T.J. Hooker: Second Chance (1982)
Season 2, Episode 1
Heather Locklear Joins The Cast
6 April 2014
A sinister motorcyclist (Robert Davi) is killing attractive young female dancers. He cuts a lock of hair from each victim as a souvenir. Veteran cop Sgt. T.J.Hooker (William Shatner) heads to the scene after he hears about the first new killing. It is similar to a case he worked on eight years earlier when he was a homicide detective but could never solve.

Whilst ordered not to conduct his own investigation by his superior Captain Sheridan (Richard Herd) Hooker does so anyway in his off hours. The one remaining witness to the original killings - dance instructor Lynne Hartman (Rebecca Holden) is an old flame. He has a legit excuse to reconnect as the killer may want to silence her but since he is now divorced he has another reason.

Some of the dialogue between Hooker and Lynne reveals why he has returned to duty as a street cop/police academy instructor. He tells her he requested the assignment after she asks him if it is demotion. This is an important clarification. Lynne says she heard it was a bad shooting that got him demoted. His own ex-wife alluded to the same thing in season one.

T.J.Hooker was a replacement series launched in early 1982. It did well enough to get picked up for the fall of the 1982-83 TV season. As it became a regular part of the ABC network schedule the show evolved beginning with this episode which was the debut of its first full season. A major casting decision was a big part of that evolution.

April Clough who had portrayed Officer Vicki Taylor for four of the five episodes of season one did not return for season two. Clough was displaced by Heather Locklear who joined the show as Officer Stacy Sheridan, daughter of Hooker's boss Captain Sheridan and would remain for the duration of the series run. Locklear was a significant reason if not the main reason the show lasted for as long as it did.

Stacy, who started out behind the front desk of the precinct would eventually be deployed undercover as a stripper (a clip of which became a part of the opening credits montage), a porn actress, a prostitute and a fashion model during her run on the series. Young boys like me understandably had little problem with that. But the sensationalistic way in which Locklear was used was seen as tacky and misogynistic by many.
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