William Shatner's Canceled Cop Show Was Saved By Moving To Another Network's Late-Night Lineup

William Shatner was "shocked" when ABC canceled his procedural cop show, "T.J. Hooker," four seasons in. "Our ratings were very good," he told the Associated Press. "We did much better than what ABC has in there now." The show's ratings, however, had long failed to reach its Season 1 heights, and TV critics hated the series even when it was doing well. One critic at the Detroit Free Press described ABC canceling the show as the network putting it in "the ashcan it so richly deserves." Although the heads at ABC lost their interest in the series, CBS saw it as an opportunity to compete with the late night shows of other networks. 

CBS aired the fifth season of "T.J. Hooker" at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at the same time as "The Tonight Show" on NBC, and ran reruns from the first four seasons during that time slot on other weeknights. Critics noted that this was not the first time one of Shatner's shows had been canceled. The first run of "Star Trek" was originally canned by NBC in the '60s, only to be saved from cancellation by fan campaigns and transformed into a massive pop culture sensation. However, Shatner did not expect "T.J. Hooker" to follow that trajectory in the '80s. He described its move to CBS as a step down for the series, noting, "It would be more pleasant to go from late-night to prime time, than the other way around."

William Shatner complained that CBS had a lower threshold for violence despite airing their show later at night, and that they cut $100,000 out of each episode's $900,000 budget: "All the other cop shows are spending well over $1 million," he said, "and when we're asked to pare it down, you're really cutting muscle."

CBS announced the show's second and final cancellation in the spring of 1986, but Shatner told Southam News he was relieved to leave the series behind. "Doing a TV show like that was like walking a tightrope. It was a madhouse," he said. In December that year, he hosted "Saturday Night Live" and poked fun at the show in a parody sketch; Hooker spent nearly the entire sketch clinging to the hood of a criminal's car.

Despite "Hooker" being overshadowed by Shatner's role in the "Star Trek" franchise, the show did have enduring fans. At a 2014 Wizard World Comic Con panel, a "T.J. Hooker" fan asked Shatner if a revival of the series might be in the works. Shatner recalled having been pitched a revival idea where he would "play T.J. Hooker's father," but the idea never panned out. In 2025, Netflix acquired the rights to make a "T.J. Hooker" reboot. The classic series isn't high on the list of old beloved shows fans think are perfect for a reboot, but it could be fun to see what Netflix can do with its premise.