Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, Pacific Blue is all about the guest stars,

Episode 4.15 “Stargazer”

(Dir by Sara Rose, originally aired on January 24th, 1999)

When he was younger, Johnny Osiris (Danny Bonaduce) was a teen idol and the star of Stargazer,  a show about a singing family that lived in outer space.  As an adult, Johnny is a drug addict and an alcoholic who can’t pay his rent and who eventually turns to robbing stores and pharmacies.  It’s difficult to be a criminal when everyone immediately recognizes you.  However, when both he and Steve Gugliermo (Noah Blake) try to rob the same pharmacy at the same time, they decide to team up.  Of course, Steve is hardened master criminal while Johnny is still an amateur.

This was a bit of a melancholy episode.  Chris and Cory can’t say Johnny’s name without screaming but they’re still trying to put him in jail.  The younger cops don’t have the slightest idea who Johnny was.  As for Johnny, his criminal career makes him a celebrity again but the episode still ends with him heading off for prison.  Along with Bonaduce, the episode features Susan Olsen as Johnny’s sister, Erik Estrada as Johnny’s lawyer, and Adam West as Johnny’s father.  The entire thing is full of actors who probably never thought they would someday be appearing on a show about cops who rode bikes.  The whole thing feels sad.

This episode also firmly establishes that Cory and Bobby are now a couple and that everyone pretty much knows about it.  Hey, Victor’s dead so I guess Cory might as well move on.  Still, some of the scenes of Bobby and Cory making out generated some heat.  They’re a good couple so hopefully, the show won’t screw things up.

This episode also featured a discussion of sex-ceptions, i.e. celebrities that you’re allowed to fool around with even if you’re already in a relationship.  For Chris, her sex-ception was Johnny Osiris, though it never actually came down to that.  For Cory, it was Mel Gibson.  Granger selected Winona Ryder, Bobby went with Salma Hayek, and Jamie said Denzel Washington.  Myself, I have to wonder why they assumed Salma Hayek or Denzel Washington would have anything to do with a Santa Monica bicycle cop.

Anyway, this is kind of a depressing episode.  Johnny was a star but then his entire life fell apart when he wasn’t.  He made a few bad decisions and he never recovered.  He should have auditioned for Baywatch.  Live and learn.