Categories
Holmes & Yoyo

Pilot

Holmes & YoyoLAPD detective Alex Holmes has been on the force for years, with an impeccable record of service…and an absolutely terrible track record of getting his partners injured in the line of duty. As he awaits word on who his next partner will be, his boss, Chief Sedford, gets a visit from the Police Commissioner with an offer of a technological breakthrough: a 400+ pound robotic police officer virtually indistinguishable from a human being. Named after its creator, roboticist Gregory Yoyonovich, “Yoyo” is nearly indestructible…prompting the Chief to make him Holmes’ new partner.

Yoyo finds himself immediately thrust into the investigation into the theft of a valuable car, the same case that led to the injury of Holmes’ former partner. When the case begins to involve a greater understanding of the mechanics of disassembling the car, Yoyo turns out to be Holmes’ secret weapon in the investigation. But when one of the prime suspects turns up dead, Yoyo discovers he has less of a knack for figuring out why human beings would commit murder. His know-how, and Holmes’ intuition, may yet crack the case, but it’ll mean Holmes putting Yoyo’s “indestructible” status to the test.

written by Jack Sher & Lee Hewitt and Leonard B. Stern
directed by Jackie Cooper
music by Leonard Rosenman

Holmes & YoyoCast: Richard B. Shull (Detective Alex Holmes), John Schuck (Officer Gregory “Yoyo” Yoyonovich), Bruce Kirby (Captain Harry Sedford), Andrea Howard (Officer Maxine Moon), Allan Miller (Mr. Powers), Larry Hovis (Dr. Babcock), G. Wood (The Police Commissioner), Madison Arnold (Mr. Karl Kincaid), Sarah Jane Miller (Mrs. Powers), Doris Hess (Woman Driver), Bobby Herbeck (Driving Instructor)

Notes: The actor playing Tony, Holmes’ partner in the show’s opening scenes, is uncredited. Guest star Allan Miller has a significant genre TV track record, with appearances in Wonder Woman, Project UFO, Galactica: 1980, Airwolf, and the late ’90s syndicated superhero show, Nightman. His most visible genre role, however, may be as the Holmes & Yoyoalien pilot with whom McCoy tries to secretly book passage to the Genesis Planet in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (“how can you be deaf with ears like that!?”). Ironically, mere months before Holmes & Yoyo premiered on ABC’s prime time schedule, ABC had piloted Future Cop, a slightly more dramatic take on the “veteran cop discovers his new partner is a robot rookie” plotline at the heart of both shows; Holmes & Yoyo would be cancelled before Future Cop could return for its own short, troubled run as a weekly series, but unaired episodes would crop up in 1977 as Star Wars mania gripped American pop culture, prompting a perhaps misplaced hope that the popularity of the movie’s robots would reignite interest in robot characters on a TV budget.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Holmes & Yoyo

The Last Phantom

Holmes & YoyoWhen an attempt is made on the life of an eccentric, headstrong Hollywood director, Holmes and Yoyo find themselves drawn into the world of showbiz, populated with plenty of people who might have a motive to derail an upcoming remake of The Phantom Of The Opera. But who is the prime suspect? The disgruntled actor, a stuntman with a knack for both imaginary and real violence, or a man who never shows his face on film?

written by Arne Sultan & Earl Barret
directed by Jack Arnold
music by Dick Halligan

Holmes & YoyoCast: Richard B. Shull (Detective Alex Holmes), John Schuck (Officer Gregory “Yoyo” Yoyonovich), Bruce Kirby (Captain Harry Sedford), Andrea Howard (Officer Maxine Moon), Cliff Norton (Dr. Keller), Stefan Gierasch (Monty Logan), Arnold Soboloff (Brockman), Angus Duncan (Carson), King Moody (Clay Dorsey), Linda Gray (Dr. Fletcher), William Bronder (1st Detective), Augie Tribach (Fosse)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Holmes & Yoyo

The K-9 Caper

Holmes & YoyoHolmes and Yoyo are in hour six of watching a liquor store that the chief believes will be robbed, though there’s a distinct lack of robbing taking place. When a woman screams that her purse has been stolen, the two policeman are relieved to finally be in the thick of the action…until they see that the “thief” is a dog, and by the time they return from pursuing it (without retrieving the “stolen” purse), the heist at the liquor store has gone down, completely unwitnessed by police. Having blown their stake-out, Holmes and Yoyo are taken off the liquor store case, though another complaint about a purse-snatching dog piques their interest. Does the dog have a partner in crime, or just an expensive taste in handbags? And why does Yoyo keep jabbing his partner in the shoulder unexpectedly?

written by James Ritz
directed by John Astin
music by Dick Halligan

Holmes & YoyoCast: Richard B. Shull (Detective Alex Holmes), John Schuck (Officer Gregory “Yoyo” Yoyonovich), Bruce Kirby (Captain Harry Sedford), Andrea Howard (Officer Maxine Moon), Timothy Blake (Mrs. Chambers), Dick Balduzzi (Musician), Allan Drake (Mr. Wittowski), Albert Popwell (Councilman), Vera Lockwood (Woman), Robert Hackman (Doorman), Al Stellone (Sgt. Hansen)

LogBook entry by Earl Green