T and T - Season 1

There seemed to be no bigger star in the 80s than Mr. T, especially as I recall my own experience. I was obsessed "The A-Team," I loved the Saturday morning cartoon "Mister T," I had Mister T crayons (I still have one), I didn't have the Mr. T doll but I knew someone who did and I envy them to this day. And so it would appear to be impossible that Mr. T would get his own TV series right after "The A-Team" and that it would last for three seasons and not only would I have never seen an episode of the show, but I would also never have even heard that such a show exists. And yet it does.

My first thought upon seeing this phantom television series, was that it must have aired on TNT, the cable channel. A show called "T and T" airing on a channel called "TNT" would make perfect sense, and since I didn't have cable growing up, it would explain how it could completely escape my notice. But that's not the case. "T and T," as it turns out, was a Canadian program that, as far as I can tell, only aired in Canada. And that's the reason why, not only did I never hear of it, but also why you and everyone else didn't know about it either. 

But imdb knows and now the show is on youtube and, as of today, I've seen every episode and now you're (unfortunately) going to hear about it.

"T and T" starred Mr. T as a private investigator who works for a lawyer (Amanda Taler) as he works his way toward getting a law degree of his own. The opening theme played before every episode summarizes it thusly:

"T.S. Turner was a city-smart kid fighting his way off the street, until he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Amy Taler was a young, crusading lawyer. She mounted an appeal to put Turner back on the street, this time in a suit and tie, working as a private detective. Together they are—T. and T."

 

And speaking of the opening theme...

The Theme

At first listen, the "T and T" theme song sounds like a generic "of its time" theme from the era. Listening to it over 65 times, as I have, I'm ready to call it one of the stranger theme songs in TV history. Repetition is the heart of melody and (it may be just my lack of musical knowledge) but it seems to me the "T and T" theme has no repetition. Think about it: I hear no verse, no chorus, each phrase doesn't repeat any other (as far as I can tell) - it is a "song" only of disjointed phrases of pseudo-Gospel set to a beat. It's like the entire song is a bridge within a larger song that we never hear. And yet there is one bright spot: after much vamping we arrive at the line "In the eyes of the law, he's a champion..." and it actually sounds like a great song and I think "Yeah! Now we've got a song!" But we don't. First off, that one good line is 45 seconds in to the full 1 minute theme and then also the last 15 seconds just devolve back to just running out the clock. For that one line we almost have something but it's only a brief respite.

So now you know that "T and T" never aired on TNT and did not use "TNT" by AC/DC as its theme. And the fact that both of those things are true means that you can forget about UFOs - I don't think intelligent life even exists here on Earth.

One of funnier things about the opening, too, is there is a nice "Too Many Cooks" aspect. If you watch the opening, you will see credits for a long list of minor characters that you will probably not see in the actual episode. Particularly this gets worse in Season 2, but we'll get to that later.

The Formula - Season 1

So, as you might expect, being a half hour show from the 80s, the show is episodic and every episode has the same formula. Every show starts with an introduction to a crime with creepy music, then the opening theme - which we've covered - and then Amy and Turner are seen at the courthouse arguing a case, taking a case, talking about a case, etc. where they take the case of someone accused of the creepy crime, Tate investigates, there is action, then Tate wins and every episode ends with them back at the court house "winning the case" and making a joke which freeze frames as we all take in the joyfulness. 

It's pretty standard. Many shows could be loosely said to revolve around a mystery plot but in a half hour show there isn't time for a lot of depth. And for some reason most episodes end with the same exact device: almost every episode ends with a bad guy holding a gun on the good guy when suddenly a good guy walks in on the situation undetected, creeps up behind the bad guy without him knowing and tackles him, saving the day. As I was watching I was trying to figure out why this is a formula when there are so many ways to end an action show. My best guess is that it may be a Canadian thing - they want the threat of a gun but don't want any actual shooting. But then again, sometimes people are shot, but I can't think of any reason to be so repetitive. Just a theory, anyway.

There is another element to the formula that deserves its own section...

The Clothes Montage

T.S. Turner's (Mr. T's) wardrobe in Season 1 is a full suit and bow tie. It's a nice playing-against-type because you wouldn't expect Mr. T to be dressed up but he's usually in court and so it makes perfect sense. How the legal system feels about a man with a mohawk, gold chains and gold earrings is somehow never addressed, but the point is he dresses well.

So why am I talking about Mr. T's wardrobe in the show? Well, for some reason the makers of this television series decided that every episode needed a clothes-changing montage. I kid you not. In fact, it's so unthinkable that it took me many episodes to catch on to what was going on. Mr. T changing his clothes is a fundamental part of the first Season. Yes, in every episode Turner is in a suit or working out in the gym and he goes to the locker, changes clothes and the clothes changing is edited into a hip and stylized montage.... for reasons that I can't fathom.

