Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, T.S. Turner confronts the man who framed him!

Episode 1.3 “Settling the Score”

(Dir by Allan Goldstein, originally aired on January 25th, 1988)

“In this episode,” Mr. T tells us before the opening credits, “a young boxer is accused of throwing a fight.  While Amy tries help him clear his name, I get a rematch with the man who sent me to prison.”

The episode opens with T.S. Turner in a very polite Canadian bar, watching a boxing match.  He’s shocked when the favored boxer, “Dancin'” Joe (Louis Ferreira), starts to act groggy and is knocked out in the 2nd round.  The next day, at the courthouse, people are talking about how Joe obviously took a dive.  Amy, however, is busy keeping her latest clients out of jail.

“Hey, Amy,” T.S. asks, “what’s the score today?”

“Justice triumphed,” Amy says, “Suspended sentence.”

Woo hoo!

Amy then asks T.S. about Dancin’ Joe’s boxing lisence.  T.S. reveals that the Commission suspended Dancin’ Joe and now they’re after his friend Decker because Dancin’ Joe trained at Decker’s gym.

“They’re after his lisence, too?” Amy asks.

“No one gets away clean,” T.S. growls.

T.S. thinks that Dancin’ Joe was forced to take a dive by Targon (Steven Makaj), the same gangster who earlier framed T.S. for the beating death of his manager.  T.S. confronts Targon in his bar.  (All gangsters have a bar.)

“A little far from home, aren’t you, Turner?” Targon says.

“Yeah,” T.S. replies, “and traveling don’t improve my temper …. I know you got to Dancin’ Joe.  But this time, you’re going down!  Last night’s fix makes it a whole new ball game.”

(Really, the main pleasure of T. and T. is listening to Mr. T speak.)

Back at the gym, a bruised Dancin’ Joe shows up to tell Decker and T.S. that he didn’t throw the fight.  According to Dancin’ Joe, he suddenly started to feel woozy during the fight.  Maybe Amy can help him get his license back!

This leads to a scene of T.S. Turner, shadowboxing while wearing a pink jumpsuit, and having flashbacks to the time that Targon demanded that he take a dive.  “T.S. Turner ain’t going in the tank!” T.S. declared before knocking out his opponent.  Targon framed T.S. for murdering his trainer.  (Fortunately, Amy was there to somehow get a second trial and win T.S. an acquittal.)

Turner starts to investigate the Dancin’ Joe’s fight so Targon decides to stop T.S. by …. framing him for a crime he didn’t commit!  (Hey, it worked before.)  Targon’s goon beats up Dancin’ Joe’s cornerman and Targon’s bartender calls the police and claims that he witnessed T.S. doing it.  Learning that there is a new warrant out for his arrest, T.S. hits the mean streets of Canada in an attempt to clear his name.

Luckily, the cornerman survived his beating and he informs T.S. that Targon put some sort of drug on Dancin’ Joe’s mouthpiece.  T.S. gets the mouthpiece from Decker, holds it up to his nose, and announces, “What they used, it don’t smell.”  Amy then shows up to tell T.S. that he needs to turn himself in and that the reports from the lab prove that Dancin’ Joe was drugged.  T.S. flees from the gym so he can track down the bartender who claimed to see him beating up the cornerman.

Because there’s only five minutes left in the episode, Targon and his men suddenly show up at the gym and take Decker and Amy hostage.  Fortunately, T.S. decides to come back to the gym and he rather easily beats up all of Targon’s men and Targon himself!

“Stop, T.S.,” Amy says, “Leave Targon for the law.”

“Look at me!” T.S. shouts at Targon, “I want you to see what’s coming!”  T.S. then runs his finger across his throat, allowing Targon to know that he will be heading to one of Canada’s prisons.  Fortunately, for Targon, Canada has no death penalty.

With Targon captured, Dancin’ Joe gets to fight again and T.S. makes peace with Detective Jones (Ken James), the man who arrested him years ago and who has always doubted his innocence.

“I’m never going to change,” the Detective says.

“Neither am I,” T.S. growls.

Woo hoo!  You tell ’em, T.S!

Episode 1.4 “Stowaway”

(Dir by Allen Kroeker, originally aired on February 1st, 1988)

“In this episode,” Mr. T says, “A runway kid has to grow up quickly when his friendship is tested and life depends on the outcome.”

“You know, when I was small,” T.S. says, “I used to think about running away also, but I didn’t realize my mother was doing the best she could with what she had.”  T.S. delivers these lines from a hospital bed, which is where he spends most of this episode.  While searching for a runaway named Fabian (Sean Roberge), T.S. got hit on the back of the head by a group of smugglers, temporarily taking him out of action.

Indeed, the majority of this episode is dominated not by T.S. Turner and Amy Taler but instead by Captain Grayson (played by the episode’s special guest star, Don Stroud).  Captain Grayson is the captain of a boat that transports goods to South America.  Fabian befriended Captain Grayson when he went to the docks to draw pictures.  When Fabian runs away from home because he wants to go to sea with Captain Grayson, he discovers that Grayson is smuggling guns.

“People need those guns,” Grayson explains.

“Guns hurt people!” Fabian yells.

Anyway, Grayson is a good-hearted smuggler but his boss is not.  Grayson is ordered to keep Fabian on the boat and to drop him off somewhere in South America.  However, Grayson feels very guilty about this and Don Stroud, who is probably best-remembered for playing the convict who Clint Eastwood tracked to New York in Coogan’s Bluff, does a really good job of portraying Grayson’s inner conflict.  Grayson finally decides to let Fabian go home.  At the same time, T.S. Turner sneaks out of his hospital bed and rescues Fabian from the other smugglers, none of whom are as good-hearted as Grayson.

“If you really want to make your mother proud of you,” T.S. tells Fabian, “stay in school, get a good education, learn to become an architect, and never run away again.”  T.S. also convinces Fabian to forgive Grayson for holding him prisoner.  “Little brother, that man cares for you.”

These were two good episodes of T. and T.  Yes, the plots were predictable but the appeal of this show is listening to Mr. T talk and sound like Mr. T.  And Mr. T does a lot of talking in these two episodes.