Tue 6 Dec 2011
A TV Review by Michael Shonk: THE BEST OF B. L. STRYKER.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[15] Comments
Reviewed by Michael Shonk
B.L. STRYKER. Universal. Part of the rotating series in ABC Mystery Movie (with Columbo, Kojak, Gideon Oliver, Christine Cromwell) February 1989 through August 1990. Two seasons; 12 episodes, two hours each. CAST: Burt Reynolds as B.L. (Buddy Lee) Stryker, Ossie Davis as Oz Jackson, Rita Moreno as Kimberly, Michael O. Smith as Chief McGee. Created by Christopher Crowe. Executive Producer: Tom Selleck. Co-Executive Producer: Burt Reynolds. Supervising Executive Producer: William Link. Producer: Alan Barnette. Story Editor: Joe Gores.
“The Dancer’s Touch” (February 13, 1989) Guest Cast: Helen Shaver as Diane. Teleplay by Leon Piedmont and Walter Klenhard and Chriss Abbott. Story by Leon Piedmont. Directed by William Fraker.
As a New Orleans cop, Stryker could get into the mind of the bad guy until he would know the bad guy’s next move before he did. After too many bad guys in his head, Stryker snapped and beat a rapist nearly to death. Now he tries to make it through the day living on a broken down houseboat on the “wrong side of the river” of his hometown, Palm Beach. Helping him is his best friend, a washed up boxer, Oz Jackson.
But Stryker’s past has caught up with him as a rapist, using the exact same methods as the one from New Orleans, is attacking rich young girls on the “right side of the river” of Palm Beach.
The chemistry between Reynolds and Davis and the relationship between their characters is special and their scenes together are the best this show has to offer. Sadly, it is not enough to overcome the weak mystery, bad melodrama, predictable twists, and a sea of cliches.
The supporting cast features such overused types as the frustrated Police Chief who looks the other way while Stryker gets things done, the rich annoying ex-wife, the ex-wife’s maid who speaks her mind, and the comedy relief neighbor.
The story fails at nearly every level. For example, there are several scenes with the wacko rapist alone dancing in the dark. The purpose is to make the villain creepy and menacing but instead the scenes induce laughter.
The killer was easy to guess since there were no suspects. The victims were obvious. Every twist was predictable. That is except for Stryker, who was as clueless as the mystery, and only defeated the killer-rapist because he was suicidal.
“Carolann” (March 6, 1989) Guest Cast: Deborah Raffin as Carolann. Written by Hall Powell and Jay Huguely. Directed by Tony Wharmby.
Carefree ex-cop Stryker gets his first case as a PI when he saves the life of a Queen of a Middle East country, whose gun running King had just been killed. By coincidence the Queen just happens to be the little sister of Stryker’s childhood best friend.
This is a slow tedious two hours with a story featuring more padding than mystery. Why bother with suspects when the story can focus on the reminisces and romance between the just yesterday widow and her childhood crush, Stryker?
How about a subplot with Stryker fixing up Oz with his ex-wife’s maid? You want action? Watch the Queen seduce Stryker with a cigar. Watch the two exchange long, long, long silent but meaningful looks. Detective work? How about a montage of Oz searching “the streets” for someone while Mike Post’s soundtrack screams in the background?
This episode introduces Stryker’s screwball secretary to run his office in a beachfront condemned building. Lyynda, with a photographic memory and too cute name, will take the job only if her dog stays with her.
Stryker hates dogs. After that Stryker takes the dog with him everywhere, including when he and his comic relief neighbor, now millionaire computer genius, sneak into the police station to illegally use the Chief’s computer.
As for the ending, everyone involved should be in jail for theft.
This “Best Of” DVD is a major disappointment considering William Link (Colombo) and Joe Gores (Hammett) worked on this series, and Robert B. Parker (Spenser) and his wife Joan H. Parker wrote the Edgar nominated episode “Blues For Buder.”
The entire series is available on DVD, but suffering through these two episodes is enough for me.
December 6th, 2011 at 7:07 am
Part of the problem with a series like B.L. STRYKER is the hero leering, grinning and kidding around with every girl who comes along. I’ll take a homely, overweight PI like Cannon or even someone like Harry O. These guys mostly concentrate on the case at hand.
