Strike Force

STRIKE FORCE was one of those cop shows that didn't last, but that people did in fact watch and mostly, enjoyed for its uniquely gruesome, realistic portrayal of detectives working in a big city, Los Angeles in this case, and while Robert Stack is best known for another crime series, thirty-years earlier in The Untouchables, he'd just starred in both 1941 and Airplane, but slapstick comedies, so FORCE was a way of getting back to his roots where that ultra-serious voice fits... and it did...

He's partnered with a younger partner, of course, as all shows do, in African American Dorian Harewood, and one episode in particular stands out although it doesn't seem to be listed... or described/summarized... in any of the episodes...

It was a kind of play on Psycho where the antagonist is a transgender (at that time called transvestite) who kills people, and it was an extremely eerie and intense episode.... but also, like Psycho, sympathetic. Guess that's a lost episode or something, but, this series should STRIKE on DVD or Blu Ray, and so many Gen X-ers would welcome it with open arms.

The character line-up of this show was similar to that of "The New F.B.I"., which came out about the same time. There was a tough Irish main cop, a jiggly woman, an all-American guy, a minority and a charming Italian. This was during that A-Team era, where you had a groups of elite cops protecting the entire city. They just don't make cop shows like that anymore. The one episode I recall the most was this one staring The Late Robert Ridley (from BOOGIE NIGHTS), who played this drug dealing kid's clown. He was pretty creepy. Ike Eisenmann is in the episode, too. Funny, can't find this on his page.

Strike Force had a loyal and enthusiastic audience because it was exciting and fresh - unfortunately, the conservatives were afraid that it was too violent (considering what's on the tube NOW, it was pretty tame!!) and it was yanked way too soon! The theme song was TREMENDOUS, as well - set the tone of the show perfectly!!

I will always have a warm spot for Robert Stack because he took so many roles that essentially satirized himself and because of his work with "Unsolved Mysteries".

I wish I could see an episode of this series again. What I remember, which may or may not be an accurate recollection, is that whenever gunfire would break out, you'd hear the "pop pop pop" of handguns and at some point Robert Stack would take out what APPEARED to be a normal handgun and "KABOOM"! Wow baby!! THAT is a handgun! It seemed that someone deliberately used a MUCH much louder......uh........hand CANNON noise for Robert Stack's firearm than they used for any other. Well, as has been noted, it WAS the era of he A- Team, and Bob WAS the man!!

Made up of a half dozen of California's toughest law enforcement officers, the Strike Force handled those cases too difficult for mainstream justice to solve. I was 11 or 12 when "Strike Force" aired and loved it. After watching rather tame procedurals as "Emergency!" and "Adam-12," "SF" was the first cop show I watched that seemed "grown-up." The first episode had a mother and father decapitating members of the jury that sentenced their son to prison. Tough stuff. In fact, I remember "SF" being named one of the most violent shows on television by one of those citizen groups. Probably no money in it, but it'd be great to see this show's very few episodes on DVD. It was a Spelling Production, so maybe in the wake of Aaron's death ... but I doubt it.

PS - Yup, on Sunday nights, ABC also ran "Today's FBI," starring Mannix himself, Mike Connors.

PPS - I actually had a "SF" gun and target set, you know - with those plastic suction cups. And the gun was modeled after Stack's own hand cannon from the show. Wish I still had it ... hello, Ebay!! Oh well.