I thought I read years ago that T.J. Hooker was based on a real cop whose wife tried to have him killed. Has anyone else heard of this? I can't find any info and am starting to doubt what I may have read.
shareHe's all too real.
They say he breathes oxygen like you and I, while I say the scent of street justice is what fills his lungs!
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I remember reading the same thing about a decade ago - a real cop that they loosely based T.J. Hooker on whose wife killed him (it was an obit), or something like that.
http://people.com/archive/who-killed-t-j-hooker-vol-39-no-25/
Yep. Rick Husky denied it, but the real life Hooker went through some of the things that made T.J. Hooker who he was - decorated hero cop, acquitted in questionable shooting, witnessed his partner's murder, divorced. All that stuff was included in the first few episodes of T.J. Hooker as backstory.
There were significant differences, of course, and much of what the real life Hooker went through was so common it was almost cliche, so Husky could deny it and not sound ridiculous. I do think Husky may have run across Hooker and found some of the details of his life compelling enough to include as backstory. And he may have been telling the truth about being a Civil War buff and naming Hooker after a Civil War Union General - but more likely after this Hooker reminded him of the name.
Yes, but the names were all changed for privacy issues. This show was actually a real life documentary of his life as a policeman and every story line was taken from his actual case load
shareNo. But they did consult real police officers for stories as inspiration for the episodes.
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