The BEST episodes of T.J. Hooker
Every episode of T.J. Hooker ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of T.J. Hooker!
After his partner was murdered, veteran plain clothes Detective T.J. Hooker had reverted back to his former role as Sergeant, and returned to the beat to rid the streets of the type of scum that was responsible for his partner's death. Back in uniform, Hooker was assigned to train the academy recruits, and was partnered with brash, sometimes hot-headed young rookie Vince Romano. With Romano much his junior, Hooker acted as his trainer and mentor on both a professional and social level. The age difference generally being the key hook of the partnership, the pair quickly became good friends and a good team. Hooker's tough, no-nonsense ways saw him often clashing with station Captain Sheridan, but he always got the job done and was highly respected as a result. Seen in the short first season, mostly on desk duty, was Officer Vicky Taylor. Introduced at the start of the second season was attractive Officer Stacy
#1 - Nightmare
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/19/1986
Pursuing a gang of robbers, Stacy receives a mild concussion in a shoot-out, and after being discharged from hospital, decides to take a break to go and visit her sister. But driving through a fierce thunderstorm and still in a slightly dazed state, she is involved in a minor road accident which leaves her with amnesia, and is taken in by a passing motorist who claims to be a local doctor. Meanwhile, Hooker and Corrigan become concerned at Stacy's sudden disappearance, and investigate a break out from a mental hospital where two dangerous patients have escaped - and unbeknown to them, one of the escapees is the man posing as the doctor who has taken in Stacy...
#2 - The Night Ripper
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/29/1986
Arriving at the scene of the brutal murder of a college girl, Hooker recognises the method of murder as used by a serial killer dubbed ""The Night Ripper"", who was behind a spree of six grisly sex murders four years previously and was never caught. With the psychotic killer terrorising the city once more, Hooker is under pressure to uncover his identity and get him off the streets...
#3 - The Bribe
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/9/1985
When Hooker and the team assist in a large drugs bust, the main dealer escapes, but a videotape is seized that incriminates Hooker for seemingly taking bribes to keep prostitutes out of jail. Stripped of his badge and gun as he awaits being charged with corruption, he travels to Las Vegas and meets up with the prostitute accused of bribing him, in a bid to clear his name and get to the bottom of the drug operation by nailing the mastermind crime lord at it's centre... Meanwhile, Corrigan asks Romano to use his trainee lawyer skills to help a pregnant woman caught up at the scene of the bust who is an illegal immigrant...
#4 - Gang War
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/5/1984
Hooker and Romano are involved in a new neighborhood peace programme designed to reduce tension in an area where two Hispanic gangs are close to declaring all out-war on each other. But the whole programme and peace on the streets is jeopardised when the president of one of the gangs is gunned down in a drive-by shooting. Although the assailants are identified to be wearing the dress code of the victim's rival gang, Hooker suspects that someone else is fuelling the feud to benefit from the sale of fire-arms sold to both sides of the conflict, and must work fast to find the culprits before all-out war erupts between the two gangs...
#5 - Partners in Death
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/7/1986
While in pursuit of a pair of burglars who brutally attack anyone who interrupts their robberies, Corrigan pulls unconscious Stacy from their patrol car when it crashes, moments before it explodes. With the hunt on for the violent thieves, Stacy and Corrigan's ordeal brings them much closer together than ever before– something that begins to affect their working relationship, and sees Hooker injured due to their distracted states...
#6 - Trackdown
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/26/1985
A parking attendant's suspicion leads to the discovery of a woman's body in the trunk of a car, sending Hooker and the team on the trail of a psychotic killer who is on a cross-country murder spree. Meanwhile, the deranged killer lures a young woman into his clutches and takes her hostage, leaving behind her husband and sick baby. Hooker persuades the Detective in charge of the case to let him place a trap to try and catch the killer and get the woman back safely, but it places Stacy in great danger...
#7 - Death Trip
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/14/1986
A friendly LCPD baseball game is interupted by a shooting, when a passing man, out for a walk with his daughter, is shot in an attempted execution. The wounded man is none other than Russ Paterno, a retired mobster who is now an informant and has been helping the F.B.I. With the valuable information Paterno continues provide them, the Feds are eager to keep him alive, and ask Hooker make sure no harm comes to him. Behind the shooting, and several similar executions, is a militant, right-wing paramilitary group called P.F.A.D.W. - ""People For A Decent World"", who's maniacal leader is determined to wipe out any and every individual he sees as responsible for bringing the world down...
