T.J. Hooker

From Wikipedia:

T. J. Hooker is an 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 stars William Shatner in the title role as the 15-year veteran police sergeant T. J. Hooker. The supporting cast includes 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 tail end of the show's second season, James Darren became a regular cast member, as Officer Jim Corrigan.

The series was created by Rick Husky, who later served as executive producer of Walker Texas Ranger in its early seasons.

After his partner is murdered, veteran plainclothes detective Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Hooker (William Shatner) reverted to his former assignment as patrol 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 (Adrian Zmed). With Romano much his junior, Hooker acted as his 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 ladies' man, but was still trying to adjust to being single once again. Lee Bryant was the original actress to portray Fran; the part was later reprised by a different actress.

Hooker's tough, no-nonsense demeanor saw him often clashing with station Captain Sheridan (Richard Herd), 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 (Heather Locklear), the daughter of Captain Sheridan and Hooker's and Corrigan's younger partner-in-command, who attended the police academy. 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 third season onward, Hooker and Romano (Unit 4-Adam-30), and Stacy 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, often on undercover work.

With its blend of good humor mixed with "on the streets" grittiness, the show proved popular. The first season was considered a runaway hit, ranking 28th in the Nielsen ratings, but subsequent seasons failed to repeat that level of success.

The series initially set out to give a more 'hands on', procedure-based view of Police work than some of the more stylized cop shows of the 1970s and 1980s, evident in the very early episodes. The third season saw a slight revamp (including the theme music being rearranged into a more pop-driven version), with Corrigan set into place as Stacy's partner, Captain Sheridan being dropped into the background (appearing as 'Special Guest Star' in just a few third and fourth season episodes), and stories drifting towards a more straight forward cops-and-robbers fare.

Created by Rick Husky

Starring

William Shatner

Heather Locklear

Adrian Zmed

Richard Herd

James Darren

Country of origin United States

No. of seasons 5

No. of episodes 92

Production

Running time 60 minutes X 72 episodes (ABC)

90 minutes X 19 episodes (CBS)

Broadcast

Original channel

ABC (1982-1985)

CBS (1985-1986)

Original run March 13, 1982 – May 28, 1986