T.J. Hooker: Why the Spin-Off Failed

Before Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone was the star of a failed spin-off of '80s cop show T.J. Hooker. The 1985 episode "Hollywood Starr" finds T.J. (William Shatner) teaming up with Dani Starr (Stone), a detective determined to take down the mob. And it almost launched a spin-off for the up-and-coming star. Find out more on Behind the Backdoor Pilot: T.J. Hooker.
Watch more episodes of Behind the Backdoor Pilot: • Star Trek: Why the Spi...
Written and Narrated by Kevin Maher
Edited by Mike Schuster
Produced by Nick Nadel and Kevin Maher
Executive Produced by Tim Finn
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[@filomango69]

Vega$ had a backdoor pilot, the 2-part episode Golden Gate Cop Killer featuring Michelle Phillips (later of Knots Landing) and Tanya Roberts (Night Eyes, Sheena). It was pitched as a series to be called "Ladies in Blue" (something like "Policewoman" X 2) but ABC didn't bite.

[@lilmelvin11]

I saw this episode recently and told a buddy "That smells like they were trying for a potential spinoff". Best acting she ever did! Coulda been a contender....

[@jamm1eify]

It's a crime that this wasn't made into a TV show

[@fromthehaven94]

Fast forward this to 2009, add a novelist searching for inspiration, switch the detective's murdered loved one from a husband to a mother, I think it sounds a lot like Castle.

[@jeanemlicar]

Heather was the only actress from T.J. Hooker that should’ve gotten her own Spinoff series. IMO.

[@BillLaBrie]

Shat and Stone on the same set? I feel sorry for the entire production staff….

[@baronvg]

I’m the thumbnail, I thought it was Kaley Cuoco! Lol! It’s kind of mind blowing to see Sharon Stone & William Shatner sharing scenes together, almost like it exists in a parallel universe but it’s in OURS!

[@tommylakindasorta3068]

I don't know if it was the bad script or bad directing, but Stone's acting in these scenes is surprisingly bad. I mean, Sharon Stone is a good actress. She can be very convincing in the right role. What is happening in these scenes? That is some Mary-Kate-and-Ashley-level acting going on there.

[@nicholasjanke3476]

Simple-she was forty plus years younger and had less experience, hadn't honed her talent.

[@middleagenerd]

Both. She's a terrible actor

[@sejejo7565]

Damn that show looks like it would’ve been awesome ✅✅

[@florinivan6907]

'detective Danni Star' that's some genius name choice

[@zmani4379]

Nice video - I think Shatner also helmed another failed pilot in the Original Star Trek series - there was one show where he traveled back to the 20th century, and collaborated w some guy who had futuristic tech plus a cat sidekick - I think the cat might have been a shape-shifter - I don't remember the episode, but the show really foregrounded this guy who was helping Kirk, and the actor was familiar, so it seemed like this was laying the ground for some spin-off that never happened -

[@atomicabe]

Yes, Star Trek's ASSIGNMENT EARTH was one of the first videos we did for BEHIND THE BACKDOOR PILOT: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6nEhoJ6n7R3fassi=J-wxy0NBBM-j8IOk

[@AirwolfArchive]

Great segment. Nicely put together.

[@coreylevine3856]

Playing a Hooker on T J Hooker

[@LarryFleetwood8675]

Her show would've been called BJ Hooker.

[@topsuperseven7910]

This channel is criminally undersubscribed

[@threatassessment606]

This isnt 1935 Russia

[@topsuperseven7910]

@@threatassessment606 If only it was. If only :(

[@zoehenfen6154]

Don't know how I got here but love it

[@j-rschmoove]

Bro....u guys are hilarious!!!! 😂🤣😂

[@AerrinT80]

This was awesome

[@johndavis48076]

Didn't know they moved TJ Hooker to Chicago.

[@ronleight9341]

Me either!!

[@TheNameisPlissken1981]

Hollywood Starr was the original title for the 1984 Donna Wilkes "classic" Angel. "Hollywood" because she worked Hollywood Blvd. and Starr because, like this TJ Hooker episode, that was her last name. Thank God they changed it!

