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!

It’s ninja time!

Episode 2.19 “Family Honour”

(Dir by Ryszard Bugajski, originally aired on May 15th, 1989)

First things first, I have to admit that I smiled when I saw the title “Family Honour” flash on the screen.  T and T was a Canadian-produced show that always desperately tried to convince viewers that it was actually taking place in the United States.  But that “Honour,” which no one on the production staff probably even gave a second thought to, totally gives the game away.  It’s like when a Yankee trying to pretend to be from the South says that they’ve been waiting “in line” instead of “on line.”

(Of course, Texans like me also have little tells that give away our place of origin.  Me, I drop the g’s on “ing” so casually that I don’t even realize that I’m doin’ it half the time.)

Anyway, this episode begins in medias res.  Mrs. Shimada (Brenda Kamino) has invited Amy and T.S. to her home so that she can thank them by serving them tea.  Apparently, Amy arranged for a centuries-old Samurai sword to be returned to the Shimada family.  T.S., meanwhile, has been guarding the sword because of how valuable it is.  Still, that doesn’t stop a ninja from breaking into the house and trying to kill Kim (Lisa Jai), the ten year-old to whom the sword has been gifted.  Fortunately, Turner is there to run him off.

Mr. T vs. ninjas!?  Hell yeah!

Unfortunately, there aren’t really many scenes of Mr. T fighting the ninjas.  There’s one scene where he gets flipped onto his back by an apprentice ninja.  And there’s another where T.S. grabs a sword out of a ninja’s hand and then knocks him out with one punch.  That was pretty cool.  But, considering the potential here, it’s hard to be disappointed by the fact that Mr. T himself never put on a ninja outfit or flew through the air.

Instead, T.S. confronts Kim’s uncle, Ikuta (Denis Akiyama).  Having left Japan after bring shame onto the family, Ikuta relocated to Canada and opened up his own ninja training academy in Toronto.  T.S. thinks that Ikuta wants the sword for himself and he also thinks that Ikuta is trying to kill his own niece so that he can be rewarded with special ninja powers.  (Uhmm …. okay, then.)  Ikuta says that’s ludicrous and it turns out that T.S. was too quick to judge Ikuta.  It’s not Ikuta who is trying to steal the sword.  It’s Ikuta’s main student, James (David Orth)!  Ikuta proves his worth by defending Kim from James.  Turner, more or less, just observes.

That seems to be a pattern with the last few episode of T and T.  As of late, Turner hasn’t been as active a participant as in the past.  Instead, it’s hard not to feel that he’s mostly just there so that the show can introduce new characters, all of whom could potentially be spun off into another series.  This episode felt much like a backdoor pilot for a show that would have followed Ikuta as he regained his honour.  That said, this was still a marked improvement over last week’s episode.  You really can’t go wrong with ninjas.