Trivia / T.J. Hooker

• California Doubling: Averted when the team goes to Hawaii in "Blood Sport"; marking a return to Hawaii for Shatner and Darren, both of whom appeared on Hawaii Five-O.
• Channel Hop: From ABC (seasons 1–4) to CBS (season 5).
• Creative Differences: Bob Grogan, one of the detectives who worked on the Hillside Strangler case in Los Angeles, was hired as a technical advisor for the show, but was fired when he criticized re-writes of his ideas.
• Creator Couple: Marcy Lafferty (sometimes credited as Marcy Lafferty-Shatner), William Shatner's then-wife, guest-starred in four episodes, "Blind Justice", "Psychic Terror", "Sanctuary" and "Partners In Death". Lisabeth Shatner, one of his daughters, wrote "Partners In Death". Making it a true family affair, it's also one of the episodes that Bill directed.
• Directed by Cast Member: William Shatner directed ten episodes. James Darren directed one as well.
• Divorced Installment: The series was originally to be a reworking of The Rookies, this time called The Protectors. After the pilot, it was decided to focus the series on William Shatner's character and retitle it T. J. Hooker.
• He Also Did: William Shatner and this show is one of the default example of this trope in Conversational Troping.
• Hey, It's That Place!: Although the action is supposedly set in a fictional American city which remains un-named on screen, the locations were all so obviously Los Angeles that they might as well have been completely explicit about it. Most frequent filming locations were around the Burbank area, with other instantly recognizable locations being the Santa Monica Pier, Venice Beach, Paradise Cove, and Marina del Rey. On at least one occasion they even went downtown. Most obviously, the exteriors for the "LC"PD Academy were all shot at... the genuine LAPD Academy grounds in Elysian Park, near Dodger Stadium. Very much a case of California doubling for itself in all but name.
  • MAD called it "Loser City Police Dept." in their parody of the show ("T.S. Schnooker").
• Network to the Rescue: After Season Four ABC cancelled the series. CBS picked up the series and aired a fifth season of new episodes in a latenight 11:30 slot.
• Real-Life Relative: Tori Spelling, the real-life daughter of Executive Producer Aaron Spelling, guest-starred in the episode "Grand Theft Auto".

---