User Reviews

Vietnam vets Cody Allen (Perry King), Nick Ryder (Joe Penny) were military police during the war. In their thirties they have trouble making ends meet with the tourist business they operate.

Cody charters his rickety boat for fishermen out of King Harbor marina near Los Angeles. Nick flies sight-seers in his decrepit helicopter. As a sideline they try their hands at being private investigators starting the Pier 56 Detective Agency.

But the handsome young men appear more adept at charming women than solving crimes. TV private investigators like Jim Rockford and Magnum got beaten up by baddies and stiffed by their clients. As the series opens we see Cody Allen (Perry King) get beaten up AND stiffed by a client.

Murray Bozinski (Thom Bray) - a video game designer and inventor with whom they served in the war joins them because he misses the camaraderie and likes the idea of living on a boat under the sun with beautiful women around. His tech knowledge gives them an edge but his irrepressible geekiness and stubborn streak occasionally wear on them.

They fall into a case of hijacking after a party boat called 'the Tradewind' owned by a vicious gangster sinks near a small island. Surviving passenger Kimba (Karen Kopins) is suspected of knowing more than she is saying. Cody and Nick like her and take her on as a client even though they don't fully trust her.

Himbo detectives who lived on a luxury boat, had a pink helicopter, a red sports-car and an orange robot? Come on! Dismissed as Charlie's Angels with guys or a poor man's Magnum P.I. Riptide was more of a satire of 1980s detective shows than one in its own right.

As it enticed a sizable young female audience in to watching along with male audiences who enjoyed detective shows it made it as an NBC replacement show in early 1984. It lasted for 56 episodes until it got cancelled in 1986.

Riptide was a show that has been very much forgotten. Then again outside of the USA it was never very memorable in the first place.

Given that Miami Vice also debuted in 1984, Riptide was just something that felt behind the times.

The pilot episode has Cody Allen (Perry King) and Nick Ryder (Joe Penny) as two old Army buddies who served in Vietnam

They have just opened a Detective Agency in LA. They operate out of Cody's boat called Riptide. Nick also has an old helicopter where he takes out tourists as a sideline.

In this episode they are joined by Murray Bozinsky (Thom Bray) a nerdy computer scientist who they also know from their army days. Boz is the IT geek who has built a small robot.

In the opening episode they come to the aid of pretty Kimba Hall, the only survivor of a charter boat that exploded a she was out diving.

Although they are initially suspicious of Kimba. They find out that the boat was linked to a drug smuggling operation linked to a local mobster. There is a man called Dex Dexter who is trying to cover his tracks.

The show is a bit of a Frankenstein's monster. Co created by Stephen J Cannell, it is an odd mixture of Simon & Simon, The A Team, Magnum, Knight Rider.

The episode has its fair share of buxom ladies in bikinis as its based in the California coast. For the ladies there is a scene where Cody and Nick give chase just wearing their underpants.

Boz is there to show off the cutting edge technology and be the butt of a few jokes.

Although this is a decent pilot episode with some humour and action. It is also bland. By this time Cannell had set up a conveyor belt producing hit television shows but this was not going to be up there like The A Team.