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, Fritz and Nobby return and Terri actually gets to do lawyer stuff for once.

Episode 3.14 “Mr. Big”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on April 7th, 1990)

Fritz (Dominic Cuzzocrea) and Nobby (Avery Saltzman) are back!

Fritz and Nobby were two incompetent crooks who appeared in a handful of episodes of T and T.  When they first appeared, they were murderers who tried to kill T.S.  But, T and T being the type of show that it was, they soon become lovable bumblers who constantly needed Turner to save them when their plans went awry.  In this episode, Fritz and Nobby hire Terri to defend them when they’re accused of running the biggest theft ring in Canada.  Terri’s defense is that Fritz and Nobby are too stupid to be masterminds and she calls T.S. to the stand to testify to just how dumb the two criminals are.  In the end, the real Mr. Big is exposed and the judge agrees that Fritz and Nobby are too stupid to go to prison.  Unfortunately, the stupidity defense rarely works in real life so don’t try it the next time your in court.  Then again, if you’re taking legal advice from T and T or from someone who is reviewing T and T, there’s probably no hope to begin with.

(Then again, it’s totally possible that the defense might work in Canada.  Canadian judges are probably nicer than American judges.)

Turner being called to the stand does lead to quite a few flashbacks, though not enough to make this an official clip show.  Interestingly, a lot of the flashbacks are taken from the episode that aired right before this one.  So, in case you forgot what happened last week, this episode is here to remind you of the time that T.S. Turner faked his own death in order to outwit a superstitious gypsy.  What?  Seriously, I’m still trying to figure that episode out.

Usually, Fritz and Nobby kind of annoy me but they actually made me smile in this episode.  They may be criminals but they’re also friends and there’s something sweet about Fritz not wanting Nobby to killed in prison.  As well, this episode actually allows Terri to enter a courtroom and show off her legal skills.  There’s nothing all that believable about T and T’s courtroom scenes but at least this episode exists to remind us that Terri does more than just hang out in Decker’s gym.

As with most of season 3’s episodes, Mr. T seems to be bored with the whole thing but Dominic Cuzzocrea and Avery Saltman make for a likable comedy team.  By T and T standards — and especially by season 3 standards — this was an enjoyable episode.