T.J. Hooker

After a lean run for William Shatner in the 1970s, things began looking up for him after the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and since then he has gotten steady work in film and television. Shatner signed on to star as the title character of the cop show T.J. Hooker as a former detective who decides to go back to being a uniformed street cop in order to rid Lake City of crime in the memory of his former partner.

There's nothing special about T.J. Hooker; it's just another cop show like the dozens of others before and after it. I just think it's a stretch for Shatner and Heather Locklear to play cops. Shatner could play Captain James T. Kirk or a gangster or somebody who's a bit nutty but I found it droll to see Shatner and that rug on his head running around and doing those rolls versus the thugs of Lake City. Aaron Spelling regular Heather Locklear, all 5 feet and 98 lbs of her, is miscast here. Adrian Zmed as Officer Vince Romano and James "Moondoggie" Darren as Officer Jim Corrigan fare better. It's clear the cast were hired on their good looks than playing convincing police officers.

Regardless, I like TJ Hooker because there's that feeling of zaniness seeing Shatner, Locklear and Co. playing against type. Shatner doesn't disappoint with his brand of acting here. His presence carries this show. If you liked him in Star Trek, you'll like him here.

Recommended.

T.J. Hooker was the best cop show in my opinion for many reasons.

Firstly, the storylines and action scenes were very good. But the thing I liked most was seeing the superb William Shatner playing Hooker.

Hooker was human. He was divorced from his wife because of his dedication to the job. He was a great mentor to rookie officers and he always cared about the victims of crime. And he was persistent when it came to chasing the villains. In Hookers eyes, no crime was minor and every victim of crime was a human being with feelings.

It would be so hard to recommend certain episodes because they were all good. The 3rd episode of season 1 was good-Hooker was on the trail of two drug dealers who had killed a young girl. His dedication was second to none as he pursued the bad guys.

A great show. Hooker is the type of police officer I hope exists in real life.

William Shatner pretty much personified T. J. Hooker, and it was one of those series that was get-home-in-time-to-watch TV for the first two seasons, but after that the writing got a bit tired and I suspect William Shatner was focussing on his Star Trek movie career.

Of all the cheesy 80's cop shows, 'T.J. Hooker' is my new favorite! I love movies and shows that are so bad they're funny, and this a perfect example of that.

William Shatner plays the titlular character, a mediocre cop who gets hailed as one slick guy. Shatner has that same quality as others like Alec Baldwin and Steven Seagal: the ability to be comical without even trying. His facial expressions and acting gild the lily. The other stars of the series (Adrian Zmed and Heather Locklear) aren't much better.

The show has plenty of corny, lovable quirks, including but not limited to: tubular 80's action soundtrack, sloppy stunts, HUGE explosions, awful dialogue, orangutans, break dancing, and did I mention 80's music?

In the episode, 'A Child Is Missing', Hooker heads to solve a case in Mexico along with a guy named Gomez. Those are traits used in Shatner's book Tek-War, which was actually written by a ghostwriter. It seems William has few ideas of his own!

If you are looking for something truly interesting, don't mess with T.J.. But if you like cheesy 80's fun, I recommend this! SPOOOOOOOOCK!

I'm reasonably certain that Officer Sheridan (at least, back in the '80s) could shoot me, and I wouldn't even feel it. That may not be the only reason to watch the show, but it is, far and away, the best. Need I say more?