Gloria Allred | Through the Shattered Lens

When a high school basketball player named Willie Joe Harris (Derrick Franklin) gets in some trouble with some local drug dealers, he goes to Dakota Smith (Fred Williamson), an ex-cop and private investigator who now spends his time golfing. Realizing that the old neighborhood has been taken over by drug dealers like Slim Jim (Ice-T), Dakota and his friends come together to take back the streets. Jim Brown is former football coach Chad Grant. Ron O’Neal is Willie Joe’s guardian, Frank. Bernie Casey is Rex Stevens, whose family was killed by hitmen looking for Willie Joe. Together, they’re on the edge. They’re not alone on the edge, though. A manic Gary Busey plays a hitman named Felix. Gloria Allred (!) plays Councilwoman Gloria Johnson, Dakota’s contact at city hall.

Fred Williamson directed On The Edge and, in tradition of Original Gangstas, the main appeal of the film is to see a bunch of former blaxploitation stars showing off that they could still own the screen. Our stars may not move as quickly as they used to but they’re still good shots, they’re still good with a quip, and the ladies still love Fred. The film also has an anti-drug “take care of your community” message but most people will just be watching to see Fred Williamson and Jim Brown doing their thing. (The film’s cover art might feature Ice-T front-and-center but this is a Fred Williamson film all the way.)

The film itself isn’t great. Sometimes, it was impossible to make out what the characters were saying and the scene with Gloria Allred mostly seemed to be there so that Fred could say that he knew Gloria Allred. But the combination of Williamson, Casey. O’Neal, and Brown still carried a punch. Say what you will about his films, few people were more confident on screen than Fred Williamson.

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, the bike patrol continues to be largely ineffective.

Episode 3.2 “Ties That Bind”

(Dir by Sara Rose, originally aired on August 10th, 1997)

TC is excited because Jeff Pierce has moved to Santa Monica. I had no idea who Jeff Pierce was but the show explained that he was some sort of professional bike rider. Even if Jeff Pierce hadn’t been credited as “himself,” I would have guessed that he was a professional athlete just by how bad of an actor he was.

Pierce needs help retrieving his pink competition shirt. TC and Victor help him out. That was nice of them. Pierce challenges the thief to a race and the thief is so excited about getting to race Jeff Pierce that he doesn’t even mind when he gets arrested at the finish line. He even gets an autographed picture of Jeff Pierece!

Meanwhile, Gloria Allred also appears as herself. She appears as an advocate for a group of women who are protesting the release and the return of former serial killer Conway Henriksen (Marc Riffon). Conway has spent ten years in a mental hospital and he says that he’s now reformed. However, after he gets harassed by some of his former victims (apparently, he didn’t kill everyone) and his house house is set on fire, Conway snaps and kidnaps Cory’s best friend, Billie (Rainer Grant). Conway thinks that Billie is his abusive mother and he starts quoting from the Bible and the overacting gets a bit embarrassing. Finally, Conway shoots himself.

Now, this storyline had potential. Conway was sincere in his desire to start his life over again but the harassment campaign pushed him over the edge. Unfortunately, because this is Pacific Blue, the idea of the people trying to protect their neighborhood from a serial killer pushing the guy into becoming just that was left largely unexplored. Instead, everyone just breathes a sigh of relief after Conway shoots himself.

Finally, Chris’s real father (Kent McCord), shows up at headquarters and explains to Chris that, despite what her mother told her, he didn’t actually die in Vietnam. Instead, he’s been working as a commercial pilot and now he wants to get to know Chris. Chris, of course, acts like a total bitch about it, especially after she discovers that he’s married and that Chris has a teenage half-sister who is as much of a sullen brat as she is. Still, Chris eventually forgives her father for having a life and the episode ends with Chris and her real father going sky-diving. This episode missed an opportunity to have Gloria Allred and Jeff Pierce join them in jumping out of the plane. That would have been classic Blue.

It’s just another day in L.A.