#8 - Murder by Law
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 4/30/1986
When a female attorney is murdered by a shotgun-wielding killer, the third woman attorney to be killed in similar such fashion, Hooker, Stacy and Corrigan search out the killer - who is actually a man who's become embittered after his girlfriend was deemed mentally unstable and dropped from attorney school...
#9 - Taps for Officer Remy
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/12/1986
The pursuit and capture of a criminal reunites Hooker with Officer Karen Remy, whom have previously been romantically involved with each other, but soon after, Hooker is informed that Karen is dead after being shot in her car. With the murder having signs of being a professional hit, Hooker becomes determined to find the person responsible, and his prime suspect is Karen's Police partner. His disobeying orders by continuing to probe the killing sees Hooker suspended, but that's not enough for him to give up the hunt – but is there more to the case than he knows?...
#10 - Funny Money
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/27/1985
When Hooker, Stacy and Corrigan aid in the stake-out of a money counterfeiting operation, Corrigan accidentally shoots dead an informant in the crossfire, while the head of the ring escapes. The shooting leaves a remorseful Corrigan questioning his choice of career, something that deepens even more when he is later forced to shoot a man involved with the counterfeiting ring who takes a hostage. The two fatal shootings leave the veteran Officer seriously considering leaving the force and taking a job offered to him by the woman he may choose to spend the rest of his life with. As the hunt for the counterfeiters continues, Hooker and Stacy try to convince him otherwise...
#11 - Rip-Off
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/20/1985
Hooker becomes involved in an F.B.I. drug bust operation, a ""sting"" which leaves an undercover Detective critical in hospital, and the drug ring's middle man shot dead by the front man, who walks away with the $100,000 sting money. With the ploy following the same pattern as several previous identical ""rip-offs"", Hooker and a Federal agent join forces to put a halt to the big-time drug runner's scam, but their methods in putting the racket out of business clash...
#12 - The Assassin
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/13/1985
The State Department asks Hooker's help in tracking down a man whom he served alongside in Vietnam - a disillusioned, mentally unstable trained executioner - who is planning to assassinate the head of a visiting Russian trade delegation...
#13 - To Kill a Cop
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/9/1985
After an off-duty Officer is shot dead in a grocery store, Hooker – an old friend of the family's – promises the dead man's wife and son to find the culprit. A case in which the deceased Officer's partner sent a criminal to prison on a false testimony may be the key to the killing; but all the time, the killer has his next target in his sights... Meanwhile, Hooker looks into the recent murder of a local prostitute, only to discover that the two cases are linked...
#14 - Ransom
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/25/1985
When Hooker and Stacy take Hooker's children for a trip to the beach, a minor fire distracts Hooker long enough for Chrissie to disappear. She has been kidnapped by bitter ex-cop Marty Latham, who was struck from the force and ultimately sentenced to prison after becoming involved with The Mob. Latham will only return Chrissie if Hooker finds the whereabouts of his family, who cut contact with him and disappeared while he was serving time...
#15 - Homecoming
Season 4 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/9/1985
Hooker's children come to visit their father, but the vacation is interrupted after Corrigan and another Officer unwittingly disrupt an armed race-track heist, which leaves Corrigan's fellow Officer dead. The robbers were under the pretence of being ambulance attendants, and Hooker has reason to believe that the robbery was an inside job; but the case means that his time with his cherished kids is limited...
#16 - Sanctuary
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/2/1985
Corrigan and Stacy stop a car for speeding, only to have the trio inside open fire on them with automatic weapons, badly wounding Corrigan. Hooker and Romano are first on the scene, and the trio, who comprise of a woman who is a convicted murdered and two men who have broken her out of prison, take sanctuary in a nearby church, with Stacy and the seriously injured Corrigan as hostages. With the church surrounded with SWAT Officers, Hooker must try and negotiate not only with the gun-happy thugs, who are demanding a safe passage to Mexico, but also reason with the church's priest, also a hostage, who has beliefs that he is determined to stick to, not matter what the circumstances...
#17 - Hollywood Starr
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/23/1985
Dani Starr is an attractive Hollywood Detective who lives alone, dresses snazzily, and always gets the job done. While en route to Hollywood to deliver a captured jewel thief, Hooker and Corrigan are ambushed by the thief's men, who free their leader. Hooker teams up with Dani Starr to find the sprung thief, who is the prime suspect in the murder of a porn film producer. As they search for leads, they find that there is a Mob connection; Hooker learns that Dani's husband was previously murdered by the Mob, and she is determined to find those responsible...
