[Back in May of 2003 (!!) I posted a Video Cheese review of a set of ’70s cop show first episodes. One of these was the first chapter of the S.W.A.T. TV show. In honor of Steve Forrest’s recent passing, I thought I would report that piece.]
S.W.A.T.: “The Killing Ground”
Theme Music/Credit Sequence: One of the great themes of the ‘70s is supported by a pretty cool action montage. The S.W.A.T. team transport truck was right up there with the A-Team’s van.
Concept: An elite police team employs Special Weapons and Tactics. “When people are in trouble, they call the police. When the police are in trouble, they call S.W.A.T.”
Regulars: Steve “Captain America” Forrest* is team leader Lt. Hondo Harrelson, Robert Urich is Off. James Street.
[*Editor Ken: Mr. Forrest didn’t play Captain America, but he had appeared in the Reb Brown failed TV pilot movie.]
The Episode: Before S.W.A.T. became a series, it was given a backdoor pilot via a two-hour episode of The Rookies. However, the only character introduced there was team leader ‘Hondo’ Harrelson. The rest of the regular cast we meet here, with all the normal exposition and so on. Thus this is the only show of the five featured on this DVD that feels like a real ‘first’ episode of a series.
Handsome young patrol cop Jim Street and his veteran partner Rob Duran respond to a domestic disturbance call. Upon reaching the scene, however, they find themselves ambushed by a trio of snipers. Another patrol car comes by and helps drive their assailants off, but Duran is severely wounded. Quickly on the scene—too quickly, it seems, although as explained later it makes sense—is a S.W.A.T. team led by Lt. Hondo Harrelson.
Duran dies at the hospital. Street cries big glycerin tears, obviously an attempt to make the characters more ‘realistic’ and sensitive than earlier TV cops in the Joe Friday mold. He then asks Harrelson to let him try out for the new S.W.A.T. team Hondo’s establishing.
Afterward, Harrelson informs Mrs. Duran, pregnant with their third child, of her husband’s fate. She looks about twenty years younger than her husband was, for whatever reason. Perhaps because if she’s young and attractive the whole thing seems more tragic.
Since Hondo isn’t in Duran’s chain of command, his assuming this task seems unlikely. Besides, wouldn’t Street, who was the guy’s partner, want to be the one to tell her? In any case, the scene is a sadly hilarious example of ‘70s earnestness, exemplified by Forrest’s forehead-wrinkling acting. And the dialog is shameless:
Grieving widow: “The baby’s birthday is tomorrow. We…were going to buy the party decorations tonight! God! God! Why?! Why?!”
The ambush was the latest in a string of cop killings. We the viewers now meet the killers, who are seeking revenge for a felonious relative shot down by police. Meanwhile, Street, fellow patrol cop T. J. McCabe (‘T.J.’ being popular initials for TV cops, I guess) and undercover narc Dominic Luca attempt to make the S.W.A.T. team. Luca’s the class clown guy whose mouth usually gets him in trouble. When we first see him he’s in full undercover Serpico-mode, including the inevitable battered army jacket and beard.
There are other guys trying out, but Street, McCabe and Luca are clearly the ones who will make the cut. (First of all, we saw all of them in the opening credits.) We’re told what a hard-ass Harrelson is, and how rigorous the training, although all we see is some standard calisthenics and field stuff.
Part of the show’s appeal was the team’s, well, stuff. Particularly the “war wagon.” This was the big blue truck that transported the team and their equipment. To facilitate speed, the team members grab their weapons on the way out and leap into the truck. Then they don their jumpsuits and body armor en route and arrive ready to instantly deploy. Extra weapons and gear are on board for off-duty personnel, who are directed to head directly to the scene when a call goes out. The truck also functions as a mobile command and communication center.
Street, McCabe and Luca make the team (told you—the opening credits never lie), and go out for beer and dinner with Hondo and his second in command Deacon to celebrate. This allows for more character stuff, for what that’s worth. Street, for instance, gives a big monolog while talking with Hondo. It’s pretty clear already that these two will be the show’s main characters.
Hondo gets a phone call: There’s been another ambush. Two more cops are dead, for a total of five slain officers. The killers want six, and plan one final ambush at some abandoned school grounds. However, the dispatcher recognizes the voice of the one killer’s wife, who’s been forced to make the calls that lure the cops into position. Hondo and the others grab their weapons and hit the war wagon for the first time.
