By Steve Rhodes
Season: 4
Episode: 3
Heather Locklear: No
Release date: May 4, 1985
IMDB plot summary: “Hooker is sent to Chicago to pick someone who’s being extradited. But upon arriving a streetwise detective who needs the prisoner to help get a criminal he’s pursuing convinces Hooker to let him use the guy before he leaves. But something goes wrong and Hooker offers to help him get the criminal. Written by rcs0411@yahoo.com.”
IMDB rating: 6.7
IMDB trivia: This was the last 60-minute episode; this was the last original episode broadcast on ABC; this episode was done as a tentative pilot for a retooled version of the series. (See Jason Daniel Baker’s review.)
TJHooker.com: “One of the most bizarre episodes of T.J. Hooker ever filmed.”
Chicago skyline shot: Of course.
Cameo: The old Sun-Times Building.
Obligatory blues soundtrack: Yes.
Obligatory shot of the El: Yes.
Obligatory Hollywood urban scene: Guys downtown warming hands on open trash can fire.
Offensive black man stereotype: Yes.
Dressed appropriately for the “coldest winter in 50 years?” No, though it does make for a (terrible) running joke. Hooker eventually buys a red parka, which he tears during a chase.
Obligatory shot of Wrigley Field: Yes.
Shot of Comiskey Park? No.
Cop who doesn’t play by the rules? Yes. (Sort of a reverse 48 Hours thing going on, too.)
State of Illinois Building interior use: Yes, though TJHooker.com mistakes it for a “downtown mall.”
Location of “new drug supermarket”: 31st and Maxwell.
Newspaper delivery truck: Yes, Tribune.
White guy in a black bar: Yes.
Same police station exterior as in Hill Street Blues: I think so.
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Watch!
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Comments welcome.
Posted on January 12, 2016