B.J. and the Bear

I liked B. J.and and the Bear it was a great TV show and I liked Bear.

I was going to high school in Ukiah, California when this show was on the air, and one week they came to the town to film at the fairgrounds in that town. We didn't see much filming up there, so this was quite a lot of excitement for us! They filmed mostly at the fairgrounds, and a lot of students (including myself) cut school to go and watch. They filmed some shots with onlookers in the background so it was even more exciting for us to think we would be on TV! But my best memory of this time was one day as Greg Evigan was signing autographs (I had already got one from him the day before) and my mother and I were standing off to the side and talking about whether or not they may shoot somewhere else in town after they were finished at the fairgrounds. And Mr. Evigan talked to us, as he was signing an autograph for someone, joking that sometimes he was the last to know where they would be going next. I was about 16 and to have a TV star talking to me was really a big deal. And he was nice to all the fans who were there, and to this day when I see him on TV I think of him as this nice guy who gave a lot of people in a small town a good image of famous people.

"BJ & The Bear" was one of my all time favorite shows as a young teen. Greg Evigan was great, and of course lets not forget Sam the chimp who played "The Bear". BJ was always a step ahead of the bungling lawmen, played most briliantly by Calude Akins (Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo) and Mills Watson (Deputy Perkins). I hated to see the show go off the air and wish they would do a TV-movie again or something. It would be nice to see that big red and white Kenworth on the road again.

Many,many,many,many years ago,NBC was proverbially a last place--fourth among the big three it seemed--network and it was being buoyed by arguably uber-lightweight fare such as "Real People","Sheriff Lobo" and this show,a frothy action/comedy/adventure show involving a cheerfully unweighted handsome trucker(Greg Evigan) and his traveling companion,an adult male chimpanzee named Bear. This show had a spirited but short run on the pre-TArtikoff,post-Silverman(Fred Silverman) Peacock network,paired often with the aforementioned "LObo",with their plots sometimes spilling over into each other. I recall that a fair amount of hot,giggly,jiggly would-be "Hee HAw" Honeys would pop in as either guests or recurring characters(among them,long time co-symbol of classic blonde hotness,Judy LAnders),outside of that and pre-requisite car/truck chases and crashes,I probably only recall a small amount of stuff about this show now.But almost thirty years ago,my family and I watched these shows pretty faithfully,for what reason I'm not entirely sure. I'd actually be curious to see these shows again to see how quaint and charming they may or may not be now. I figure that this it was harmless fun back in the tightly censored television of the late '70s/early '80s,it must seem REALLY gentle by today's viewing standards.

In the craze of truck-driver shows that came out in the '70s, none had a more original premise than that of "B.J. and the Bear", with its mixture of good ol' boy farce, action, romance and, of course, a monkey!

The plot stayed more or less the same all through the show's run: B.J. McKay (Evigan) worked as a truck driver who constantly dealt with inept lawmen (namely Akins' Sheriff Lobo, who got his own series!), crooked truckers and, usually, bevy after bevy of beautiful women in tight clothes. Who said this show was sexist?

The women worked so well, in fact, that they stayed on for the long haul as "The Seven Lady Truckers" who worked with B.J. and gave the show a big boost from the male part of the TV-viewing public. And who could blame them: women the likes of Landers (YIKES!), Holleran, Julia, McCullough and the Brough sisters were definitely worth tuning in for every week.

And the series, helmed by TV maestro Glen Larson (also of "The Fall Guy" fame) knew what worked in a series and kept action, tough guys and beautiful women in each episode. Oh yeah, and the monkey too. Can't forget him.

All in all, a great reminder of the glory that was truck driving, the heroism that was "B.J." and the monkey that was "the Bear".

Eight stars for "B.J. and the Bear" - keep on truckin'!