Can't compare to today's low budget tripe. Budgets for several sets, car chases, and explosions is too much for today on the cheap TV shows. Who cares what loser is going get voted of elimidate, or voted off the island, house or even tool shed. These real life shows are done on the cheap. Even cheaper than the sit com Friends which used a whole two sets where there was nothing but self absorbed gabbing. TJ Hooker had high production values compared to the future of TV, and was fast paced with action. The only problem was the delivery of the show's formula. Predictable, every chase the car has to explode. TJ, hung onto the hood of the bad guys' car. The final fight where TJ uses the night stick. Zimmerman and Locklear were added beef stick for the show. I believe the predictability of the show's formula and delivery helped kill this style of show; along with the high budget which todays on the cheap tv will never do again. 5 out of 10.
7 Reviews
SUPERB PILOT EPISODE
Big Movie Fan28 March 2002
If you've read my comments on the T.J. Hooker TV series you'll know that I think it was the best TV show for many reasons. This was the pilot for the series and when I first saw it I was really impressed.
This movie had everything-moral dilemmas, action and a great plot. We got to see top cop Sergeant Hooker preparing the police cadets for the real world. We got to see Hooker instilling his morals and values on all the cadets.
I was most pleased with this movie for the above reasons. Some cop shows are just car chase after car chase and the characters have no depth. Hooker was superbly played by William Shatner who made him an interesting and human character with depth and an interesting background.
I strongly recommend this pilot movie and the series that followed.
This movie had everything-moral dilemmas, action and a great plot. We got to see top cop Sergeant Hooker preparing the police cadets for the real world. We got to see Hooker instilling his morals and values on all the cadets.
I was most pleased with this movie for the above reasons. Some cop shows are just car chase after car chase and the characters have no depth. Hooker was superbly played by William Shatner who made him an interesting and human character with depth and an interesting background.
I strongly recommend this pilot movie and the series that followed.
Very Poor. I'm surprised they decided to make a TV show out of this.
MovieAddict201621 March 2004
A pretty poor made-for-TV movie that was *the* pilot for the television show "T.J. Hooker" starring William Shatner. "You don't need to worry about wasting hours trying to figure out what T.J. stands for -- you all will know me as Sergeant."
The beginning of the movie is laughably bad. Shatner's Hooker is introduced to us as a mean, harsh military-style Sergeant getting ready to train his new "troops."
Hooker pretty much teaches his new cadets his own style of police force - the raw vengeance sort of deal. Then there's the introduction of a subplot that just becomes silly.
Quentin Tarantino referenced "T.J. Hooker" in his screenplay for "True Romance." It's a huge part of society. It's even been in "Showtime" with De Niro and Murphy.
Yet it all started because of a really poor made-for-TV movie. If I were the studio, I would never have picked up "T.J. Hooker" after seeing this travesty. I'm surprised anyone did.
2/5 stars.
The beginning of the movie is laughably bad. Shatner's Hooker is introduced to us as a mean, harsh military-style Sergeant getting ready to train his new "troops."
Hooker pretty much teaches his new cadets his own style of police force - the raw vengeance sort of deal. Then there's the introduction of a subplot that just becomes silly.
Quentin Tarantino referenced "T.J. Hooker" in his screenplay for "True Romance." It's a huge part of society. It's even been in "Showtime" with De Niro and Murphy.
Yet it all started because of a really poor made-for-TV movie. If I were the studio, I would never have picked up "T.J. Hooker" after seeing this travesty. I'm surprised anyone did.
2/5 stars.
- John Ulmer
Awesome Show
megaparrot27 August 2005
I love this show mainly because I like William Shattner. I don't really care if it was based in reality or not. It was fun to watch. I don't believe William Shattners character was meant to imitate an average person but an ideal for all the things a good police officer.....a good person can represent. I do agree Adam-12 and Dragnet were, and still are great television shows based more on actual cases and real police work, but I don't think you can compare them. TJ Hooker was more like the A-Team. It's fun and entertaining. I love the fight scenes with William Shattner in this show. He uses the shame fighting style as in Star Trek. I recommend this show to anyone who is a fan of William Shattner.