Many of the British series do not suffer from this problem. Inspector Morse or Frost may have a girlfriend every now and then but she remains in the background.
December 6th, 2011 at 8:48 am
For some reason, I think of The Sunday Mystery Movie as a 70’s phenomena. I see it continued on much longer.
December 6th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Was this the last gasp of the ’80s private eye TV trend stimulated by the success of MAGNUM? I’m wondering what will follow the current done-to-death trend of crime dramas centered around female professionals — MEs, police detectives, etc — with “personal issues.”
December 6th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
#3: Fred, did you notice Tom Selleck was this series executive producer? When I watched this and MAGNUM I always think of THE ROCKFORD FILES and Selleck’s role as Lance White. So I see more 70s PI trend, but the PI was fading. It was replaced by the same character now a “special unit cop.” Remember NASH BRIDGES? Or it went comedy such as PSYCH.
The CSI trend is fading but NCIS remains the most watched drama on TV.
It seems we are returning to the gimmick detective where in the 70s and 80s it was the PI, now it is the amateur who hangs around the cops such as CASTLE and THE MENTALIST. In the past the PI existed outside the rules, now the cops work with the amateur despite his/her methods.
December 6th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Michael, yeah, given the credentials behind the show, I’m tempted to check it out, never having watched it back in the day. The premise of a burned-out “get in the bad guy’s twisted head” cop living on a houseboat sounds like somebody was trying for a mash-up of Thomas Harris and John D. MacDonald.
December 7th, 2011 at 7:21 am
“The Best of B.L. Stryker” is an oxymoron.
December 7th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Michael, I think your reviews are once again right on the money. So many interesting things to observe about this show — though it does in fact feel like a throwback to the era of the “big-personality private eye/plainclothes cop” of the seventies (including the original Columbo and Kojak, plus McCloud, Baretta, Rockford, etc.), it was made in 1989, eight years after “Hill Street Blues” revolutionized the crime genre with its decentralized narrative, hand-held cameras, overlapping dialogue, and so on, and five years after another Florida-set crime show, “Miami Vice,” premiered, with its MTV aesthetics, dangerously unstable cops, and despairing outlook on life. “B.L. Stryker” post-dates these shows, yet feels so much older. The other particularly interesting thing to me is, as you point out, the involvement of Joe Gores, whose hardboiled novels and short stories so impressed Hammett’s heirs that he was awarded the right to pen the “Maltese Falcon” prequel “Spade and Archer,” published in 2009. Gores also was an Edgar winner for an episode of the original Kojak, in 1975. Hard to believe he had anything to do with “B.L. Stryker.”
December 7th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
I believe the series greatest flaw was the “Wheel” format. The stories I saw would have worked better in the hour format.
Granted the pace of today’s shows vs 1989 shows is like comparing the speed between race cars and bicycles, but these episodes were slow moving even by 80’s standards.
David, I will let you in on a secret. I am not a fan of Joe Gores work. I didn’t like his REMINGTON STEELE episode or his books, but the man had talent and was just the story editor (he also wrote one episode “Blind Chess).
It was William Link’s name that surprised me. The man who gave us COLUMBO, ELLERY QUEEN, etc, some of the best mysteries in TV history was involved with a series that had no suspects and virtually no clues.
December 7th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
I am starting to wonder if what happened to this show that turned it such an outdated vehicle if not out-and-out flop is the fact that Burt Reynolds was not only the star but also (with Tom Selleck) the Co-Executive Producer.
His movie career had taken a huge plunge downward at the time, leaving TV as one of the few remaining places for him to display his talents. I’m sure he had a good deal to say about the approach the STRYKER series took.
I’m prejudiced, though, as I’m not a big fan of any of Burt Reynolds’ onscreen personalities.
Even if I’m correct on this, like you, Michael, I do not understand how William Link could have left his name on the series, the way you and others have described it.
December 7th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
There is a interview of Rita Moreno on YouTube where she describes life on the set of BL STRYKER.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxWFuOUfTiY
When she says the actors made up their own dialog as they went, it was like a knife in the heart of this mystery fan and writer. How can any writer set up clues if the cast changes all the scenes?
