By the 80's, the anthology "wheel" format had died a slow death. In the early part of 1989, ABC & Universal decided to revive the concept with the ABC Mystery Movie. The network had acquired a pair of existing Universal properties, Kojak & Columbo, and came up with three new series: Gideon Oliver, Christine Cromwell, & B. L. Stryker.
We'll look at the other newbies another day, but today, we're focusing on B. L. Stryker, which brought Burt Reynolds back to ABC for the first time since Dan August had been cancelled in 1971. Reynolds doubled as a co-executive producer with Tom Selleck (Magnum, P. I.), and directed a handful of episodes. Co-star Ossie Davis would also appear with Reynolds on his CBS sitcom, Evening Shade. Grand slam award (Emmy, Oscar, Tony, Grammy) winner Rita Moreno (ex-The Electric Company, The Rockford Files) played Stryker's ex-wife. You might not recognize him, but Alfie Wise, who played Stryker's landlord, if you will, was known to kids in the 70's as Charles Nelson Reilly's sidekick on Uncle Croc's Block, also for ABC.
Moreno figures heavily in the plot to this 2nd season entry, "High Rise", with Ricardo Montalban (ex-Fantasy Island) as the villain.
I had interest in watching this when it first came out, but then my attention was diverted elsewhere (i.e. MTV). As with Dan August & Hawk, Reynolds struck out after 2 short seasons, totaling 12 films.
We'll forego a rating in memory of Reynolds, who passed away at 82.
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