It's funny how things work in television sometimes.
Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo (Claude Akins, ex-Movin' On), from Orly County, Georgia, was introduced as a corrupt lawman on B. J. & The Bear, and it didn't appear as though Lobo had any real scruples. However, after the runaway success of The Dukes of Hazzard on CBS, which bowed in February 1979 as a mid-season replacement, NBC suits were convinced to end the feud between Lobo and B. J. McKay (Greg Evigan), and spin Lobo off into his own series.
The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo debuted in September of '79, and we would find that there were a few parallels between Lobo and his Hazzard County counterpart, Rosco P. Coltrane (James Best). For starters, while Rosco's sister was married to his boss, Hazzard County Commissioner Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg (Sorrell Booke), Lobo's sister was wed to his deputy, the mono-monickered Perkins (Mills Watson), who was about as sharp as a box of broken thumbtacks. In some respects, Lobo & Perkins were the flopped negative of another sheriff-deputy combination of an earlier generation, Andy Taylor & Barney Fife (Andy Griffith & Don Knotts, The Andy Griffith Show). Lobo was using his position for personal gain, but they couldn't let that go on, so producer Glen Larsen added a second deputy in naive, well-intentioned Birdwell "Birdie" Hawkins (Brian Kerwin), the yin to Perkins' yang, if ya will. Somehow, some way, Lobo got his man every week, either through straight detective work (Lobo & Hawkins) or through Perkins bumbling his way into finding important clues.
While the series was in fact renewed for a second year, holding its own on Tuesdays against ABC's powerhouse sitcom lineup, headed by Happy Days, it underwent a cosmetic change, with the title shortened to Lobo, and our intrepid lawmen transferred to Atlanta as part of a anti-crime task force, but now Lobo had someone to answer to, with his boss played by soap veteran Nicholas Coster (ex-Another World). The change of scenery was the cue to jump the shark, as Lobo was cancelled at the end of the 1980-1 season.
Had the series aired on another night without strong competition (and, well, that was hard to find back then), maybe it'd have lasted much, much longer. However, the combination of declining ratings, the format change, and too many comparisons to the Dukes in general concept, proved to be too much to overcome.
Zoobers uploaded the theme everyone knows, sung by Frankie Laine. The second season saw a theme change, too, to Ray Charles' iconic "Georgia on My Mind".
Sheriff Lobo was a career breakthrough of a sort for Watson, a veteran who had played mostly villains in the course of his career, but after the series ended, he wasn't heard from much again, and not because of typecasting, in this writer's opinion. The second season also introduced viewers to singer-actress Nell Carter, who'd later rebound with a hit sitcom, Gimme A Break!, that would outlast Lobo by a few years.
Now, don't ya think Cloo, one of NBC-Universal's cable networks, should dust this show off, say, around April Fool's Day?
Rating: B.
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