Don't believe me? Well you can feel free to explore any episode in the first season to find out for yourself but I've gone ahead and noted one of the more extreme examples... it's this one from Season 1 Episode 18. In this particular clothes-changing, you can tell someone in the editing bay was like, "No, we need 3 slaps of the locker and 3 zips of the jacket, yeah...yeah.." But you could consider that one to be at least "stylish and cool" for the time... If so, check out this changing montage from Season 1 Episode 20. This is the episode where they add superfluous sound-effects. This is where I imagine an editor saying, "The clothes changing montages might be losing their edge, I need more clothes hanging and let's add some Street Fighter II sound effects to really Wow the audience."

Where Are We?

By looking closely at the shots of the city skyline and through closeups of some of the license plates, and just overall being a creep about it, you can pretty conclusively determine that the show takes place in Toronto. But the weird thing is, they take great pains to never reveal that explicitly for some reason. The city is always referred to as "the city". The country they're in is always referred to as "the country". At one point a plot revolves around a guy running for mayor but no one ever says what city he's going to be mayor of.  In another episode, part of the backstory takes place in St. Louis (shown in a title card) and when the action switches back to Toronto the title card for that location says "Metro County" which, as far as I can tell, isn't a real county.

But I could never tell if this complete evasion of their location was a Canadian thing or just a general TV thing. Perhaps they wanted to sell the show into the U.S. market? 

I'll tell you where it gets weird though. Skipping ahead to Season 3 Episode 16, a Japanese film crew has arrived at the police station hoping to do a documentary about T.S. Turner (obviously that's a plot - oh Season 3... more on that later). In trying to explain why they're interested in this subject they state, "As you probably know, we are fascinated by your country. We love your Westerns, we love your television commercials, we love your baseball." Now that's... what?! I mean Canada has Westerns, I know they have television commercials, and yes, they technically have baseball... but how can we not gather from this that the show takes place in the U.S.? Three whole seasons of looking at the Toronto skyline, hearing all the characters say "aboot," all the hockey hair and suddenly they imply that it's a U.S. city? I can't make sense of anything with this show. Maddening.

The Most 80s Episode - Season 1

The most 80s episode of Season 1 is Episode 12 - "The Silver Angel". In this episode, we get a special guest appearance by none other than The Fat Boys! Yes, it turns out that the fattest boy (Buffy Robinson) is T.S. Turner's nephew (convenient!) and so they all show up at the gym to lose weight for their upcoming tour. Meanwhile, an old man is accused of being "The Silver Angel" - a masked man who robs from grocery stores to give food to the homeless.

So, yeah, you got The Fat Boys rapping and beat boxing in a Mr. T show so it's very 80s. But there are two things going on in this episode which are rather interesting and worth noting. Firstly, The Fat Boys are spontaneously making "raps" about what is happening in the main plot as a commentary. In this way, The Fat Boys serve as a sort of modern day Greek Chorus. Very avant-garde. The second interesting thing is that at one point towards the end, the Fat Boys subplot and the Silver Angel main plot converge and become one. This episode aired in early 1988 and it would not be until 1991 that Seinfeld would discover it as a hallmark. It makes you think.

Conclusion - Season 1

So upon hearing of this "undiscovered" Mr. T show from the 80s you might have initially thought it sounded fun. And now upon hearing all my complaints about the stupidity of it and think it sounds bad, or perhaps you might even think it sounds so bad that it must be fun. But the thing is, it's none of the above.

The best way I can describe it is: "T and T" takes itself seriously. You get the feeling that the people making it wanted to make a gritty, serious crime show and that they were either unsure or unable to do it well. It does have many of the "cheesy" traits of 80s television but then also the pacing and music are moody and dour, conflicting completely with the action and the Mr. T persona.

Here's an example plot summary that exemplifies the problem well:

"When T. and T. keep a young offender out the detention center, the boy finds the path to rehabilitation fraught with danger and violence."

You don't read that and think, "this is going to be fun." And it isn't. It's too serious to be exciting but it's too wacky to be effectively serious. The show exists in a No Man's Land of entertainment. Yet, it isn't completely horrible just as it isn't great. And it isn't so bad that it can be enjoyed ironically (though exceptions exist). You know what it reminds me of? It reminds be of the dog days of Summer vacation where I had been away from school for too long and was too lazy to get off the couch. "T and T" is the kind of show that I would watch every day just because it provided that bare amount of entertainment to keep me from switching the channel. It's the kind of thing I'd watch because the alternative was a Soap Opera and because it wasn't bad enough to make me turn off the TV. It's the kind of thing I'd watch "because it was on." And so what can you do with a show like that? Not much other than write way too much about it on a blog in the backwaters of the internet.

That does it for Season 1 and I think Season 1 is both the best season and a good exemplar for the entire series. But, because I have too much to day about this dumb show, come back for Part 2 and Part 3 which will explore the other two seasons...