T.J. Hooker Sweet Sixteen and Dead (1982–1986) Online

Underage prostitute Kelly Hobbs (Jill Schoelen) is hustling on the boulevard when she is accosted by social worker Star Taylor (Toni Hudson) who volunteers at a shelter for other young girls on the street. During the intervention they walk by an alleyway in which sleazo drug kingpin/pimp/record store & video arcade owner/health club proprietor Eddie Pearl (Paul Kent) and his henchman Phil Decker (Clarence Williams III) are paying off the aide to a city councilman.

Pearl orders Decker to kill both of them. Kelly survives an accident suffered whilst escaping from Pearl & Decker but is hospitalized and in critical condition. Star goes in to hiding. Having stumbled upon barely conscious Kelly and retraced her steps veteran cop Sgt. T.J.Hooker (William Shatner) and his young partner Vince Romano (Adrian Zmed) hope that they can find Star before Decker does.

If Pearl, whom Hooker has been trying to nail for years, can finally be brought to trial his book-length list of powerful clients also face amercement and the consequent destruction of their respective personal reputations. The opportunity for a massive take-down of a longstanding criminal operation presents an unveiling of dark secrets of supposed legitimate business people and politicians.

This episode offers a hypothetical take on criminal economics that just doesn't ring true. The implication that a kingpin in a high crime area owns everything from laundromat to taco stand is absurd. The underground economy does interlock with legit business in a lot of ways but never to that extent. It is an interesting avenue to explore via crime fiction.

As for the incriminating ledger, that is a preposterous artifice which tends to exist only in the minds of muckraking tabloid journalists. Anyone can write any name in a book and say that it means something. In cases where such books have come to light they have almost all been exposed as frauds when cross-referenced with documented contradictory facts. Nevertheless criminals have been known to fabricate such books in order to sabotage court cases against them.

Clarence Williams III has an Afro in this that is so enormous that it makes him look like the Great Gazoo from the Flintstones. An electric performer he wasn't allowed to stretch out much with the script and direction offered.

Paul Kent appeared on six different episodes of this show each time as a different character.

William Shatner's directorial debut and of ten T.J.Hooker episodes he helmed.