Wednesday, December 7, 2022

When Icons Meet: Forrest Tucker & Dick Butkus on Matt Houston (1982)

 From season 1 of Matt Houston:

NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus got back on the gridiron in this outing, part of an ensemble that includes Forrest Tucker as the coach, and NBA icon Chick Hearn calling the action. Hearn was the go-to when they wanted to set an episode of a show at either a basketball or football game.

Anyway, Houston (Lee Horsley, ex-Nero Wolfe) steps in when a former college teammate of his (John Beck) is being blackmailed after the death of the team owner.

Paul Brinegar (ex-Rawhide) was written out of the show before the end of the 1st season, but gets significant screen time here.



This helped Butkus graduate from those Miller Lite commercials and to other acting ventures, including Blue Thunder (the TV version) and Hang Time.


2 comments:

Hal said...

Many thanks, for some reason I didn't remember Tuck appearing on this series. His guest appearances became less frequent in the early 80s (he'd had a heart attack in 1981, so declining health might have been one reason).

hobbyfan said...

Like, I only discovered this today myself.