The theme song is what intrigued me about Half Nelson, a short-lived NBC comedy/drama that ran for seven episodes from April to May 1985. It was enough to convince me to write a spotlight for the show. Joe Pesci starred as a former New York City cop who gets a job at a private security agency in Los Angeles while trying to break into acting. His costars included former football players Fred Williamson, Bubba Smith, and Dick Butkus. Victoria Jackson was also in the cast.
Dean Martin had a recurring role as himself, although I’m not sure how many episodes he actually appeared in. I know he was in the pilot telefilm and at least one of the hour-long episodes. There’s actually a bit of a mystery involving how many episodes exist. Both TV.com and the Internet Movie Database list eight episodes overall (the pilot plus seven regular episodes) while most other sources indicate there seven (the pilot plus six regular episodes). Based on copyright records there were only seven episodes.
You can read the entire spotlight here. I’m hoping to publish a new spotlight every month in 2016. We’ll see if I can pull it off.
