What happens when you combine some hit TV shows together like, "Chips" with a little bit of "The Mod Squad" and add a whole lot of "Baywatch", 10-years before Baywatch was first broadcast. You get a surprisingly good 1979 TV movie "Beach Patrol". And, here's the thing, the one 2-hr episode of "Beach Patrol" was better than any episode of "Chips", "The Mod Squad" or "Baywatch" that I've ever seen.
However, because the TV movie was never picked up for a series it remains a forgotten little gem of a potentially fun and exciting series the public will forever be denied. Oh well.... at least we have the 2-hour TV movie.
While the main cast includes four 20-something beach patrol officers and two 40-something detectives, the shows main focus is on the life and work of two young male and one female beach patrol officers. Alah, "The Mod Squad". But, instead of sporting all the coolest and hippest plain clothes attire and hair styles of their era. The three dress in traditional LA officer clothing and patrol the beaches in dune buggies. Alah, "Chips".
Among the three young handsome and sexy featured patrol officers is a barely recognizable beardless, blonde haired 27-year old Jonathan Frakes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fame. A fairly decent actor even back then, and definitely the best of the entire cast. While I didn't think there was a "BAD" actor among the main cast, they were however like most young actors, rather average and uninteresting to watch. But, you could see that a young Jonathan had more training and a little special something that the others just didn't possess that made him stand out before crowd.
Another member of the fab three beach patrol officers is Jan Plummer (played by Christine De Lisle). Who bared a strong resemblance to a young Farrah Fawcett, before Farrah became the glamorous pop-culture phenomenon by the mid-late 70's. Christine also came across as an intelligent mature young woman that reminded me a little of Kate Jackson's TV persona.
However, Christine's acting was often a little too wooden and/or flat, and as a result you just never connected emotionally with her character. Also, while Christine bared a strong resemblance to arguably the most glamorously beautiful actresses of her time, Christine's attractive looks didn't explode off the screen like a Farrah Fawcett or a Peggy Lipton's did. Like her acting, Christine's beautiful features just sat flat on the screen. A genetic lottery winner to passively observe, but oddly your senses were never over whelmed by her on screen beauty. I guess the camera just didn't love her like it did Farrah. Tough break kid.
The third beach patrol officer is Earl 'Hack' Hackman (played by Rick Hill) and this character needed to be recast if the show ever got picked up for a series. Not because Rick Hill was a bad actor or anything, but because his character and his looks were almost identical to that of Jonathan Frakes. And, there was NO contrast of character or styles like Starsky & Hutch or Bo and Luke Duke for example. And it makes for a pretty lousy cop buddy team when the two buddies are carbon copies of each other. And, since Jonathan is the better of the two actors, well.... sorry Rick, but Richard Hatch is now available after the cancellation of "Battlestar Galactica". Good luck with the rest of your career.
The movie begins with our attractive young patrol officers cruising a California beach and interacting with the colorful quirky beach bums who reside there. That is until Jan Plummer recognizes a known drug kingpin operating in the area. The drug trafficking king pin who looks like Ron Jeremy after a 3-day cocaine binge with an unidentifiable European accent is a ruthless stereotypical TV drug kingpin of 1970s TV. So watch out Beach Patrol. I believe he was played by Michael V. Gazzo of "Godfather II" fame, but don't "quote" me on that.
Anyway, our fun loving Beach patrolling Mod Squad do some investigating to see if the drug dealing king pin is back in action. The king pin goes all Al Capone in response to prevent them from discovering his operation, and the fun loving beach patrollers are suddenly transformed into the "Untouchables". Doing battle with the drug kingpin and his henchmen.
It's actually a pretty fun journey and you generally like all the characters, and the movie concludes with a really well shot and well performed dangerous action scene involving hitmen in a helicopter vs. our two male officers in a dune buggy. It was a really well done action scene. Especially, for a TV movie in the late 70's. I mean, like Grindhouse theater "Dirty Harry, Crazy Mary" level of action and stunts.
While the show needed a little retooling if it was ever picked for a series, the movie premier had a lot more good material than bad and should've been picked up and given at least a chance to find an audience. It was a lot better than most of the TV programming at that time.
