Detour to Terror

A tour group (led by Arte Johnson!) heads to Las Vegas via a greyhoud bus (driven by O. J. Simpson!). Crap tables are soon the least of their worries though as they are taken hostage by a group of criminals (led by Lorenzo Lamas!). Seems they want to kidnap the wife of a wealthy businessman, but don't know he is on this trip with his girlfriend instead.

According to the L. A. Times, this was the second of a three picture deal Simpson had signed with NBC (it was preceded by Goldie and the Boxer in 1979 and followed by Goldie and the Boxer go to Hollywood in 1981) and they ran it in February 1980 as counter programming against the Winter Olympics. This is entertaining and makes good use of the desert locations. The cast is good and Johnson even has a nice dramatic bit where he talks about being a lonely tour guide. Fans of Deathstalker (1983) will be excited to see Rick Hill in here. He plays - what else? - an athlete. The one weird thing is Lamas apparently adopts an Elvis-like voice as the ring leader. Also, look closely in the background and you'll see Simpon's future wife Nicole as one of the bus passengers. The film was directed by Michael O'Herlihy (brother of Dan!) and it was one of six tele-films he had debut that year.