TV in 1972: “The Rookies”

This series, which focused on a trio of bright but green police officers with the imaginary Southern California Police Department (SCPD), debuted on September 11, 1972, and ran through March 30, 1976. A Leonard Goldberg/Aaron Spelling production, it featured Michael Ontkean, Georg Stanford Brown, and Sam Melville as the young cops, who were slowly being whipped into shape by veteran Lieutenant Eddie Ryker (Gerald S. O’Loughlin). In The Rookies, though, was where I also first discovered lovely actress Kate Jackson, who played a registered nurse and Melville’s wife, and who’d go on to star in Charlie’s Angels.

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