[@swiftusmaximus5651]

Damn, Shatners Wig Man is the best

[@fessendenful]

Exquisite!

[@themoviedealers]

This is 1985, I moved there in 1989, by that time Hollywood Boulevard looked 100% worse. By 1995 with earthquake damage and subway construction it looked like a bomb hit it. It wasn't until Hollywood & Highland mall opened in 2000 it started improving a little bit...in the last ten years a ton of new apartment buildings have gone up in the area so it looks 100% better still some boarded up storefronts in the area and most of the old movie theatres are gone or converted into nightclubs.

[@bkjbearcat78]

It’s interesting you bring up Miami Vice, and the Chicago reboot episode with Charlie Barnett. He was featured heavily in the first season of Vice as a main informant. Almost like Crockett and Tubbs Huggybear. Then he disappeared so he could do TJ Hooker. Didn’t show up again until almost the end of the series.

[@NickNadel]

Charlie Barnett is great on Miami Vice. A really funny and interesting comedian who almost was on SNL.

[@slender4]

Funny thing about Charlie Barnett, he was supposed to be on SNL way back when but there was a problem with him that made things uncomfortable, so they went with their less talented second choice, for the "black slot." some bum named Eddie Murphy. You see Charlie was forced to ad-lib everything because of his problem.. He couldn't read.

[@bkjbearcat78]

@@slender4 The funny thing about the Chicago reboot episode? If you watch it, all it really is, is Beverly Hills Cop if someone from BH went to the Midwest instead of vice versa.

[@LuisLopez-jl1fe]

Huggybear was Starsky and Hutch

[@teijaflink2226]

Shame that actually looks like a fun show.

[@asecretone]

I love back door pilots. Especially that Supernatural one that flop hard.

[@albundy774]

She appeared in Wes Cravens Deadly Blessing in 1981. I wonder how difficult she was in that episode as she was universally disliked by the cast and crew of the Cannon productions King Solomon's Mines and Alan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold

[@markelijio6012]

Well, long before she was an Academy Award nominee for Casino as well as becoming one of Hollywood's most celebrated stars/producers, Sharon Stone has made audiences happy, thrilled, dazzled, excited and shine between 1978 and today.

[@jaydouglas8845]

Her agent forced her into doing the movies so that may have been a reason she was so difficult to work with on the set.

[@franksmith8298]

Ooh are we looking at a biweekly release schedule??❤️❤️❤️(slender man had it coming)

[@danee9647]

I can't believe anyone would reject Sharon Stone's backdoor...uhhh, pilot

[@timkunk3498]

Sharon Stone just had not spread her talents far enough!

[@pablosilva6988]

Stunning simply stunning, Sharon stone, que That is.

[@Tim_the_Enchanter]

Can we just take a moment here to step back and appreciate the gift that was Adrian Zmed?

[@billcary30]

i don't even remember the one for magnum pi u do a video for that pelase?

[@atomicabe]

There were a couple of Magnum PI backdoor pilots -- hopefully we'll get to them.

[@gallery7596]

The hair piece and likely corset aside, Shatner really does look good for a man in his fifties.

[@svensvlinken7583]

Thats a tortoise🤣

[@mrbransformer4184]

Young Sharon stone looks like Kaley Cuoco.

[@dannybeaty3486]

I hope you will tell us about the "Twilight Zone" episode "Cavender Is Coming" which has all the earmarks of a backdoor pilot. Also, there was an episode of the original "The Outer Limits" which starred Barry Morse and Carrol O' Conner as aliens (disguised as humans) investigating human behavior.

[@alexv1591]

OMG doesn't Sharon Stone in 1985 look like Katey Cuoco now AND she just played her mother in The Flight Attendant Series 2???

[@billcary30]

wasn't the season finale of season 4 technically a back door pilot? apparently from what i've read, everybody's contract was up after season 4 (thus no romano in "season" 5 as he'd moved on while they were in discussions for doing a season 5.) and they were looking at hooker doing something else in the event heather dind't want to continue doing double duty with dynasty also. oviously she did which was really weird since she's now on 2 different networks!