T.J. Hooker- The Protectors (Pilot)
Scarecrow-8818 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
After watching the pilot for this popular 80s series, TJ Hooker, I understand why Shatner found the role so appealing. He has quite an interesting character, multi-faceted and strong, tough-minded and dedicated, TJ Hooker is a veteran sergeant full of regrets, anguish, and pride. The pilot opens with Sergeant TJ Hooker training a new group of recruits, preparing through a Police Academy on the fundamentals for how to perform as a cop on the dangerous streets of Los Angeles. The LCPD force are on the streets trying to deteriorate the swelling crime rate, and Hooker is one of those father-hens attempting to mold young men and women, first on the obstacle courses, and then patrolling the streets to get a realistic view of what it takes to "work the beat". The pilot has two criminal lowlifes who start out robbing joints, taking a fancy to shooting people, becoming a menace to society since many victims are blown away for no reason other than the shooters did it for kicks. The pilot introduces us to recruits such as Richard Lawson (who I wish would've been a recurring character during the series), Adrian Zmed (the handsome Latin Catholic stud who proudly recognizes his looks), Brian Patrick Clarke, John Gladstein, Steve Hanks, and Kelly Harmon, all of who are hoping to make it through the rigorous training exercises and patrols in order to become new police officers. The show does establish these actors in roles, giving their characters plenty of room to grow during the episode. Clarke's Officer Canfield was a former football pro who blew out his knee and has struggled to hold onto a job, an Alaskan pipeline employment causing his beautiful wife, Lacy (Deborah Shelton; "Body Double"), to become involved with the city's DA, Saxon (David Hedison; "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea-the series"). Gladstein's Granger comes from a family of cops, but Hooker feels he is not police material (later justified by an experiment where Granger fails to shoot a fake criminal when Hooker's life was supposedly in peril). Harmon is constantly hit on by Zmed's Vince Romano, at first denying his advances eventually agreeing to dinner. Meanwhile, we see Hooker's life away from the uniform, how he's "on probation" for an incident when his partner was shot and he used deadly force on the criminal, the estrangement with his ex-wife who divorced him because of the job, and the psychological crises which eat away at him (such as his Nam experiences having to see young men crack under the pressure and the thought of police officers under his guidance falling victim to the same problems on the street jungles of LA). Lawson seems to have quite a level-headed and mentally mature young officer in David McNeil, who could've given the series a quality character to watch grow as cop; it's interesting that the show chooses Zmed instead of him as Hooker's partner. The show certainly is pro-cop allowing Hooker to subtly condemn the courts for allowing criminals to often get away for their sins instead of pay the price for the crimes they either commit or potentially commit. The LA of this show seems to be a possible Beirut, with the public having to often take law into their own hands (a store owner shoots a gang member who pointed a gun in her face during a robbery, wondering if the streets would ever be safe again, opining to one of the young recruits that her husband was a victim of a shooting) at points, questioning if the police will be able to stop the burgeoning growth of violence and thievery plaguing the streets. Hooker is deeply committed to the badge and is bitter about how criminals often get away; you can sense the anger and hostility stewing, particularly when he talks about the dangers that await needed police officers, the idea that many of them will die because his training failed them.
Poor TVM Hooker is set up like a hero for all the right wingers
bob the moo18 February 2002
While being investigated for unlawful killing of a criminal, Sergeant Hooker is delivering on-the-job training for a team of recruits. Whilst weeding out the unsuitable candidates he teaches them his own brand of policing - the old school method that protects the innocent but takes justice on the guilty. Meanwhile a pair of drunken, small time thieves are robbing and murdering people on the city streets.
The pilot for the TV series this, it is easy to see why it got picked up - the main character is interesting, with enough back story and issues to justify a series. However the overriding philosophy is forced down our throats a bit too much. It obvious that the writers are very right-wing and are fed up with the liberal handling of criminals by the courts while police are killed on the streets with little protection from the court. Hooker regularly is given speeches about the unfairness of the system or how criminals get away with it etc, while all the criminals are shown as a) crazy or b) losers who kill old people and women for as little as $15. Really this is a message film - although the message is a little heavy handed.
Some points are made about the bad side of Hooker, but these are minor and are mostly brushed over by other characters - one black woman compares Hooker to the cops who used to beat up blacks in the 60's only to be told by another black cop that `Hooker talks a lot of sense'. I'm not a liberal and believe that the courts are too easy on criminals generally, allowing too many off on technicalities whilst holding the cops to the letter of the law, but I was really put off by Hooker's unpleasantly strict version of justice.
Shatner is OK but he can't help but act everything seriously, delivering his moralising lectures with his usual dramatic facial expressions - it's not his fault because his character is so very hard to like. Hooker sets up his cadets in traumatising situations just to show them they will fail and when he is described as `insane' by a colleague for murdering a thief he merely replies `sanity is over-rated' and they both laugh! He may be a hero for the rightwing out there but anyone less strict will be put off. The rest of the cast are OK but look very eighties (check out Zmed's Italian Stallion!) Really the cadets are only there to be won over by Hooker's philosophy in the way the film hopes we will be.
