Riptide Background Information
The Characters (adapted from Riptide Cheat Sheet):
NICK RYDER (Joe Penny) was a second lieutenant in Cavalry Division Air Mobile Unit and served in the Army as an MP. He flies the Screaming Mimi, a pink helicopter with a mouth painted in a grin across the bow. His radio call letters are "Sikorsky 698." Nick has dark Italian good looks; a broad forehead, slightly receding black hair, dark blue eyes, a hairy chest often exposed by red Izod-type shirts. He wears a black watch. He was on the Lincoln High School football team, in the 4H club, and is still in the National Guard two weeks a year while his two partners do the books, then all three go on a fishing trip to relax.
CODY ALLEN (Perry King) was a Cub Scout in Ventura County. He won a rowing trophy at the Yacht Club with his dad. In other words, he's a real preppy. He was in the Viet Nam war for two years and served in the Army as an MP. He has dark blond/brown hair and a Robert Redford mustache; blue eyes; a black watch on his left wrist; wears sweaters with the sleeves shoved up, or a blue-and-white striped jersey, gabardine pants, a half-zipped blue jacket without the shirt, etcetera. He smokes cigars.
DR. MURRAY BOZINSKY (Thom Bray) is the resident geek, computer expert, and comic relief. Although younger than the other two, he was a Colonel in Special Weapons and Tactics right out of MIT. He taught "Microchip Dynamics and Astrophysics in Engineering" for a year. Perenially rumpled and nerdish, he pumps iron and eats raw eggs but is still "slight." Murray has short spiky dark brown hair and wears thick black-rimmed glasses mended with masking tape, white socks, and rumpled clothes with his pocket stuffed with pens, pencils, and a slide rule.
The show's premise (adapted from the HTK TV Site):
Cody Allen and Nick Ryder were two former army buddies who decided to open up the Pier 56 Detective Agency (later known as the Riptide Detective Agency). However, realizing that computers and technology play a major role in many investigations, the guys recruited the help of Murray Bozinsky, a brilliant (but socially inept) scientist that the guys had met while serving in the military.
Operating off of the Riptide, Cody's boat, which was moored at Pier 56 in King Harbor, California, the guys had a number of tools in their fight against crime and injustice including: Murray's robot (The Roboz - who, unlike most television robots, did not talk), Nick's aging helicopter (The Screaming Mimi), and Cody's speedboat (The Ebbtide).