Enter Aaron Spelling. The veteran producer cast Shatner in the lead of T. J. Hooker, which premiered on ABC as a mid-season replacement in 1982, and, in all, ran for five seasons, the last on CBS when ABC decided to drop the show.
Thomas Jefferson ("T. J. ") Hooker (Shatner) is a divorced police sergeant tasked with training a pair of rookie officers, one of whom, as of the second season, is the daughter of his commanding officer. For Shatner, this more than made up for the failure of his last series for ABC, The Barbary Coast, back in 1975. After CBS dismissed Hooker, they signed Shatner to serve as host for Rescue 911, which also had a healthy run.
Following is an intro from after James Darren (ex-The Time Tunnel) joined the show:
Standard police drama. Nothing special.
Rating: B.
Heather Locklear started playing Sammy Jo on Dynasty in 1981 - the year before she joined T.J. Hooker.
ReplyDeleteBoth shows were from the Aaron Spelling stable, and Heather Locklear was a particular favorite of Spelling's.
Because Dynasty had a large ensemble cast, and Hooker featured a number of cop characters, Spelling coordinated the shooting schedules so that Locklear could appear on both shows simultaneously; she would be light on some episodes, more to the front on others, as needed by the respective series.
Wasn't sure of the Dynasty/Hooker timeline in re.: Locklear. Thanks.
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