Overall this is OK - not great but not terrible. I score it 4 out of 10 because it has some entertaining moments but really it is 90 minutes or so of Shatner shouting his message at us.
The pilot for the TV series this, it is easy to see why it got picked up - the main character is interesting, with enough back story and issues to justify a series. However the overriding philosophy is forced down our throats a bit too much. It obvious that the writers are very right-wing and are fed up with the liberal handling of criminals by the courts while police are killed on the streets with little protection from the court. Hooker regularly is given speeches about the unfairness of the system or how criminals get away with it etc, while all the criminals are shown as a) crazy or b) losers who kill old people and women for as little as $15. Really this is a message film - although the message is a little heavy handed.
Some points are made about the bad side of Hooker, but these are minor and are mostly brushed over by other characters - one black woman compares Hooker to the cops who used to beat up blacks in the 60's only to be told by another black cop that `Hooker talks a lot of sense'. I'm not a liberal and believe that the courts are too easy on criminals generally, allowing too many off on technicalities whilst holding the cops to the letter of the law, but I was really put off by Hooker's unpleasantly strict version of justice.
Shatner is OK but he can't help but act everything seriously, delivering his moralising lectures with his usual dramatic facial expressions - it's not his fault because his character is so very hard to like. Hooker sets up his cadets in traumatising situations just to show them they will fail and when he is described as `insane' by a colleague for murdering a thief he merely replies `sanity is over-rated' and they both laugh! He may be a hero for the rightwing out there but anyone less strict will be put off. The rest of the cast are OK but look very eighties (check out Zmed's Italian Stallion!) Really the cadets are only there to be won over by Hooker's philosophy in the way the film hopes we will be.
Overall this is OK - not great but not terrible. I score it 4 out of 10 because it has some entertaining moments but really it is 90 minutes or so of Shatner shouting his message at us.
A Cop Named 'Hooker'?
JasonDanielBaker2 April 2014
A police academy with a disparate group of young cadets is taught by gruff curmudgeonly veteran cop Sgt. T.J.Hooker (William Shatner) who is a strict taskmaster and disciplinarian. Part way through the academy training process a crime wave and a shortage of uniformed officers forces the recruits into service early. But that is not the end of their training and not all of these recruits will become real cops even though they are assuming aspects of active duty.
The finiteness of the young group of officers is reflected in the man teaching them. An ex Green Beret who had a distinguished tenure early in his law enforcement career, Hooker lost a partner and was himself shot on duty. Though heroic he has been marginalized by the culture and the system. His wife dumped him but sometimes she lets him babysit their kids if he remembers to pay alimony.
What we see at first looks as though it was initially conceived as a reworking of 'The Rookies' - an ABC-TV series produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg which followed young cops during their first days in uniform. This show could have gone the same way but instead came to revolve around the strongest character study in the pilot arc i.e. that of T.J.Hooker.
Very little of what is shown would be in the series this would eventually become. Essentially what we see is the introduction of the disgraced, downtrodden but nevertheless resilient hero and his new partner - the best of the class. Out of all the cadets that might be the one to have Hooker's back it is not necessarily the recruit we in the audience might imagine from what we see though several of them look promising in different ways.
The result was a streamlined direction making for a more coherent narrative and a smaller, thus less expensive, roster of cast members.
The finiteness of the young group of officers is reflected in the man teaching them. An ex Green Beret who had a distinguished tenure early in his law enforcement career, Hooker lost a partner and was himself shot on duty. Though heroic he has been marginalized by the culture and the system. His wife dumped him but sometimes she lets him babysit their kids if he remembers to pay alimony.
What we see at first looks as though it was initially conceived as a reworking of 'The Rookies' - an ABC-TV series produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg which followed young cops during their first days in uniform. This show could have gone the same way but instead came to revolve around the strongest character study in the pilot arc i.e. that of T.J.Hooker.
Very little of what is shown would be in the series this would eventually become. Essentially what we see is the introduction of the disgraced, downtrodden but nevertheless resilient hero and his new partner - the best of the class. Out of all the cadets that might be the one to have Hooker's back it is not necessarily the recruit we in the audience might imagine from what we see though several of them look promising in different ways.
The result was a streamlined direction making for a more coherent narrative and a smaller, thus less expensive, roster of cast members.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