[@atomicabe]

Yes, I guess we can call it a backdoor pilot for a re-tooled version of TJ Hooker. But not a backdoor pilot for a spin-off with a new lead.

[@Laceykat66]

1:28 They could get away with these lines in the 1980s, not today. Wow.

[@clyde642006]

That saved ABC show writers a whole shit-load of corney one-liners and chauvinistic bull crap at its best! I loved TJ Hooker and I’m a huge fan of Sexy Sharon, but I absolutely hated this episode! It just seemed like Sharon was literally reading all of her dialogue-her part just came off as cheesy and weak. Sorry, I just didn’t buy it.

[@piotrmalewski8178]

Do a failed Knight Rider spinoff 'Code of Vengeance'. Episode 'Mouth of the Snake', features a gymnastics guy pretending to be some sort of a Kung Fu guy. It was pretty good, but accidentally the most 'epic' scene is Hoff supposedly knocking out 8 guys with one hit of a fist.

[@roryaustin9]

Axel never drove a convertible

[@clarencewalker3925]

Sharon Stone and Erin Gray. Two ladies worth watching. Maybe not "Silver Spoons."

[@Oversoul-u6v]

Sharon looks like Kaylee Cuoco

[@JWB671]

That’s a tortoise

[@davidlow862]

Did any of these backdoor pilots EVER work?

[@markasflood8196]

Some

[@christopherdavis8248]

(3:50) i want to know more about the original story of SLENDER MAN. plus....interracial Flintstone sex?

[@Capcoor]

That would’ve worked.

[@snoo333]

love this series. Man, Sharon Stone. What a looker. She still looks hot. lol

[@LarryFleetwood8675]

Hollywood porn star Ron Jeremy also had a pet turtle.

[@atomicabe]

Not a hedgehog?

[@LarryFleetwood8675]

No... lol

[@dukegrapewin9440]

The TJ Hooker spinoff episode sucked so bad I gave up 20 minutes in.

[@diegocanale1124]

Sounds like a miami vice ripoff

[@diegoraffa4324]

How can you get in the police force if you are related in any way to a mobster? That's absolutely not realistic. Would be much more realistic if the husband was a cop killed by the mob. I loved to watch TJ Hooker but the storyline of this episode it's a crap. It's only worth watching for Sharon Stone beauty.

[@Nancy-yx4yz]

It's not that hard to believe. There's no law saying if you're related to a criminal, you can't be a cop.

[@diegoraffa4324]

@Nancy-yx4yz thanks for the reply. Anyway I personally find this hard to believe. They should do a background check on your family I guess. I can understand if it's a cousin with small criminal records, but a mobster as husband doesn't seem to me a good credential to enter the police force. Can you imagine the wife of John Gotti as a cop? 🤣

[@marcoslaureano5562]

Did this dude just say "institutional sexism"? I'm done.

[@TheVampirePredator]

Sharon Stone started out as a “serious” actress in the 80s who couldn’t act her way out of a wet paper bag. The takeoff of erotic thrillers in the 90s is what saved her career.

[@jaritime1406]

Drop the Willingness to Overlook Known Evils talk and you'll do better TJ Hooker was a man not a Willie Wiffer like todays Marvel

[@Verilee1970]

Such a bad actress argh... However, Stone was amazing in Alpha Dog.

[@CyclopsWasRight616]

i would have watched this. Shame.

[@atomicabe]

Yeah, it could've been good.

[@blackamerican40]

I would have loved to have seen the Basic Instinct sex scene between her and Captain Kirk.

[@albundy774]

Capt Kirk takes one look and responds "So that's where you hide your Phaser"

[@tentringer4065]

@@albundy774 You missed the chance to do a Tribble joke Al.

[@albundy774]

@@tentringer4065 She probably stroked her Tribble to see if she could get a rise out of Mr Spock

[@gebronthomasson6960]

Is that virtue signaling flag getting heavy?