Tim Sims | 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, things get trippy as Mr. T tells a story about a magical forest.

Episode 3.19 “Turner’s Tale”

(Dir by Patrick Loubert, originally aired on May 12th, 1990)

T.S. and Decker discover a little kid named Daniel (Amos Crawley), who is hiding out underneath the boxing ring at Decker’s gym. Figuring that Daniel ran away from home after getting in trouble for something, T.S. tells Daniel a story while Decker tries to track down Daniel’s parents.

As you can guess from the episode of this title, the majority of the episode is a dramatization of the story that Turner tells. (The story is also told in rhyme, just so you know what you’re getting yourself into.) In Turner’s story, Daniel (Sean Roberge) and his sister Terri (Kistina Nicoll) move into a happy forest that is populated by people dressed up as mice, rabbits, and owls. When Daniel enters a forbidden part of the forest and picks a flower, the police show up and Terri is taken away. So, Daniel has to go to the police captain’s castle and admit what he did so that Terri can be set free and the forest can be happy again….

What? No, I’m not kidding. That’s the plot of this episode.

Okay, this is a weird one. For 24 minutes, T and T goes from being a show about Mr. T solving crimes to a show about a teenager walking through a magic forest and trying to return a forbidden flower to the cops. I can’t imagine that anyone really watched T and T for the action but if they did, this episode probably really pissed them off.

But I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting sentimental as I mature but this episode was actually really sweet and kind of cute. Mr. T really got into telling the story and there was a funny moment where Turner suddenly realized that he had no idea how the story was supposed to end. One thing that has always remained consistent about T and T is that Mr. T was always at his most likable when acting opposite kids and trying to teach life lessons. He and David Nerman made for a good team in this episode and watching them play off each other, it was easy to understand why Decker was the only one of the show’s supporting characters to appear in all three seasons of T and T. There’s not really much else to say about this episode. It was clearly made for kids and the lesson is that you should never be scared to tell your parents the truth, even if it means getting punished. It’s pretty simple but the episode had a few funny moments and everyone seemed to be having fun.

Sometimes, that’s enough.

This week, things get really, really silly.

Episode 3.9 “Movie Madness”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on March 3rd, 1990)

Fritz and Nobby are back!

Who?

Fritz (Dominic Cuzzocrea) and Nobby (Avery Saltzman) are two criminals who appeared in two episode of the second season of T and T. The first time they appeared, they pulled a gun on T.S. Turner and threatened to kill him, The second time, they were portrayed a bit more comedically as lovable bunglers. This third episode finds Fritz and Nobby at their most cartoonish.

Fritz wants to rob a Chinese jewelry store that happens to be right next to Decker’s gym. So, he and Nobby walk into the gym and tell Decker that they’ve reformed and they want to shoot a boxing movie starring him. Decker agrees to act. (“I could have been a contender!” he announces.) Then Terri shows up and demands to know what Fritz and Dobby are doing at the gym so they ask her if she wants to be the female lead. (“I have always depended on strangers being kind,” she says.) The boxing movie becomes a love story. Then, when the gym starts shaking due to the efforts to break through the wall that the gym shares with the jewelry store, Fritz explains that they’re testing the special effects for the big earthquake scene. It’s a boxing love story disaster film!

Where is T.S. Turner during all of this? Well, he doesn’t show up until the final 10 minutes of the episode. He immediately suspects that Fritz and Nobby are up to no good. “I’m going to pull the plug on your permanently!” he growls.

One would think that Fritz and Nobby would be smart enough to get out of the gym but they still try to blow up the wall, even with Turner nearby. That’s a big mistake as Turner proceeds to grab them and turn them over to the police.

What a weird episode. First off, Decker has been dumb in the past but he’s never been this dumb. Secondly, Terri apparently knows Fritz and Nobby despite the fact that she wasn’t around during the second season. Not only has this show failed to explain why Amy is no longer on the show but it also continually acts as if Terri has always been present despite not showing up until the start of third season. We’re just mean to accept that Teri has always been the second T in T and T. (How Orwellian.) Finally, T.S. Turner is absent for most of the episode. Why would you go to the trouble to build a show around Mr. T and then not use him?

This was all pretty silly and pretty dumb, even by T and T standards. Remember when this show at least pretended to be a crime drama?

Oh well. There’s only a handful of episodes left! We’ll make it.