"Well, well, if it isn't the B.A.D. Cats." This deathless prose, uttered by Jimmie Walker in the short lived action series of the same name is about as good as it gets. This show is like a parody of cop series television of the era. The premise is that the LAPD has hired two former race car drivers to make up a highly specialized unit called the Burglary Auto Detail Commercial Auto Thefts, or B.A.D. Cats. Officer Donovan (Asher Brauner) and Officer James (Steve Hanks) drive around LA, getting into car chases and apprehending criminals like car thief Walker. They occasionally enlist the help of Officer Jensen (Pheiffer in one of her first featured roles) when they need some jiggle action. This Aaron Spelling show lasted all of 6 episodes in January and February of 1980. While researching it I ran across a review on IMDB that had an anecdote from a real LAPD officer that worked security on the set about how the actors went rogue during lunch one day and started driving around pulling over civilians just for fun. Everything about this show from the ridiculous title to the campy cast just screams parody.
Needless to say, you can't find this on DVD. Above is one of the chase scenes from the series featuring the detectives and Jimmie Walker. It was uploaded to YouTube by Persucecionolvidada.
Obscurity factor: 10 (hard to find, not on DVD, only on YouTube in part, almost completely forgotten)
So very Starsky and Hutch.
ReplyDeleteWow, I don't remember this one! It's hard to imagine that such a limited concept could go very far, in the first place. Car chases can be expensive, but Spelling was always willing to pump in the money, hoping for another lucrative series.
ReplyDeleteI just love the name. It reminds me of all those lol cats videos on YouTube...
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