  and Lacey. As  such  it  was  always  watchable  without  ever  being  essential  viewing.  It  ran  until  1986.