Have you ever Googled something, then allowed yourself to fall down the rabbit-hole of results scanning page after page until you’ve found something really, really bizarre? That is exactly what happened to Colorado resident, offroad enthusiast (and pop culture trivia buff) Brendan Porter when he performed an online search for Jeep Dealership Denver.
“Sure, the initial results brought me a breakdown of Jeep dealerships in, and around, the Denver area — which was exactly what I was looking for,” explains Porter. “But I had taken a (marijuana-based) edible about 45 minutes before I started my online search, and it was starting to kick in. With that in mind, I lost some focus and just started scrolling. Down I went, further and further…until I came across something that I still find hard to believe.”
The “something” that Brendan Porter is referring to, was the link to an article detailing a bizarre 1978 television series which, not only, never came to fruition, but seemed to have been hidden completely from the world. The synopsis for the planned series (which we warn you, is extremely dated in terms of terminology and social standards) goes as follows:
“Dick Braker is a no-nonsense detective who plays by his own set of rules. He likes fast cars, fast women, and fast justice…and criminals run from the sight of his badass Jeep. Tyrell Jackson is a black man…but don’t worry, he’s also a cop (and a damn good one). So when their city becomes overrun with Boat People, something needs to be done. Can the rogue detective and Denver’s only colored person clean the streets of reefer or is the mile-high city about to be painted Laotian yellow?”
Once again, and with our sincerest apologies, the above was clearly written in a less enlightened time. Perhaps that’s why CBS has disavowed any knowledge of the series and shows no records of it having been pitched to the network.
Which segues into the more bizarre aspects of the story. First, the revelation that such a controversial series was not only green-lit but actually moved into production. Second, the bizarre casting choices.
According to the article, the role of ‘no-nonsense detective Dick Braker’ went to (of all people) iconic singer/songwriter John Denver, whose sensitive demeanor and thespian aspirations had led to the starring role in 1977’s “Oh God!” opposite George Burns. Considering Denver’s near-absence of hard-edged personality traits, we are left to assume that Denver was looking to rebrand himself in a new light.
Even more puzzling is that role of ‘black cop, Tyrell Jackson’ was going to none other than Gilligan himself, Bob Denver…a rather unimposing caucasian.
Included in the article was an alleged quote from a CBS executive stating, “Yeah. I don’t even know what to say about this. We were doing a lot of drugs back then, and we probably heard that the story took place in Denver and got ‘Denver’ stuck in our head. I think we even decided to name the series ‘Denver & Denver’ which…in hindsight…made no sense, considering those weren’t even the characters’ names.”
What do you think? Was it simply the consequence of drug-addled thinking? Or could it have been the kind of out-of-the-box casting that would have made this ground-breaking series the stuff of legend?
