Who can resist the joys of William Shatner running a lot, a very young Heather Locklear looking a bit rubbish with a gun or Adrian Zmed looking a little bit camp and sweaty? Yes, it’s time for TJ Hooker, in which grizzled veteran detective – the eponymous Hooker, played by Shatner – teaches students at a police academy how to be real cops.
Odd though it might seem from its weird old (season two) title sequence, TJ Hooker was initially supposed to be a gritty, more realistic police show than others of the time. But that plan quickly fell apart…
In the US: Wednesdays, 9/8c, The CW In the UK: Not yet acquired
It’s easy to stereotype cheerleaders. Take your pick: blonde Barbies? Bubble heads? Sluts in flesh-expositng outfits? Cliquey? Agents of patriarchy, doing nothing more than standing there and looking pretty while cheering on men? Nothing more than pom pom twirlers?
This is, of course, bollocks.
Apart from the fact that there are male cheerleaders, top-level cheerleading is an incredibly demanding athletic sport – it’s responsible for 2/3 of sports injuries among women at college and requires hours and hours of dedication, training and practice. As with football, its associated scholarships can also be the only way some American women (and men) can afford to go to college and it’s enabled people from the likes of Katie Couric and Meryl Streep through to supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and even Ronald Reagan to get to the upper echelons of society.
These and other stereotype crushing facts are what you’ll learn if you watch The CW’s new dramedy, Hellcats, based on Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders by journalist Kate Torgovnick. Oh, and you’ll get to see lots of buff young men and women in skimpy outfits – including Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical! Woo!
