Geoffrey Bowes | Through the Shattered Lens

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, Decker takes the ring.

Episode 3.5 “Decker’s Ex”

(Dir by Ken Girotti, originally aired on February 3rd, 1990)

One night, Beth Knightley (Wendy Lyon, who horror fans will immediately recognize from Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou) comes home to discover two masked men tearing up her house. They tell her that they are searching for a computer disk that was taken by her deceased husband. They give her 24 hours to find the disk. If she doesn’t comply, she dies. If she goes to the police, she dies. If she tries to leave town …. “you get the idea,” as the main bad guy says.

Having been ordered not to go to the police, Beth instead goes to her ex, who just happens to turn out to be gym owner Decker (David Nerman). Decker asks T.S. to help them out but, when the men show up at the gym, it turns out that Decker doesn’t need any help. Because Turner made the mistake of going to the police and ended up being interrogated by the FBI, it falls to Decker to beat up the bad guys. Decker does just that and he does it rather easily. The Canadian Mob is not sending their best.

(Actually, since this show obviously takes place in Canada, you have to wonder what the FBI was doing north of the border.)

The majority of this episode was taken up with Beth and Decker talking about why their marriage failed. Beth had plans while Decker just had dreams. It really wasn’t anything that I hadn’t heard in a hundred other shows and movies but David Nerman and Wendy Lyon had a likable chemistry and they were convincing as two people who would have once taken a chance on each other. David Nerman was the only member of T and T‘s supporting cast to stick with the series through all three seasons and it’s nice that he was given an episode where he got to be the hero.

(Still, it’s interesting that T.S. apparently didn’t know that Decker was once married, considering that the show previously established them as being lifelong friends.)

Speaking of the show’s supporting cast, this was the second episode of T and T to feature just one T. Again, Kristina Nicoll is featured in the opening credits but the character that she plays, Terri Taler, is neither seen nor mentioned during the show. Just as with last week’s episode, I have to wonder if this was shot before Nicoll was actually hired for the show.

This episode also features no mention of why exactly Amy is no longer working with T.S. The obvious reason for Amy’s absence is that Alex Amini didn’t return for the third season. But, in-universe, it just seems strange that T.S. never mentions her. I mean, T.S. would still be in prison if not for her. Show some appreciation, Turner!

This week, it’s time for …. another clip show? Didn’t we just do a clip show last week? Far be it for me to complain about having an easy review to write but how does any show get away with doing two weeks straight of clip shows?

Episode 2.17 “T.S. Turner For The Defense”

(Dir by Patrick Loubert, originally aired on May 1st, 1989)

“Things don’t look too good for Amy when, after upsetting the law society, she gets threatened with disbarment. But even I got nervous when she doesn’t show up for the hearing and it’s left to me to defend her.”

Oh yay! For the first time since the start of the second season, an episode of T and T opens with Mr. T offering up a synopsis of the episode’s plot. It’s been so long since this weird but fun trick has been employed by the show that I originally assumed that this episode was originally meant for the first season. But then I spotted the character of Joe Casper in the background of a courtroom scene and Joe didn’t become a regular character until the second season. Who knows why Mr. T introduced this episode. I’m just glad that he did.

As for the episode itself, Amy’s adventures with T.S. Turner have finally led to her facing disbarment proceedings. Unfortunately, right before heading with Amy to the hearing, Amy’s attorney has a heart attack. Amy blows off the hearing to go to the hospital with her friend and, for whatever reason, it doesn’t occur to her to call Turner or anyone else at the hearing and let them know what’s going on. I mean, her lawyer had a heart attack. Under normal circumstances, this is the sort of thing that would lead to the hearings being postponed.

So, with Amy missing, T.S Turner takes it upon himself to defend her at the hearings. Keep in mind, T.S. is not a lawyer. Amy did not hire Turner to defend her. If there’s not much reason for the hearing to proceed without Amy or her actual attorney, there’s even less for the “law society” to allow T.S. Turner to serve as her counsel. Maybe they do things differently in Canada but seriously, none of this makes any sense.

Maybe I’m overthinking things. Like last week’s episode, this is a clip show and obviously, the main concern of the writers was to find an excuse for everyone to talk about Amy’s previous adventures on the show. Unfortunately, Amy’s adventures have never been as interesting as Turner’s so the clips pretty much all fall into the same three categories: Amy gets mad, Amy gets captured, and Amy flirts with some loser to get information. It all gets repetitive fairly quickly.

Halfway through the episode, Turner calls Joe to testify. “What about you, Joe?” T.S. asks Joe on the stand, “Have you ever gotten in trouble? Tell the court about it, Joe.” Joe proceeds to talk about how he first met T.S. and Amy and it’s hard not to notice that Joe’s entire story centers on T.S. but not Amy. Perhaps realizing that Joe hasn’t been of any help, Turner takes the stand himself and talks about …. himself. We get several flashbacks of Turner beating up criminals and it’s hard not to feel bad for Amy, who isn’t even the center of attention at her own disbarment hearings.

“Every legal indiscretion she has committed is justified,” Turner says as Amy finally steps into the courtroom, “because she has helped so many.”

That’s all it takes for the Canadian Legal Society to decide that Amy can continue as a lawyer. Yay!