The year we met in college, sammymaudlin and I developed a drinking game around the mildy popular tv show T.J. Hooker. I assume most of you have played a drinking game based around a tv show at one time or another. There are certain cues based around expectations in plot and character devices that require participants to drink. Newhart, I believe, was a popular game when we were in college, but we felt we were too cool to swig whenever a character on the show said “Bob.” Our game, “Hooker,” did involve swigging down beer or whatever whenever a character addressed the former James Tiberius Kirk, but it had other cues for drinking, such as the obligatory T.J. Hooker lecture to an apprehended bad guy, man-girdle and toupee shots of Shatner, the absence of a rear-view mirror in any cop car, key appearances by young Heather Locklear, any scene featuring the “Boy Romeo” charms of Adrian Zmed, and – most exciting of all – any number of perceived references to Star Trek! A character touching the shoulder of another character, for instance, was a clear reference to Spock’s Vulcan nerve pinch. Hooker closing in with Kirk-like moves on a woman in need was another reason to swig.
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