646f9e108c Milton C. Hardcastle was Judge in Los Angeles. Mark McCormick, a racing motorist, convicted for robbery, was Hardcastles last case. McCormick was set under supervision of Hardcastle and they start to inspect two hundred cases that were never closed totally during Miltons judgeship.
Milton C. Hardcastle is a tough but honest judge. Over the years, he has had to dismiss nearly 200 cases due to legal technicalities on individuals who were guilty. Now that he's retired, he plans to spend his time hounding them and if they break the law Hardcastle's going to bust them and make sure that it's done right. Now he needs someone to watch his back and the man he has "chosen" is Mark McCormick, a car thief whom Hardcastle once sent to prison, and who is now an aspiring race car driver. McCormick was arrested and brought before Hardcastle. Normally, Hardcastle tells McCormick that in addition to breaking the law, he violated his parole, he would be sent back to prison and this being his third conviction would make him a three time loser. However, Hardcastle tells McCormick of his plans for his retirement, and that he would like McCormick to be his partner. McCormick begrudgingly accepts but if they will make remains to be seen cause McCormick doesn't think that Hardcastle was fair when he sentenced him and he thinks Hardcastle is a royal pain.
This show pretty much was an update on classic legends like the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid with a little bit of Dirty Harry thrown in. This also came out at a time when shows like "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Knight Rider", which featured good looking young men with fast cars were all the rage. Brian Keith pretty much buried his old character of "Uncle Bill" with his wild characterization of Milton Hardcastle. He made this show fun to watch and it was one of those shows from the mind of Stephen J. Cannell that had lots of action but really didn't take itself too seriously. Also, Daniel Hugh Kelly provided enough beefcake to keep the ladies interested. This was definitely one of the wildest shows of the 1980's.
The 'Coyote' was a kit-car for the pilot and first two seasons. It was in actuality a 'Manta Montage', a fairly popular kit car available at the time. There were a couple of minor body modifications to disguise it, but it is plain to see what it really is.<br/><br/>It was powered by the new-at-the-time Chevy 2.8L V-6, which was a fairly sophisticated engine for it's time. This is the same engine that came in the Chevy Citation X-11.<br/><br/>Brian Kieth, being as overweight as he was, clearly found it next to impossible to climb in and out of the Coyote easily and the scenes were filmed in such a way that this was not emphasized.<br/><br/>The last season of the show, a 'DeLorean' DMC-12, the infamous stainless-steel, gull-winged sports car from John DeLorean was heavily modified to resemble the original coyote as close as possible. The heavy gull-wing doors were removed completely, and lots of fiberglass bodywork was created to disguise the fact that this was a completely different, much larger car. Mr. Kieth could more easily get in and out of it, so that was one big reason they switched.<br/><br/>Side by Side, the differences between the original 'Coyote' and the DeLorean-based model were clearly obvious, and when the show used existing footage of the original Coyote interspersed with newer footage of the DeLorean-based model, the continuity of the episode was shot all to hell!<br/><br/>The poster above mentioned that he thought the car was really a Porsche 917 race car. Not quite, but on the right track: The original car used for the Coyote, a 'Manta Montage' was a replica of sorts of the Porsche 917, although nowhere even close to the Porsche in terms of performance.