An old TV Guide advertisement

Ah yes, to be home. It’s pretty boring, but everyday at about 3:00 PM the A-Team comes on. As I’ve seen just about every episode enough times—I could tell you where in the seasons it falls, recognize an episode in about two minutes, and any notable guest stars (not to mention my fervent disgust for the first Templeton “Face” Peck)—you could imagine that the reruns start to lose some pizzazz after a period of time. But what WGTW, Channel 48 (Burlington, NJ), did was unheard of. After the power-charged A-Team, WGTW had the guts to put on the Stephen J. Cannell written (he also wrote the A-Team) 21 Jump Street! As the great Tenacious D would say, “It’s a cream dream.”

Surely, 21 Jump Street was a magical show sent from heaven, like most of Cannell’s projects (like The Rockford Files, Baretta, Hunter, and the Lorenzo Llamas goldmine Renegade). What made it so great was its place in my life. Premiering in 1987, when I must’ve been around four years old, I was exposed to a series that dealt with major 1980’s issues like Nazi’s, cults, missing children, and the ever popular corruption in the justice system. Some of you may be stumped here, I understand, and it’s quite alright—the show exists in my mind as several scattered pieces. Like I said, it premiered when I was four, reached its height of popularity when I was seven and faded away when I was nine. Now for those of you who aren’t fully familiar with the show, let me educate you with a general synopsis: There’s a group of men and women, often referred to as kids, (though they were old enough to live on their own, so my guess would be 18 at the youngest, but after 23 or so you start to lose the appeal) who worked for the police department as a set of crack undercover cops. This was a fantastic situation. The crew could infiltrate high school crimes and other crimes that were serious and preserved among the youth. 

The kickin’ point in this show is the cast of high-class individuals that made the show worth watching, that and a bitchin’ theme song which someone recently asked me about. Composed by Liam Sternberg, who also composed the get-the-hell-out-of-my-head hit “Walk Like an Egyptian,” the theme was as upbeat and catchy as can be expected in about ninety seconds. It goes: "We never thought of finding a place where we belong, You don't have to stand alone, we'll never let you fall/ Don't need permission to decide what you'll believe…/ Ooh! I said jump, down on Jump Street, Jump! Down on Jump Street!/Your friends will be there when your back is to the wall, you'll find you need us 'cause there's no one else to call/ When it looks hopeless, a decision's what you need/ You better be ready to, be ready to jump! 21 Jump Street" It’s undoubtedly fantastic. But back to that cast, eh?

Peter DeLuise, as Officer Doug Penhall, was by far my favorite character. My personal suspicion is that his name being Peter combined with my earliest recollection of the show made him my favorite. That recollection was when Doug went undercover into a cult where he was brainwashed because the cult leader deprived his cultees of protein. Upon being rescued from the cult, Penhall had to eat cheeseburgers to get plenty of protein and get his mind back. My earliest memory of this show defended the health benefits of eating cheeseburgers. No heart disease or grease here—just hard earned think-for-yourself. Also, Peter DeLuise’s character was, like myself, a big, funny guy. He was a witty cop, but good at his job—just what you want from the guy backing you up on the field. Now he also proved to be a good single-father figure while he took care of a small child whose mother was in Ecuador, Uncle Doug was the best Uncle any kid could want.

Depp & Peete compete for best  double-letter in their last names

Johnny Depp was the biggest name to come out of the show, and this show may have spawned my long-term fascination with the actor’s work (from Edward Scissorhands to Don Juan DeMarco, Nightmare on Elm Street to Pirates of the Caribbean). Depp’s character was also a light and airy guy who was a rough and tumble cop that rolled with the punches. If you want to know more about him, you’ll have to wait a bit, WGTW is just near the end of Depp’s appearance on the show (circa 1990), so I haven’t gained much more knowledge of his character. Regardless, he’s the only one people talk about on internet searches, so check him out for yourself.

Holly Robinson Peete also made her television name on 21 Jump Street. She went on to have a staple role as the non-hot neighbor on Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper. Her character was big for the race card because she was a young African American woman. This yielded several episodes for her to explore racism and sexual crimes. Also in a minority was the Asian American Dustin Nguyen, who stereotypically was the martial arts expert and went on to be the dude on Pamela Anderson Lee’s VIP. He, along with DeLuise, also had a stint on SeaQuest DSV. He was also a guest on Highlander, the A-Team, Murder She Wrote, AND VR.5 (all Pete classics). 

Lastly on our cast list is the one and only Steven Williams, who is always entertaining. Known as Mr. X on the X-Files, on which he suffered a brutal death, Williams was in more cheese-fest pictures like Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and Route 666 (with Uncle Lou!). Williams was Captain Adam Fuller, who was the tough-as-nails (but soft on the inside) leader of our group of kids. It was quite a handful for Fuller, but he always ruled with an iron fist and taught more lessons than you could imagine (just today he helped teach the janitor to cope with being an uncomfortable father and wanting to make his son proud). While Williams is no superstar anchor in any films, he’s definitely a champ in my book.

21 Jump Street was a fantastic show and I encourage you to take a watch if you ever see “21 Jump…” listed in a little block in your TV Guide or local equivalent. It will live on in my heart forever, and I hope that my mentioning it may have triggered some memories in your head. Remember where you were in 1987, Sundays at 7:00 PM? I know where I was: Watching a team of kids make the world a better place on FOX.