Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Fall Guy 1.09

License to Kill (Part 1)

Colt and Howie travel to Hawaii to track down Ryker, a man who has skipped bail in California. Ryker turns out to be a CIA agent who is on the trail of Salem, a terrorist. Colt and Howie are arrested by the Honolulu PD when they arrive in Hawaii. They are bailed out by Lieutenant Commander Bonnie Carlson USN, an old friend of Colt's. Agent Bradshaw of the FBI also visits the police department to interrogate Colt and Howie but he just misses them.

The two stunt men are attacked on more than one occasion by Salem's men who are all Asian and dressed in black. Colt and Howie eventually catch up to Ryker, Their little get together is interrupted by the Salem's men who are there to kill Ryker and anyone who gets in their way. The episode ends with a crash after a high speed boat chase.

There were lots of shots of Hawaii but it is unclear to me if they actually filmed on location or not. A lot of those shots could have been stock footage. Jody barely appears in this episode.

Salem is played by William Smith. I'm pretty sure I have seen him in a number of other TV shows and movies. The one that sticks out in my mind is an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1.20, Buck's Duel to the Death) where he played a bad guy named the Trebor.

Lieutenant Commander Bonnie Carlson is played by Erin Gray whom I know best as Colonel Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I saw her in person recently at the Baltimore Comic Con. I didn't pay to meet her, I just went to the panel where she talked about her career as an actor and agent and answered questions from the audience.

Agent Bradshaw is played by Ken Swofford. I could not recall his name but I remembered his face from Fame (TV show) where he played Principal Quentin Morloch for a little over two seasons.

Lou Ferrigno makes a brief appearance as himself at the beginning of the episode. Colt is working on the set of a TV show and Ferrigno comes in dressed up as the Hulk. Ferrigno was still playing the title character on the Incredible Hulk TV show at the time this episode of the Fall Guy first aired (Jan 1982). He looked more or less as I remember him looking on the Hulk TV show except his hair was blond. The final episode of the Hulk aired in May 1982.

I used to watch the Fall Guy off and on when it first aired or in reruns back in the mid-1980s. I don't recall seeing this episode before but it has been over 30 years since the show went off the air.

This is definitely dated. The use of the term Oriental was very commonplace at the time and was used at least once in this episode. One of the police officers, who is Asian-American and speaks unaccented English, pronounces Ryker's name as Like-er. This seemed to me to be a weird and bigoted nod to an old stereotype.

I can't say I loved this episode. If I had expected it to be in the least bit serious then I would have been rolling eyes throughout. It isn't great television. It's more of a museum piece.

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