https://thegoldenhornblog.blogspot.com/2020/06/half-nelson.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0595238/
1985 NBC. "Uppers and Downers." The batshit-crazy Joe Pesci half-pint detective show. With Fred Williamson, Victoria Jackson, Gary Grubbs, Bubba Smith, Dick Butkus, and Dean Martin. I am watching all of these Youtube shows on the TV, which I think helps the experience, versus watching on the laptop, which was how I watched all of the shows in the first place. A few years ago I bought a cheap laptop just to use for streaming and I loved it from the start. Still use it constantly. This particular show is certainly better on the TV because it is totally insane and there is a bunch of action and car chases.
The conceit here is Joe Pesci is a former New York cop who is actually a really good detective, he just happens to be really short so nobody takes him seriously. He is Dean Martin's fix-it man and lives in his guest house. Fred Williamson is the boss of the Beverly Hills security company where Pesci works. Victoria Jackson is the ditzy secretary. Bubba Smith and Dick Butkus are the big bumbling comic relief and muscle. Gary Grubbs is the dick Beverly Hills cop. I watched all of these on Youtube a couple of years ago once they became available, but the pilot TV movie was so insane, in an already insane show, that I didn't even want to attempt to review it. Too exhausting. Just typing out the guest star cast list would take ten minutes. Every aging actor in Hollywood did this show at least once and it wasn't on long.
A personal trainer in Beverly Hills involved in some afternoon extracurricular activities ends up dead and winds up in the pool by accident. The police rule accidental drowning but Rocky (Pesci) has seen something suspicious. Rocky, who is one of those people who has connections everywhere, is able to arrange for an autopsy which reveals a dangerously harmful recreational drug. That puts Rocky on the bad side of the bad guys who are marketing the drug and then Rocky is marked for death. One of Rocky's connections is access to a studio lot, and all the fun little goodies that might be found there, like one fun bit done earlier where Rocky is driving all the cars from other hit TV shows. The Fall Guy truck, KITT the Knight Rider car, and Magnum's Ferrari. Eventually Rocky is able to outwit the bad guys and involve Bubba Smith and Butkus in some stunt work and car chases. This show, like a lot of NBC action shows in the 80s, is about one third car chase.
Half Nelson is not a particularly good show but is very entertaining and totally crazy. I watched every one of them in awe of the insanity.
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