This was a good show. I think. I was young and I watched a lot of crap back then. Anyway...
ABC had high hopes for this show, the pilot achieved the coveted post-Super Bowl time-slot in 85. After the big game, millions of Americans who were either too drunk or too lazy to change the channel, watched this. Then ABC promptly moved the MacGruder & Loud playing piece from Boardwalk to Baltic Avenue, giving it a cushy new home Monday nights at 10:00 PM EST. Graveyard slot.
Everybody knows that in those days there were 2 types of shows that weren't going stand a creamsicle's chance in hell of surviving:
1) Any sitcom that aired immediately following "Facts Of Life"
2) Any ABC series that aired Monday nights at 10:00 PM EST
Nice knowing ya' Malcolm & Jenny!
The show itself was watchable. I think. In that "Hart To Hart"/"Remington Steele" sort of way. MacGruder and Loud weren't detectives though, they were ordinary beat-cops. They didn't fight crime in stylin' J.C. Penney leisure-wear, no detective-salary fashions for them... no, they served and protected in (get this) plain ole wash-n-wear police uniforms! Imagine.
The bad guys were always interesting. I think. And the chase-scenes were always quasi-thrilling. But the real reason 3 people in America kept tuning in was Malcolm & Jenny's secret marriage. To fool their nosy precinct captain (he of many impromptu home-visits) they lived in side-by-side apartments. With a secret passageway between the two that was hidden by a *bookcase!* YES! The only thing missing was Alfred and the bat-poles!
Such fun this show was. I think. I was young and I watched a lot of crap back then.
