Mod Squad #5, "The Hit"

Richard Deming, who wrote at least one unexceptional tie-in novel for STARSKY & HUTCH under the name "Max Franklin," did a much better job under his own for this MOD SQUAD adventure, published in 1970 as THE HIT.

It was the fifth of Deming's five MOD SQUAD novels for Pyramid Books, and, unlike many tie-in paperbacks of the era, was not written for kids. Racial epithets fly in every chapter, as Deming composes a mostly interesting tale of prejudice and murder that gives all three Mod Squaders an undercover role.

Everett Peterson, an important Los Angeles businessman and close confidante of city councilman Frank Gardner, comes to LAPD captain Adam Greer (played by the late Tige Andrews on the television series) after overhearing a conversation over his office switchboard that indicated a murder plot against prominent black leader Julian Ward. Two groups are the prime suspects: the Black Vigilantes, a vocal black militant group with no love of whites, and the Downtown Vigilantes, made up of white-collar white supremacists.

Greer assigns Officer Linc Hayes (Clarence Williams III) to infiltrate the Black Vigilantes and poke around for clues, while Pete Cochrane (Michael Cole) and Julie Barnes (Peggy Lipton) pretend to be a brother/sister duo interested in joining the Downtown Vigilantes. The Mod Squad discovers Gardner is a member of the anti-black organization, and when he is murdered by a sniper who appeared to have been aiming at Ward during the latter's public speech, the mystery grows more complex.

Characterization was not really the TV series' strong suit, and Deming doesn't bother much with it either. Not that THE HIT needs any, as the author seems more interested in examining race relations at a time when the King assassination was still on everyone's minds. THE HIT is not deep or heavily dramatic, but it does a nice job poking around the edges under the guise of a quickie paperback tie-in to a television show popular with young audiences. Executive producers Danny Thomas and Aaron Spelling hold the copyright on THE HIT, and it's interesting they would allow Deming to use their characters in a book with so many racial slurs. Of course, it was a different time, and America was more mature.

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Action! Adventure! Hippies! THE MOD SQUAD is finally coming to DVD. Though it was quite popular during its original five-season run on ABC, it doesn't appear to have been in syndication in quite a long time. I believe a few episodes came out on VHS, but I never saw one for sale or rental anyplace.

I was going to say that I'm surprised nobody has ever tried to remake THE MOD SQUAD, because it's such a good premise, but I just remembered that MGM produced a terrible theatrical remake in 1999 that justifiably sank without a trace. More on that later. Firstly, THE MOD SQUAD hit the ABC airwaves in 1968 starring "one white, one black, one blonde," as the print ads proclaimed. Instead of going to jail, three juvenile delinquents--Pete (Michael Cole), Linc (Clarence Williams III) and Julie (Peggy Lipton)--were given the opportunity to join the Los Angeles police force as undercover detectives. Their youth and their real-life experiences with criminals allowed them to pass freely among the counterculture and investigate drug deals, car thefts, rapes, murders and any other sordid events infecting prime time during the turbulent '60s. Their boss and mentor was Captain Adam Greer (Tige Andrews), who gave the squad their assignments and worried about them while they were in the field.

One of Aaron Spelling's earlier successes as a producer, THE MOD SQUAD ran for 124 one-hour episodes and made its three hip leads major stars among the preteen and teen set, combining standard action/adventure elements like shootouts and chases with important social issues of the day. Among the episodes included in the Season 1, Volume 1 DVD set are "When Smitty Comes Marching Home" (Linc attempts to help his pal, a Vietnam vet played by Louis Gossett Jr., avoid a murder charge), "A Quiet Weekend in the Country" (Julie and Pete investigate the death of a junkie) and "The Guru" with Dabney Coleman, where the squad looks into the destruction of an alternative newspaper. Also, look for a young Harrison Ford in the 90-minute pilot episode.

All three stars remain popular supporting actors in movies and television (Tige Andrews died earlier this year). Williams appears with Kellie Martin (LIFE GOES ON) in the Hallmark Channel's popular MYSTERY WOMAN series of made-for-TV movies, and Cole has guest-starred in a couple of them. Beautiful Lipton, the mother of THE OFFICE co-star Rashida Jones from her marriage to Quincy Jones, appeared on ALIAS and has done some stage work. It will be fun to see THE MOD SQUAD again, although I really hate the studios' bogus new practice of releasing a whole season over two volumes, in effect making you pay twice for what you used to get for half the price.

As I mentioned earlier, MGM released MOD SQUAD in 1999 with Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Claire Danes and Dennis Farina as Greer, but it was a rotten R-rated film that ended the budding directorial career of Scott Silver, who co-wrote it. You're better off sticking with the cool, collected original. Here's a peek at it via a 60-second 1970 ABC promo:

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Actor Tige Andrews has died at the age of 86, which gives me an excuse to run this awesome clip:

I think anything would sound exciting with that Earle Hagen theme blasting behind it.

Tige Andrews was a solid character actor with tons of television experience who hit the big time at age 48 when he landed the role of Captain Adam Greer in the ABC hippie-cop series THE MOD SQUAD. In the pilot, Greer brought together a trio of juvenile delinquents (played by Michael Cole, Clarence Williams III and Peggy Lipton) and forced them to become undercover cops, since they were young enough and hip enough to infiltrate schools, clubs and other places where a typical detective like Greer would be "made" instantly.

THE MOD SQUAD last five seasons, from 1968--1973, and likely made Andrews enough money so that he could coast the rest of his life. He acted occasionally until the beginning of the 1990s, mostly in TV guest shots.

Mention must be made of Andrews' STAR TREK appearance. He played a Klingon named Kras in the 1967 episode "Friday's Child," a pretty good show shot on location at Vasquez Rocks and featuring a nice blend of action and humor.