Double Take, Double Take

Double Take, Double Take
January 29, 1980
Music: Jimmie Haskell
Writers: Paul M. Belous & Robert Wolterstorff
Director: Daniel Haller

The luscious Tara Buckman makes her MISADVENTURES OF SHERIFF LOBO debut in "Double Take, Double Take." This is notable in that, when LOBO returned for its second season on NBC, Tara became a regular, playing a policewoman named Brandy. Here, she plays another policewoman, Sgt. Cummings, who accompanies a government witness from Orly to Los Angeles. At the L.A. airport, however, the witness, Helen Brooks (Suzanne Lederer), pulls a switch with her photographer twin sister (!) and escapes from Cummings' custody.

While Cummings and her captain ("special guest star" Bernie Hamilton, basically playing his STARSKY & HUTCH character) are befuddled by the twin's lie detector results saying she didn't see the crime she's supposed to have witnessed, Perkins (Mills Watson) is on the trail of the real Helen. As are a pair of hitmen working for mobster Jenkins (Paul Lambert). Red West also guest-stars as a corrupt cop on Bernie's payroll.

Setting the show in L.A. allowed director Haller to point his camera at a different part of the Universal backlot and get mountains and palm trees in the background. Perkins is slightly less of a screwup than usual. Yeah, he fumbles and falls a lot, but he's the only character who recognizes the real Helen, and he proves he's a good shot by somehow shooting out the front tire of a getaway car driving away from him. Lobo (Claude Akins) and Birdie (Brian Kerwin) spend the show on the sidelines.