The team arrives outside the grounds and fans out to scout the area. Moving stealthily, they are able to identify where the ambushers are stationed. The signal is given and they move into position. In the end, one of the killers is dead, another wounded and the last captured.
Clichés & Sundry Observations:
- Older cop expounds to young partner on how much he loves his wife and kids? Hmm, where is this going?
- Gun fight!
- As a dead uniform cop (wife, couple of kids) is grieved over, the show’s theme is played in a slow, elegiac arrangement.
- As Hondo informs Mrs. Duran of her husband’s death, the show’s theme is played in a slow, elegiac arrangement.
- Hondo’s Second in Command is Sgt. David Kay. At one point Kay studied to be become a preacher, and thus is nicknamed Deacon. Did I mention Kay is the show’s black character?
- Gee, why do the three psycho-killers keep sniffling and rubbing their noses, I wonder.
- The team’s sniper, curly-haired blond McCabe, shoots with great accuracy because as a kid his impoverished father took him hunting and they couldn’t afford to waste bullets. He stood out as a character not just for his golden locks, but because he was the only member to employ a sniper rifle rather than the team’s standard M16. That’s the kind of show it was.
- Uhm, I think maybe that was a stunt man.
- Gun fight!
- An Aaron Spelling Production? Yes. In fact, it was spun off of Spelling’s The Rookies. (See below.)
- Final Body Count: 2 killed onscreen, several other deaths are referenced
- Bad Clothing Factor: 1
- Social Relevancy & Grittiness Factor: 2 (for portraying a new world of senselessly violent crime)
- Big screen film adaptation due in 2003? Yes.
- A S.W.A.T season one DVD set is due out the summer to tie in to the movie.
Guest Stars:
The villains are played by three character actors extremely familiar to TV and movie audiences in the ‘70s. The group’s leader is played by Geoffrey Lewis, who here gives exactly the sort of wide-eyed, manic performance he was known for. Lewis appeared in over a hundred movies, including many of Clint Eastwood’s pictures from the ‘70s and ‘80s.
William Lucking was also a familiar heavy to TV and movie audiences of the time. He guest starred on nearly a hundred different TV shows, and also starred in several other short-lived series. Some will remember him as Col. Lynch, the early nemesis of The A-Team. Jabootu fans, meanwhile, will recall his appearance in Captain America II.
Jesse Vint appeared in many cheesy ‘70s and ‘80s drive-in movies (Bug, Macon County Line, Forbidden World, etc.) and many, many TV shows. Vint’s wife, meanwhile, is played by a young Annette O’Toole.
Finally, lest I’m mistaken, Kenneth “The Thing From Another World” Tobey has an unbilled cameo as a desk sergeant.
Brilliant Dialog:
‘Deacon’ Kay: “Ambush! Cold-blooded assassination! Why?!”
Hondo: “Because of their color. [Kay flashes him a quizzical look.] Not because they’re black, brown or white. Because they’re blue.” [Wow!]
The Lighter Side of S.W.A.T.:
Class clown Luca, at the end of a day of training: “I’d be willing to trade my super-nifty collection of National Geographics right now for just fifteen minutes in a hot shower!”
McCabe, looking bemused: “National Geographic?“
Street: “You look more like a Playboy centerfold man to me!”
Luca: “Yeah, well, Geographics, Playboy, same difference. With each issue you get to look at sights you’ll never visit!”
Afterthoughts:
Audiences loved S.W.A.T., but the critical response was savage. With its trademark—some would say fetishist—fascination with paramilitary tactics and weapons, the show was considered retrograde in the extreme by progressive viewers. Which isn’t surprising. S.W.A.T. was at least partly an attempt to jump on the take-no-prisoners, violent cop bandwagon exemplified by Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, a film the prominent critic Pauline Kael famously labeled fascistic. During the second season the network tried to tone down the violent content. This, naturally, radically diminished the program’s popularity and it went off the air at season’s end.
Meanwhile, the stiff-acted S.W.A.T. is probably also the campiest of the shows presented here. The writing, direction and acting are about as generic for a ‘70s TV show as you’ll find. Steve Forrest in particular exhibits an often humorous Leslie Nielsen/Robert Stack-esque hamminess. Urich, meanwhile, begins his long parade of TV series. Here he exhibits the sort of lush, dark-haired prettiness reminiscent of the young Timothy Dalton.
