B.J. and the Bear
|
Greg Evigan and his simian cohort in B.J. and the Bear. |
B.J. and the Bear was a comedy/adventure
television series which aired on
NBC from
1979 to
1981. It starred
Greg Evigan as B. J. (Billie Joe) McKay, a trucker who traveled the country's highways in a
Kenworth T-100 with his pet
chimpanzee, Bear (named for
Bear Bryant, the famed college football coach; this explains the chimp's choice of headware). He was constantly harassed by
sheriff Elroy P. Lobo (
Claude Akins, who eventually spun off onto his own show,
The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo).
In
1981, when the show returned from hiatus, B.J. had settled down to run Bear Enterprises, a trucking company based in
Los Angeles. His opponent was Rutherford T. Grant (
Murray Hamilton), the corrupt head of the state's
Special Crimes Action Team, who was a silent partner in a competing trucking company. Because of Grant's harassment, B.J. was unable to hire experienced truckers, and he was forced to hire seven beautiful young female truckers, including Grant's daughter Cindy (
Sherilyn Wolter).
