What Might've Been: Chopper One (1974)

 It was the winter of 1974. ABC needed to revamp the front of their Thursday night lineup. The network called on producer Aaron Spelling to develop a half-hour crime drama spotlighting police air patrols.

Chopper One only got 13 weeks.

What Spelling and ABC were looking for was, well, Adam-12 in the sky. A few months earlier, Adam-12 producer Jack Webb had launched Chase over at NBC, which not only had a police helicopter, but it was part of a diverse squad. Even though Chase ended up getting cancelled as well, viewers saw Chopper One as derivative of what Webb was doing.

While Jim McMullan wasn't heard from much after this series, Dirk Benedict saw his star rise 4 years later with Battlestar Galactica. Between Galactica and The A-Team, Benedict earned pop culture icon status.

Let's take a look at the opener.

I do remember seeing this with my folks. However, I don't think they stuck with it.

Rating: B.