The Official KRESKY Homepage

Production History

Genesis and Season One:

On Friday September 10, 1976, Nick Kresky's canary yellow Mustang blazed across the nation's television screens for the first time. There had been little in the way of pre-show hype or fanfare, but before that initial hour was out the smooth-talking LA undercover cop with the uncanny sense of rhythm had charmed his way into viewer's hearts -- and left them wanting more. Soon Kresky was dominating its 9:00 time slot and consistently edging out its only real competition, the more cynical and cerebral Rockford Files. Within only a few scant weeks, it was clear that Nick Kresky had struck a resounding chord with his audience.

Legend has it that Kresky began its life as a simple one line memo sent by UBC Presdient Larry Rubin to the series' creator and executive producer Matt Jameson. It read, "Serpico meets the Mod Squad in a disco". Who could have guessed that from those humble beginnings a phenomenon would be born, an entertainment sensation so powerful that it would single-handedly save a floundering network, galvanize an American people and transform the very face of television itself?

Certainly not Terrence Michael Matterly, and yet virtually overnight the unknown actor was catapulted to superstardom on an unstoppable Kresky wave, waking to find his likeness emblazoned on everything from T-shirts to lunch boxes to action figures. Kresky was a runaway success and it wasn't long before Terrence Michael Matterly was being hailed by viewers as the ultimate embodiment of the 70's Renaissance man, the Me Decade's answer to Sean Connery. In December of 1976, TV Guide featured Terrence Matterly on its cover accompanied by the legend "The New Face of the TV Cop: Sexy, Swingin' and Single." All across the country, in schoolyards and around water coolers, folks could be heard repeating Kresky catchphrases like "I'm knockin' on your door, baby" or "A hard rain's gonna fall" or even the somewhat less pithy "Save some funk for Sunday."

But, amazingly, not everybody loved Kresky. Church leagues, parents advocacy groups and consumer watchdog organizations accused the show of being overly violent and sexually suggestive, urging viewers to boycott the program's sponsors. A few self-important critics decried the series as being "shallow" and "vapid." Kresky even took a kidney punch from the American Librarians Association which accused the show of being "potentially detrimental to the intellectual well-being of Americans." The organization claimed to have counted over 200 alleged "acts of absurdity, implausibility or outright stupidity" in a single episode. But the complaints fell on deaf ears, Kresky's popularity was snowballing uncontrollably, particularly among children and young adults.