T.J. Hooker Season 1 & 2 - DVD Review
T.J. Hooker Season 1 & 2 - DVD Review
Monday August, 8, 2005
By Nate Vercauteren
I have to confess to getting goose bumps when the first chords of the T.J. Hooker theme song hit my ears again. For me, the Hooker theme song (along with Buck Rogers in the 21st Century) was one of the best, and the intro/credit sequence it accompanied was one of the best as well. The screen freezes on William Shatner staring intently at the camera. The screen turns blue and a gun sight forms on his eye. Cut to Hooker jumping on the hood of a speeding car. Cut to Hooker doing a swan dive off a three story building onto a fruit cart. It's nostalgia that guarantees a smile.
In these days of multi-season plot-lines, its refreshing to revisit old TV shows that consist of stand-alone episodes. Like a juke box, you can throw a DVD in and watch any episode without having to worry about what happened in the previous or subsequent episodes. And with a DVD like the recently released first and second seasons of T.J. Hooker, it’s like a juke box full of songs from the first four Black Sabbath albums. Hooker comes out swinging and doesn’t give an inch in the 27 episodes that constitute the first two seasons.
At the very beginning of the first episode, "The Protectors", Hooker delivers a no holds barred introductory speech to his fresh recruits, including his future partner Romano (Adrian Zmed), underscoring what policing means to Hooker (and what it better mean to them): “There’s a war going on out there on our streets. People are scared and they have a right to be. The body count is high. Homicide, assault, forcible rape, burglary, armed robbery, all up! Street savvy hoods have no fear. Not of the courts, not of prison. When a bust does stick, we house ‘em, give ‘em color tv and their wives on weekends. If that makes sense to you, then you and I are about to have a problem...” Hooker then gives force to his philosophy in hard-hitting episode after hard-hitting episode. In episode four, "Hooker’s War" (which could have provided an alternative title to the whole series), Hooker takes down an entire gun dealing motorcycle gang led by a corrupt cop, Hooker’s old partner (“You let me down, Pete.”) In the season two opener, “A Second Chance", Hooker takes down an old nemesis, Turkish serial killer “The Barber,” (a handlebar-mustached Robert Davi) while re-kindling a near romance from his married days with one of the Barber’s sexy targets. This episode also introduces Stacy Sheridan (Heather Locklear) to the cast, which alone makes it worth watching.
READ THE FULL POST HERE
Monday August, 8, 2005
By Nate Vercauteren
I have to confess to getting goose bumps when the first chords of the T.J. Hooker theme song hit my ears again. For me, the Hooker theme song (along with Buck Rogers in the 21st Century) was one of the best, and the intro/credit sequence it accompanied was one of the best as well. The screen freezes on William Shatner staring intently at the camera. The screen turns blue and a gun sight forms on his eye. Cut to Hooker jumping on the hood of a speeding car. Cut to Hooker doing a swan dive off a three story building onto a fruit cart. It's nostalgia that guarantees a smile.
In these days of multi-season plot-lines, its refreshing to revisit old TV shows that consist of stand-alone episodes. Like a juke box, you can throw a DVD in and watch any episode without having to worry about what happened in the previous or subsequent episodes. And with a DVD like the recently released first and second seasons of T.J. Hooker, it’s like a juke box full of songs from the first four Black Sabbath albums. Hooker comes out swinging and doesn’t give an inch in the 27 episodes that constitute the first two seasons.
At the very beginning of the first episode, "The Protectors", Hooker delivers a no holds barred introductory speech to his fresh recruits, including his future partner Romano (Adrian Zmed), underscoring what policing means to Hooker (and what it better mean to them): “There’s a war going on out there on our streets. People are scared and they have a right to be. The body count is high. Homicide, assault, forcible rape, burglary, armed robbery, all up! Street savvy hoods have no fear. Not of the courts, not of prison. When a bust does stick, we house ‘em, give ‘em color tv and their wives on weekends. If that makes sense to you, then you and I are about to have a problem...” Hooker then gives force to his philosophy in hard-hitting episode after hard-hitting episode. In episode four, "Hooker’s War" (which could have provided an alternative title to the whole series), Hooker takes down an entire gun dealing motorcycle gang led by a corrupt cop, Hooker’s old partner (“You let me down, Pete.”) In the season two opener, “A Second Chance", Hooker takes down an old nemesis, Turkish serial killer “The Barber,” (a handlebar-mustached Robert Davi) while re-kindling a near romance from his married days with one of the Barber’s sexy targets. This episode also introduces Stacy Sheridan (Heather Locklear) to the cast, which alone makes it worth watching.
READ THE FULL POST HERE