User Reviews

What happens when you combine some hit TV shows together like, "Chips" with a little bit of "The Mod Squad" and add a whole lot of "Baywatch", 10-years before Baywatch was first broadcast. You get a surprisingly good 1979 TV movie "Beach Patrol". And, here's the thing, the one 2-hr episode of "Beach Patrol" was better than any episode of "Chips", "The Mod Squad" or "Baywatch" that I've ever seen.

However, because the TV movie was never picked up for a series it remains a forgotten little gem of a potentially fun and exciting series the public will forever be denied. Oh well.... at least we have the 2-hour TV movie.

While the main cast includes four 20-something beach patrol officers and two 40-something detectives, the shows main focus is on the life and work of two young male and one female beach patrol officers. Alah, "The Mod Squad". But, instead of sporting all the coolest and hippest plain clothes attire and hair styles of their era. The three dress in traditional LA officer clothing and patrol the beaches in dune buggies. Alah, "Chips".

Among the three young handsome and sexy featured patrol officers is a barely recognizable beardless, blonde haired 27-year old Jonathan Frakes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fame. A fairly decent actor even back then, and definitely the best of the entire cast. While I didn't think there was a "BAD" actor among the main cast, they were however like most young actors, rather average and uninteresting to watch. But, you could see that a young Jonathan had more training and a little special something that the others just didn't possess that made him stand out before crowd.

Another member of the fab three beach patrol officers is Jan Plummer (played by Christine De Lisle). Who bared a strong resemblance to a young Farrah Fawcett, before Farrah became the glamorous pop-culture phenomenon by the mid-late 70's. Christine also came across as an intelligent mature young woman that reminded me a little of Kate Jackson's TV persona.

However, Christine's acting was often a little too wooden and/or flat, and as a result you just never connected emotionally with her character. Also, while Christine bared a strong resemblance to arguably the most glamorously beautiful actresses of her time, Christine's attractive looks didn't explode off the screen like a Farrah Fawcett or a Peggy Lipton's did. Like her acting, Christine's beautiful features just sat flat on the screen. A genetic lottery winner to passively observe, but oddly your senses were never over whelmed by her on screen beauty. I guess the camera just didn't love her like it did Farrah. Tough break kid.

The third beach patrol officer is Earl 'Hack' Hackman (played by Rick Hill) and this character needed to be recast if the show ever got picked up for a series. Not because Rick Hill was a bad actor or anything, but because his character and his looks were almost identical to that of Jonathan Frakes. And, there was NO contrast of character or styles like Starsky & Hutch or Bo and Luke Duke for example. And it makes for a pretty lousy cop buddy team when the two buddies are carbon copies of each other. And, since Jonathan is the better of the two actors, well.... sorry Rick, but Richard Hatch is now available after the cancellation of "Battlestar Galactica". Good luck with the rest of your career.

The movie begins with our attractive young patrol officers cruising a California beach and interacting with the colorful quirky beach bums who reside there. That is until Jan Plummer recognizes a known drug kingpin operating in the area. The drug trafficking king pin who looks like Ron Jeremy after a 3-day cocaine binge with an unidentifiable European accent is a ruthless stereotypical TV drug kingpin of 1970s TV. So watch out Beach Patrol. I believe he was played by Michael V. Gazzo of "Godfather II" fame, but don't "quote" me on that.

Anyway, our fun loving Beach patrolling Mod Squad do some investigating to see if the drug dealing king pin is back in action. The king pin goes all Al Capone in response to prevent them from discovering his operation, and the fun loving beach patrollers are suddenly transformed into the "Untouchables". Doing battle with the drug kingpin and his henchmen.

It's actually a pretty fun journey and you generally like all the characters, and the movie concludes with a really well shot and well performed dangerous action scene involving hitmen in a helicopter vs. our two male officers in a dune buggy. It was a really well done action scene. Especially, for a TV movie in the late 70's. I mean, like Grindhouse theater "Dirty Harry, Crazy Mary" level of action and stunts.

While the show needed a little retooling if it was ever picked for a series, the movie premier had a lot more good material than bad and should've been picked up and given at least a chance to find an audience. It was a lot better than most of the TV programming at that time.

Dune buggies, surfers, and bikinis, oh my! I'd say "no wonder this didn't get picked up as a regular TV series," but then, one needs only to glance at the concepts that do get made into enduring series of some length, and maybe it's easier to wonder how this TV movie stands alone. In retrospect forty years on this might stand more as a curiosity, but one can see how it does bear a cheeky, lighthearted, and outright cheesy kinship with like fare of the 70s and 80s, the sort that takes an idea and just runs with it for however many episodes it gets. Maybe even more to the point, forty years on the chief attraction here may be a young Jonathan Frakes in an early role preceding 'Star Trek: The next generation.' It's safe to say 'Beach Patrol' falls short of an essential watch, but if one does stumble onto it, it's a decent enough way to spend one's time, and is ultimately more enjoyable than one may assume.

The contrivances of the overall scenario are as plain as can be, including not just the department's vehicle of choice but the bits and pieces that get tacked onto the chief plot (every episode of a TV show needs at least two or three story threads, of course), plot development that feels a little forced, and some of the camerawork. Some instances of light humor are all too kitschy or otherwise fall short. The picture can also claim some real wit at points, though, earning some laughs; while the action sequences aren't necessarily anything to "write home about," as it were, they are executed well with excellent stunts and suitable excitement and energy. Bob Kelljan's direction and Archie R. Dalzell's cinematography are generally capable, and in some instances plainly terrific; this benefits from capable production design, costume design, and hair and makeup, not to mention fetching filming locations.

The writing isn't particularly special, but let's give credit where it's due, because Ronald Austin, James D. Buchanan, and Rick Edelstein penned a screenplay that's duly entertaining and engaging. If familiar, the story is compelling, even with the secondary threads that are tacked on. Characters are given fun personality, albeit not necessarily enough to especially set them apart. The scene writing might be most sturdy of all as it comes in varying flavors and propels the narrative, and some ideas herein are rather admirable; the climax is definitely a key highlight. And for what it's worth I think the cast also do a fine job; naturally I'm predisposed to liking Frakes, but Christine DeLisle, Michael Gregory, Robin Strand, and Rick Hill all also illustrate splendid skill and versatility that would mark them as a swell casting choice for most any production.

No, 'Beach Patrol' isn't a major must-see, but it only wants to give viewers a good time, and I think it does so quite well. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how good this is, if I'm being honest; I didn't have high expectations, but appreciable skill, intelligence, and care went into this TV movie. Some big studio productions of Hollywood can't manage to keep viewers as invested as this does, and for whatever commonness and well-trodden traits the feature shares with other small screen programming, the intent is earnest and the effort is commendable, with delightful results. It's nothing one needs to go out of their way to see, yet at length I rather like it when at the outset I hadn't supposed I'd think much of it. Whether one is a fan of those involved or just keen on similar titles, or maybe just looking for something light and uninvolved, 'Beach Patrol' is tasty enough to sate one's hunger, and sometimes that's all a film needs to be.