Hardcastle and McCormick premieres on September 18, 1983


ZOOM! SCREECH! BANG! American TV viewers were in for a HIGH OCTANE Sunday night of TV on September 18, 1983. That's when one of the greatest shows of the 1980s, Hardcastle and McCormick, premiered with a two-part pilot episode on ABC. Another hit from the prolific television genius and novelist Stephen J. Cannell, it spun a twist on the buddy cop genre by teaming up a retired judge and a criminal to pursue a literal file cabinet full of felons who had gotten off on technicalities. It featured some other tropes familiar to Cannell fans, such as casting an older veteran of the silver screen, snappy dialogue, cars mysteriously launching off of the trunks of other cars, and plenty of tire burning, fist-fighting ACTION.

Brian Keith as Judge Milton C. Hardcastle, and Daniel Hugh Kelly as former race car driver and current convict "Skid" Mark McCormick, had believable father-son chemistry right off the bat. Keith needed no introduction to older viewers, and Kelly held his own opposite the Hollywood veteran. But the real star of the show was the custom-built supercar, the Coyote X, a low-slung, curved fiberglass marvel that would make Enzo Ferrari green with envy. In the capable hands of ex-racer McCormick, it became a chariot of vigilante vengeance, a gleaming red spaceship of a car, tearing through the picturesque midcentury-modern tapestry of suburban Los Angeles.

While McCormick was supposed to be a convicted felon, it turned out he was hardly a hardened criminal, much less a bad guy. He probably shouldn't even have been in the legal boat he's in, but essentially becoming Hardcastle's prisoner beats lockup in the big house. And the retired judge has his own really big house, a coastal California estate that had many viewers wondering just how much judges get paid in the Golden State. But rather than enjoy the good life in his declining years, Hardcastle is fixated on bringing to justice the many criminals of California who have taken advantage of an increasingly pro-criminal justice system. Suffice it to say, he would come out of his grave if he saw 2025 America!

If you've watched other Cannell shows, you won't be surprised that the dialogue crackles. Cannell seemed hopeful of recreating the often laugh-out-loud funny bickering-old-guy-young-guy banter from his earlier 80s hit, The Greatest American Hero. And maybe having another stellar theme song make the jump from TV to radio. Mission accomplished on the former, but sadly, not the latter. The instrumental version that runs over the end credits is still one of the best of the 80s, though.

There really weren't any bad episodes of Hardcastle and McCormick, and it had a decent three season run. American TV viewers still liked the idea of smug criminals getting their comeuppance, even if their elected officials didn't. The series had a proper ending, too, with McCormick heading off to law school. It was a perfect setup for a future spinoff series, where a Judge McCormick might team up with a younger con for more crimefighting adventures. Alas, this hasn't happened yet, but Kelly is just about the right age to play a retired judge, so we can still hope that content-hungry Hollywood might stumble across this underappreciated show in its desperate appetite for rebooting good old stuff.

Kelly, an outstanding actor, has been criminally-underused by Tinseltown. He was a star of the 1983 box office hit Cujo. Hardcastle and McCormick fans who are also Trekkies were pleasantly surprised when he appeared in a decent-sized part in 1998's Star Trek: Insurrection. He's had many a TV and movie role since his early-80s success, but not the top billing in blockbusters or Oscar material that his talents warranted.

Hardcastle and McCormick enjoyed a run of several years in syndication during the 1990s. That was when I first saw it. With the godawful state of TV in the 90s, I think I appreciated the series even more than I would have in the 80s. There was nothing like it on the boob tube by then. I've seen every episode several times over, and it quickly became one of my all-time favorite shows. Now available streaming or on DVD, it may become one of yours.

Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA

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