#18 - Lag Time
Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/23/1985
Unbeknown to Romano, his law school teacher is living with ex-convict Jack Lewis, the ring-leader behind a string of armed robberies. Already upset about the recent death of a close friend, Stacy is almost killed when she and Corrigan respond to armed robbery on a pawn shop, when the thug she apprehends disarms her. As Hooker and the team search for Lewis, who specialises in training criminals to disarm cops, the incident leaves Stacy with shaken confidence and an internal investigation over the lapse which nearly cost her her life...
#19 - The Throwaway
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/6/1985
After an armed box office heist where the robbers escape on motorcycles leaves Hooker and Romano's patrol car destroyed by a bomb and a young man dead, Hooker and the team are on the look out for an infamous criminal named Willie Donovan, whom Corrigan has a grudge against after the collapse of a previous investigation. But a shoot-out with Donovan which leaves Donovan dead, a gun from the robbery room of Corrigan's previous Police department, and an exaggerated report of Police brutality from a informant all mount up to Corrigan being assigned to desk duty while he is investigated. Hooker intends to prove Corrigan's innocence, while putting a stop to the series of robberies...
#20 - Street Bait
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/5/1985
After the third in a series of murders on attractive young blonde women, Stacy goes undercover to work as a salesgirl at a shopping mall store where each of the girls had worked, to act as bait to try and lure out the killer. With Stacy wired up, Hooker, Corrigan and Romano keep tabs on her until the killer makes himself apparent, but Hooker is concerned when the gun used in the murders suggests the killer to be a cop, and all indications point to the store's security officer being the culprit. But the operation puts Stacy in a dangerous position...
#21 - Love Story
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/16/1985
An attractive woman named Teri, whom Hooker meets when giving a speeding ticket, finds that her friend has been robbed and raped, and herself is attacked when she unwittingly stumbles onto the scene, until Hooker comes to the rescue. She aids him as they try to identify the violent gang behind the attacks, and in their together, they quickly fall in love, but things take a nasty turn when the gang track Teri down and badly attack and rape her. The result of the attack takes its toll on her and Hooker's relationship, and causes Corrigan, Stacy and Romano to become concerned that Hooker's fierce pursuit of the gang is being clouded by personal feelings and the want for revenge...
#22 - Blood Sport (1)
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/21/1986
Hooker is delivering a captured criminal to the Federal court building when he meets Senator Grayle, an old friend; when a bomb intended kill the Senator explode. With Hooker having saved the Senator's life, himself, Stacy and Corrigan at the Senator's request travel to Honolulu, Hawaii, to work with the local Police department there and protect the Senator and his wife from the ruthless gangsters out to assassinate him. But in his time protecting the Senator, Hooker finds that he does not approve with many of his old friend's ways and methods; and it's a tangled web leading to finding just who is behind the threats...
#23 - The Lipstick Killer
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/7/1984
Following the bludgeoning to death of a nurse, Hooker and co. investigate the case, the latest in a series of similar murders - a string of killings that Hooker investigated years before that has recently began again, in which the attacker sends a rose to the intended victim prior to the attack. With the aid of a disabled veteran detective and a top psychiatrist, Hooker and the team investigate and find evidence that the murderer, always dressed as an old-fashioned nurse, may actually be a man. But the pattern of the killings suggests that they have less than 48 hours to catch the killer before he / she strikes again...
#24 - Exercise in Murder
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/28/1984
In pursuit of a trio of diamond thieves, who escape via helicopter, Hooker is devastated when he accidentally shoots a 9-year-old boy, leaving the youngster critical in hospital. Meanwhile, Corrigan is concerned when his steady girlfriend Jill starts acting strangely before abruptly breaking off their relationship. The girl is actually being blackmailed by the trio of robbers; and when her body is found washed up from the ocean, Stacy goes undercover at the aerobics gym where Jill worked to try and get a lead, endangering herself in doing so...
#25 - The Two Faces of Betsy Morgan
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/20/1984
Hooker and Romano by chance spot a van swerving dangerously over the road – in which a pair of teenage prostitutes are being held against their will by two men. When the van crashes off the road, they find one of the girls dead after being strangled – the latest victim in a series of killings by ""The Boulevard Strangler"" and his accomplice, who are prying on young runaways. Hooker finds that the surviving girl has run away after being abused at home, and leads a double life – a perfect high-school student, and as a prostitute. But now the girl is in danger with the killers after her, who are concerned that she can identify them in the murder of the other girl... Meanwhile, Corrigan considers leaving the force to take a job teaching...