Firepower

Firepower
Episode #	618
Air Date	March 6, 1983
Briefing	?

Title screen

Brief Plot

A pair of arms theives throw a grenade under Webster's car during a pursuit. Ponch and Bobby go undercover as bikers and meet an old friend of Ponch's at a biker bar. Bruce takes part in a motorcycle grand prix and gets involved with a female racer.

Plot

Ponch, Bobby, and Webster chase an explosives truck that caused an accident. Someone in the back throws out a hand grenade which makes Webster's cruiser flip over. Ponch and Bobby go undercover as hard-core bikers to investigate at a local motorcycle grand prix that Bruce is racing at. Soon, Ponch and Bobby arrive at their third biker bar looking for the bad guys. Ponch knows the waitress and agrees to meet her to get information. Soon Ponch ends up in a small bar fight and leaves. After visiting Bruce at the track, Ponch meets the waitress at the park. The next day, Ponch and Bobby are back in uniform when a call comes in to Central from a trucker. He is forced to stop and his truck is hijacked. The truck ends up to be carrying a volitile experimental chemical called RNI. Later, Ponch and Bobby are undercover again and warn the bar owner and waitress about the danger of RNI. Ponch gets a weird feeling when one of the racers drops out and one of the bad guys joins in. Meanwhile, the waitress discovers that the bad biker guys have been storing RNI in the bar's storage room.

Guest Stars

• Darrell Fetty as Max
• Anna Garduño as Angela
• Amy Steel as Kelly
• Tina Gayle as Kathy Linahan
• Miguel Ferrer as Bean
• Larry Haddon as Mr. Richardson
• Michael MacRae as Big Crazy
• Jay Robinson as Arms Buyer

Co-Starring

• Clarence Gilyard, Jr. as Webster
• Soleil Moon Frye as Little Max

Featuring

• Fred Asparagus as Weasel
• Dick Bean as Biker

Crew

• Executive Producer: Cy Chermak
• Supervising Producer: Paul Mason
• Produced By: Joseph Gunn and Donald L. Gold
• Written by: Donald L. Gold
• Directed by: Phil Bondelli
• Executive Consultant: Rick Rosner
• Executive Story Consultant: Gerald Sanford
• Creative Consultant: Larry Mollin
• Associate Producer: Randall Torno
• Developed for television by: Paul Playdon
• Music by: Alan Silvestri
• Theme by: John Parker
• Music Supervisor: Harry V. Lojewski
• Director of Photography: Robert F. Sparks
• Art Director: Stephen Myles Berger
• Editor: Richard Belding
• Unit Production Manager: Steven P. Saeta
• First Assistant Director: Nate Haggard
• Second Assistant Director: David Newman
• Set Decorator: W. Joseph Kroesser
• Script Supervisor: Suzi Alter
• Production Consultant: Bill Udell
• Stunt Co-ordinator: Paul Nuckles
• Production Associate: Bonnie Jo Chermak
• Rerecorded at: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
• Sound: Harlan Riggs, M. Curtis Price, C.A.S.
• Wardrobe Supervisor: Shelly Levine
• Makeup: Richard Cobos, S.M.A., Jane Aull
• Hair Stylist: Don Lynch
• Sound Editor: John Delbis
• Music Editor: Tommy Carlin
• Motorcycles Furnished by: Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A.
• Racing Technical Advisor: Jeffrey Immediato
• Casting: Al Onorato, Jerry Franks
• With Appreciation to Glen B. Craig, Commissioner California Highway Patrol
• Filmed in METROCOLOR / Titles and Opticals MGM
• Rosner Television in association with MGM Television

Fun Facts

• The playground where Ponch meets Angela is on Dell Avenue. View on Google Maps
• A year after this episode, Soleil Moon Frye (Little Max) landed the title role in Punky Brewster.

Mistakes

• After Webster's accident, Getraer draws a pretty good map of the area north of the docks on the chalkboard using real road names, but he puts Banning Boulevard between Wilmington and Avalon when it's actually east of Avalon Boulevard.
• The geodesic dome housing the Spruce Goose is missing from the aerial shots of the Queen Mary, indicating that old footage was used.
• If one container of RNI can take out a city block, the final underwater explosion was very small.
• After the crash where Bruce asks out Kelly, he looks up to see Ponch and Bobby go by in their biker outfits. There are mountains in the background behind Ponch and Bobby which wouldn't be visible from Long Beach.
• The stock footage that's cut into the race features much larger bikes. Also, the purpose-built track in the stock footage does not match the street circuit they're meant to be racing on - probably because it was filmed at Daytona!

Preceded by: "Brat Patrol"

Firepower 618

Followed by: "Fun House"