Attention, criminal scum! Your days are numbered, because Los Angeles County’s toughest uniformed officer is about to walk the beat again.
Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Netflix is developing an action-comedy film based on T. J. Hooker, the classic TV crime drama starring William Shatner as the titular cop. (Deadline first reported the news.) The movie adaptation is being written by Jarrad Paul and Andy Mogel.
Hooker premiered on ABC in 1982, where it ran for three seasons before moving to CBS for one more season. Shatner starred as former plainclothes detective T.J. Hooker, who decides to return to uniformed police work after his partner is killed in the line of duty. Working alongside newer officers Stacy Sheridan (Heather Locklear), Vince Romano (Adrian Zmed), and Jim Corrigan (James Darren), Hooker dedicates himself to ridding the streets of Los Angeles of dangerous criminals, one collar at a time.
When reached for comment by EW, Shatner’s representative shared this response from the actor via email: “I know nothing. It would be a lovely idea to resurrect the legendary character, but I have no idea what’s going on.”
Throughout its four-year run, T.J. Hooker mixed cop-show drama — drug pushers! teen prostitutes! serial killers! — with flashy stunt casting. Guest stars included Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys, legendary piano man Jerry Lee Lewis, and even Shatner’s longtime Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy.
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Writers Paul and Mogel — who created Rob Lowe’s woefully short-lived Fox comedy The Grinder — should have no trouble transforming T. J. Hooker into an action-comedy, because the show itself was often hilarious… even if unintentionally. For example, please check out Hooker’s sick baton skills:
Thanks to its melodramatic storylines and Shatner’s over-the-top performance, T. J. Hooker became a pop culture punchline — though Shatner maintained a sense of humor about the show. In 1986, the year Hooker went off the air, the actor reprised the character in a sketch while hosting Saturday Night Live.
A note to Netflix execs: Shatner is not opposed to revisiting his most famous roles. Last year, he told a Canadian outlet that he’d be open to returning to Star Trek if the part was “well-written.”
This article has been updated to include a response from William Shatner.
