Thunder in Paradise

If Hulk Hogan hadn't been in this show, I would not have watched it. It was only the appearance of Hogan that attracted me to this show in the first place.

I always loved shows about super vehicles. In the 80's we had Airwolf (a helicopter), Knight Rider (a talking car) and Street Hawk (a motorcycle). Thunder in Paradise was about a super boat far superior to any normal boat.

I quite like Hogan's appearances in films but Thunder in Paradise was pretty unspectacular. There was one good episode where WCW wrestler Sting appeared but the rest of the series was pretty average.

This show is only really suitable for Hulk Hogan fans who can't get enough of the man (like me).

Thunder in paradise has a few things going for it, a stylish crime fighting boat, hulk hogan and stylish look, sadly those are the only things that's good about this pointless uninspired mess, featuring ridiculously poor dialogue. Silly teleplay, bad acting throughout and many ridiculous episodes, yes 1994 was a great year for television, er for example, but this useless tv show is just too pointless to even conceived, it's a shame, because it's beautiful and stylish to look at, but embarrassing to watch, this is an ultimately empty tv show that doesn't work on any level except for the beautiful boat.

This is a very dull show.

Thunder in paradise must be watched as an entertaining series. You certainly must not watch it as a serious one or you'll easily be disappointed. The characters are caricatures, the situations are simple, the background looks like heaven. More, you'll appreciate the presence of Carol Alt who has since disappeared from our TV screens... I appreciated that show, it changes from all the CSI series we have now. The boat is a marine version of Viper, but convertible vehicles had some success at that time. Thunder in paradise is not worse than the A-Team for example, and it has at least as much action. The design of Thunder is rather interesting and the special effects are OK.

I don't care what anybody says, I think these were great fun! As I said in the title, it was A-Team meets Miami Vice meets Bay Watch.

Guns, Girls, Gangsters, Gadgets and Good old fashioned fun with a capital Thunder which starts with T and rhymes with P and stands for Pool, swimming pool, that is. This is an action adventure fantasy show full of explosions, machine guns, girls in bikinis, guys in, well, swimming trunks and heaps of ham acting. And nobody dies, either! That's right, not one person is killed-to-death on this show. Nobody. Nor is there even any blood in sight, well real sickening blood, that is. Sure, the cuts and scrapes that any action hero gets in a normal day on the job are there to be seen, but nothing like you'd witness even on the tamest action flick (or computer game) nowadays. So, for me, Thunder in Paradise is sort of like Scooby Doo, only LIVE action.

It's all good formula stuff: The good guys, ex-Navy SEALs, invariably get into some kind of mess and try to find a way out of it which undoubtedly complicates things into an even bigger mess. Along the way they save the girl (or girls!), save the beach, save the hotel, save the kind old man or anyone else who needs help, and put the bad guys away - for good! Not to mention, they always get the girl in the end. Well, almost always. Oh, did I mention the huge amount of gorgeous bodies in the background of almost every beach scene? I think this show might hold the record. Carol Alt, who co-starred in it, is no slouch either. But the reigning star of the show is 'Thunder' the scarab experimental one-off water weapon that 'Spence' has built for the Navy. Hi partner 'Bru', and buddy for life pilots the hi-tech craft through calm harbors, rough seas or bullet-riddled jungle lagoons. This thing goes anywhere. And so does the plot for that matter! But you can be sure, by the story's end our heroes will be banged-up, bruised and aching, but also smiling ear to ear back at their favorite beach watering hole, the Scuttlebutt Bar N' Grill, run by Carol Alt's character 'Kelly LaRue'.

The jokes and fun, action and fights between our heroes played by Hulk Hogan and Chris Lemon (yes, Jack's son), and whatever bad guys come along, is nothing short of fantastic mediocrity! And that's why I love it. It doesn't try to be perfect or even high brow. This is simply a fun, B-movie ride of adventure and melodrama in the same way the old serials used to be - you know, those shorts that inspired "Raiders of the Lost Ark"?

Anyway, I loved it. When TV was like this, (A-Team, etc.) when there were limits as to how serious a show could get or how much gore could be shown (or inferred) for general audiences to ingest we had a lot less problems occurring in society, didn't we? A connection? Cause and effect? Does media influence society? You decide. As for me, I've already decided. Besides, I don't want to turn this review into a Marshall McCluhan seminar. All I know is, innocent, good-natured fun like this wasn't influencing young minds and inspiring disturbing behavior in real life to go out and do nasty things, or worse yet, be immune and sensitized when someone else does. Can you say the same about today's TV shows, usually glorifying a sadistic serial killer, or having us see up-close the gruesome details of a crime scene investigation which spares no blood, guts, organs and sickening details of torture for our viewing pleasure? All that stuff is child's play for most children nowadays who can recite from memory how to cut up a body for disposal, use bleach to remove DNA from a crime scene or how a month-old corpse looks when dredged up from a river. Well, that may be your cup of tea, but I believe in garbage in / garbage out. And thankfully, we get to choose our own garbage.

You can have your torture and stylish autopsies. I'll take fun in the sun and silly paradise any day.

I first saw this not as a series, but as a movie in Italy. I was surprised because everything in Italy was dubbed, and this was not. Not even subtitles. But the audience didn't seem to mind. They loved it. Carol Alt (one of the regulars), was a huge star in Italy, and this was all about her. She gets kidnapped, and ends up in a "Morocco" type country, and has to be rescued. You get the picture. But I was surprised by the quality of the writing, directing, and especially the production values. Beautifully photographed, and just a delight. Clever. Yes, Hulk Hogan was even clever (well, the writer made him clever, and the director made him a good actor).

When I back home came to the States, I soon discovered that what I saw was once a two part episode, that had extra footage shot, and made into a feature for foreign distribution (though I think now you can get these on DVD). They did this for a few of the shows. The actual series was running on TV, and I watched them all with my kids. They got better and better. As I've read, they were all shot at Disney World, and Disney, (which was not the production company), opened up their doors. Literally. They even shot in Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and had their high-tech talking stealth boat in the moat! Jack Lemon's son, Chris was Hulk's sidekick, and showed both his father's humor, along with a new kind of intensity. Of course Carol Alt was wonderful, and my all time favorite, Patrick Macnee from the original "ADVENGERS" series gave it the foundation and roots you need. You know, like Leo G. Carroll in "The Man From "U.N.C.L.E.", or Edward Mulhare in "Knightrider". But Patrick is in a class all his own.

I'm sure TV budgets aren't that big, but every episode looked like a feature film. Lots of great guest stars, especially from the ranks of wrestling, when they had stars! Lots of original music too. This was produced, I've discovered by the same guys who brought you "Baywatch". This was so much better. Maybe because they were able to get off the hot sand! You can see a lot of the same formula, but this one actually had well written story's, good dialogue, and movie class action and special effects (the explosions were spellbinding!). In one episode I believe they blew up an entire school! And this is before CGI.

It's easy to put shows like this down. Especially when Hulk Hogan is in it. And this was long before his entire family went on TV, and then self-destructed. But really. It takes a special talent to pull something like this off… give you comedy, action, warmth, and even emotion and message! I wish they'd bring this back. I can't think of a show on TV these days that has such wonderful "escapism"! Ah, for the days of "Thunder In Paradise", and "Magnum PI"!