Hardcastle & McCormick

This show pretty much was an update on classic legends like the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid with a little bit of Dirty Harry thrown in. This also came out at a time when shows like "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Knight Rider", which featured good looking young men with fast cars were all the rage. Brian Keith pretty much buried his old character of "Uncle Bill" with his wild characterization of Milton Hardcastle. He made this show fun to watch and it was one of those shows from the mind of Stephen J. Cannell that had lots of action but really didn't take itself too seriously. Also, Daniel Hugh Kelly provided enough beefcake to keep the ladies interested. This was definitely one of the wildest shows of the 1980's.

Hardcastle and McCormick was one of the best TV shows from the 1980's. Brian Keith starred as Judge Milton C. Hardcastle whose last case was a car stealing thief named Mark McCormick, played by Daniel Hugh-Kelly. McCormick's choice was to either go back to jail or join the now retired judge in solving unsolved cases. It featured car chases, stunts and everything else you'd expect from an action-adventure show.

Hardcastle And Mcormick is of the forgotten shows of the 80's, and while The A Team, Knight Rider and Airwolf are more remembered Hardcastle and Mcormick had it all great story lines, two great leading characters, a awesome car and a catchy theme tune. I'ts the story of a retired judge who teams up with ex con to go after the criminals who got away when he was a judge, its a typical 80's style action series that I enjoyed and grew up with. Along with the actors though the car was definitely the star of the show, OK maybe it didn't talk like kitt but the red coyote was one hot car. I would really like to see one of the TV channels repeat this great show as most other 80's shows have been constantly repeated.

The 'Coyote' was a kit-car for the pilot and first two seasons. It was in actuality a 'Manta Montage', a fairly popular kit car available at the time. There were a couple of minor body modifications to disguise it, but it is plain to see what it really is.

It was powered by the new-at-the-time Chevy 2.8L V-6, which was a fairly sophisticated engine for it's time. This is the same engine that came in the Chevy Citation X-11.

Brian Kieth, being as overweight as he was, clearly found it next to impossible to climb in and out of the Coyote easily and the scenes were filmed in such a way that this was not emphasized.

The last season of the show, a 'DeLorean' DMC-12, the infamous stainless-steel, gull-winged sports car from John DeLorean was heavily modified to resemble the original coyote as close as possible. The heavy gull-wing doors were removed completely, and lots of fiberglass bodywork was created to disguise the fact that this was a completely different, much larger car. Mr. Kieth could more easily get in and out of it, so that was one big reason they switched.

Side by Side, the differences between the original 'Coyote' and the DeLorean-based model were clearly obvious, and when the show used existing footage of the original Coyote interspersed with newer footage of the DeLorean-based model, the continuity of the episode was shot all to hell!

The poster above mentioned that he thought the car was really a Porsche 917 race car. Not quite, but on the right track: The original car used for the Coyote, a 'Manta Montage' was a replica of sorts of the Porsche 917, although nowhere even close to the Porsche in terms of performance.

I loved the series, even with the continuity problems, when it first aired and my opinion hadn't changed over the years. When VEI released the first season in Canada, I was overjoyed. I highly recommend this series and the DVD set to any and all fans of relationship series. Although HARDCASTLE & McCORMICK is a typical Cannell production with car chases galore, at the heart the theme of the series was friendship, that between Milton Hardcastle and Mark McCormick. It was where the series was heading when it was cruelly cancelled, despite being more than high enough in the ratings to be renewed. It has truly aged well and can be enjoyed again and again.