Gasohol

18 Gasohol
November 24, 1979
Music: Stu Phillips
Teleplay: Robert L. McCullough
Story: Richard Maize & Patrick Lloyd
Director: Charles Rondeau

This BJ AND THE BEAR episode doesn't make a lot of sense, but it has pretty girls and crashing cars, so what the heck. BJ's sinister rival Hammer (Charles Napier) returns to stir up some trouble. Once again, Hammer's employer, Hi-Ball Trucking, wants to rid the highways of the independent truckers in order to land lucrative trucking contracts without having to bid. In attempting to run BJ (Greg Evigan) off the road, Hammer crashes into a nearby pipeline, cutting off all the truckers' supply of diesel fuel for at least a month. Hi-Ball's connections ensure it enough fuel to keep it going, but what will the underdogs do to keep on trucking?

Enter sexy Sue Anne Lumm (Robin Dearden) and her father Emmett's (Ford Rainey) supply of moonshine, which carries enough kick to keep everybody on the road and beat out Hi-Ball for the new construction company contract. Throw in a square Revenue agent (Jeffrey Byron), an honest sheriff with two bumbling deputies, a drunken monkey, a befuddled Mexican driver (Bert Rosario), a horny trucker (Janet Louise Johnson) after BJ's bod, and "Gasohol" has enough going on to keep you awake, if not wondering when the kitchen sink is coming up.

Newcomers Richard Maize and Patrick Lloyd must have dreamed up a wild plot that story editor Robert McCullough shaped into a rough teleplay. Don't bust your brain trying to keep up with the various plot branches, and you should do okay. Semi-regular Johnson, who had also appeared frequently on executive producer Glen A. Larson's earlier series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE HARDY BOYS/NANCY DREW MYSTERIES, is oddly uncredited in "Gasohol." Byron, who's no match for the rowdy Dearden and her tiny shorts, later starred in two low-budget SF/fantasy flicks for Charles Band's Empire Pictures.