This was shot on location in Palm Beach. I suspect the writers were back in Los Angeles. With Reynolds running things far from the network or production staff, it had to be fun for the actors but it is no wonder there is little story connect between scenes.
Reynolds acting career had two major stages. In the 50s through early 70s, he played serious characters who never smiled. Then someone let the guy laugh, and he became popular as the fun loving good old boy. I prefer his laughing period.
Notice the first word I use to describe the character in my review of the second episode, “carefree.” Reynolds as the haunted cop was not as likable as the fun loving character he usually played in those days. Both episodes ended with Reynolds staring sadly out at the sea, yet you knew next week all this tragedy would be forgotten and laughing boy would be back.
December 8th, 2011 at 9:49 am
I watched the Rita Moreno clip and a couple of others on YouTube (one with Jerry Reed), and I have come to the conclusion that we are looking at the success of this series all wrong. It was on for two seasons, so people were watching the program.
So why were they watching?
We’ve pretty much established that as a detective or mystery program, STRYKER left a lot to be desired.
I think people were watching the BURT REYNOLDS SHOW, which was an ad-lib comedy-drama, not a Mystery Movie.
I admit that this bit of analysis on my part could easily be considered faulty, since I’ve yet to see an entire episode, but convince me that I’m wrong, if you can.
December 8th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Michael, if you haven’t watched Gores’s Kojak episode titled “No Immunity for Murder,” I recommend it. I am less familiar with his other TV work, but I know that he wrote for some dubious shows, like T.J. Hooker (apologies to all my Shatner-obsessed friends and colleagues), but also for Magnum, PI, which had its moments, and The New Mike Hammer. Maybe Gores’s TV work is a blog post in and of itself. Steve, I think unquestionably people were watching because of Reynolds, and that this show played perfectly to his by-then iconic on-screen persona, which I would characterize as self-conscious machismo. Personally I much prefer the Burt Reynolds we see in Hawk and Deliverance.
December 8th, 2011 at 11:55 am
Steve, point of view is the key to every review. If you are a fan of Burt Reynolds or are into “acting” you will find the show worth watching. Anyone with an interest in acting needs to watch those scenes with Reynolds and Ossie Davis. But I want good writing in my PI stories.
David, I’ll look for Gores’ KOJAK episode. Thanks. My taste runs to comedy over drama. It does say much for Reynolds talent that he found success in serious drama and mindless comedy.
May 22nd, 2018 at 10:57 am
“All those years ago …”
I happened on this oldie-but-goodie while doing some off-hours nostalgia-trolling, and happened on Mr. Shonk’s wondering why William Link would have contributed to B.L. Stryker.
My understanding, arrived at years after this post first appeared, and possibly incorrect, but anyway here it is:
When Columbo 1.0 ended its NBC run, Link & Levinson were somehow able to reclaim certain proprietary rights to the character, with major regard to possible future reuse.
When ABC went to Universal-TV to revive Columbo, William Link, as surviving creator of the character, had to be brought on board to seal the deal.
Mr. Link plainly drove a hard bargain; he had reduced his activity in TV at this point, and was concerned with compensation, as well he should have been.
I’m guessing (correction welcomed if needed) that part of Mr. Link’s deal with ABC and MCA would have included a limited interest in the other spokes of ABC’s wheel; such interest would have included the “Supervising Executive Producer” title, as a kind of honorarium for the use of the Columbo character (as I recall; again, correction welcomed).
Now, back to the future (so to speak …).
May 24th, 2018 at 9:53 pm
14. Fellow time traveler Mike, I have learn much since the ancient times when I did this review.
The more work of Levinson and Link I have seen, including the ABC version of COLUMBO, the more human they have become.
Link has created some real dogs. JERICHO (66-67), BLACKE’S MAGIC (86), PROBE (88), and COSBY MYSTERIES (94-95).
The TV academy has done a long interview with William Link. It is amazing to listen to Link praise Cosby as a saint and NBC as evil, especially since many who worked with Cosby disliked him.
In the days of B.L. STRYKER it was easy to get an executive producer credit for little involvement. He got the same credit for all of the series that were part of the ABC Mystery wheel including GIDEON OLIVER and CHRISTINE CROMWELL. So I suspect you are right, he got it for returning to COLUMBO.