21 Jump Street - Season 3

21 Jump Street - Season 3
©1997+ Cyndi Glass

20 Episodes (36-55), 1988-89
Stephen J. Cannell Productions, Fox Network
Regulars: Fuller, Hanson, Penhall, Hoffs, Ioki, Booker

Photo: Sitting: Holly Robinson; Standing: Dustin Nguyen, Richard Grieco, Peter DeLuise, Steven Williams, and Johnny Depp

21 Jump Street Episodic Photo Gallery (contains spoilers) - 21JS Photo Gallery 1
21 Jump Street Cast Photos & Miscellaneous Stuff - 21JS Photo Gallery 2

Brief summaries © 1994-97, Alan Morton and John Lavalie with Gustavo Gontijo and their 21 Jump Street Episode Guide. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Longer summaries, commentary & reviews © 1997+ by Cyndi Glass and John DeCarli. Character names and storylines © Cannell/Fox.

Season 3 Episodes:

36. "Fun With Animals" (Nov. 6, 1988)
37. "Slippin' Into Darkness" (Nov. 13, 1988)
38. "The Currency We Trade In" (Nov. 20, 1988)
39. "Coach of the Year" (Nov. 27, 1988)
40. "Whose Choice is it Anyways?" (Dec. 11, 1988)
41. "Hell Week" (Dec. 18, 1988)
42. "The Dragon and the Angel" (Jan. 15, 1989)
43. "Blu Flu" (Jan. 29, 1989)
44. "Swallowed Alive" (Feb. 5, 1989)
45. "What About Love?" (Feb. 12, 1989)
46. "Woolly Bullies" (Feb. 19, 1989) (Special page about Woolly Bullies)
47. "The Dreaded Return of Russell Buckins" (Feb. 26, 1989)
48. "A.W.O.L." (Mar. 19, 1989)
49. "Nemesis" (Mar. 26, 1989)
50. "Fathers and Sons" (Apr. 9, 1989)
51. "High High" (Apr. 23, 1989)
52. "Blinded by the Thousand Points of Light" (Apr. 30, 1989)
53. "Next Victim" (May 7, 1989)
54. "Loc'd Out (1)" (a.k.a. Partners (1)) (May 14, 1989)
55. "Loc'd Out (2)" (a.k.a. Partners (2)) (May 21, 1989)

Season 3 Commentary:

Cyndi Glass: Season 3 is often distinguished from the others by calling it the "Booker season" and with good reason. Although he is not in the opening theme as a regular (WHY NOT?), Booker is an equal partner on the Jump Street team., bringing them to five. Alliances form and shift with Booker's arrival, with Hanson in particular clashing with him immediately. Season 3 is, in my opinion, the most consistently excellent season, with one great episode after another.

The issues get even more complex and deep as the officers start to question themselves and their work. All of them learn, sometimes with painful consequences, that there are other ways of seeing the world besides the way they have always seen it. Penhall sees the consequences of false accusations. Ioki learns firsthand the attraction of gangs to lonely people who want a family. Booker confronts his latent racism, and Hoffs fights back against sexual harassment. Hanson sees what happens to the kids they bust when he is placed in a juvenile facility, and he comes out shaken and more jaded than we have ever seen him. Romances form and fail spectacularly. The assignments broaden beyond the high schools, as they work on cases involving homeless runaways, an AWOL Army enlistee and college radicals. At the end of the season, the sobering two part season finale ends with Ioki in critical condition after being shot, Penhall and Booker enemies, and Hanson convicted of a murder he didn't commit and sent to prison.

John DeCarli: Originally, FOX had plans to produce a spin-off of 21 Jump Street this season. Titled "Return of the Prince" but then retitled "City Court", the intention was to follow Jump Street type cases through the court system. A two-hour pilot was scheduled to feature a murder trial involving Hanson. But because of the 1988 Writer's Strike, the series was never produced. I wonder whether the pilot episode was ever filmed. If so, I don't think it's ever been shown.

This strike-shortened season is marked by both an important addition and a departure. The introduction of Booker introduced an element of instability into the established 21 Jump Street family. Booker is an independent individual who is as sure about what he is doing as Hanson. I think this is why Hanson and Booker never hit it off. The departure of series creator Patrick Hasburgh created other concerns. In separate interviews, both Depp and Hasburgh complained about how the show seemed to change direction although neither of them elaborated further. I'm not sure what they meant. The tendency here is to have one or two officers carry the main dramatic plot while the others carry on in unrelated comedic subplots. Personal lives are examined more deeply. Source music is used more extensively here than in the previous season.

It's also in this season that we begin to see "Depp problems" emerge. To summarize: after initially turning down the Hanson role without even reading the script, Johnny Depp had been convinced to take the role under the assumption that it would last only 13 weeks, or maybe a season. But the show became popular and Depp had signed a six season contract. Perhaps more significantly, he felt exploited by the teen sex-symbol marketing strategy that FOX was using to promote the show. He was also becoming bored with the repetitive nature of the role and the lack of creative opportunities in doing a weekly television series. He wanted out, but the producers would not release him from his contract. He began to complain about some of the scripts and refused to do certain episodes which he found objectionable. "Nemesis (#49)" had to be rewritten for Richard Grieco's Booker character when Depp refused to participate because of the "moral ambiguity" of keeping quiet while someone was murdered (in the end, Depp did appear in one scene).

As the season progresses, there is less of a tendency to go to Fuller for advice and direction. The cases seem to affect the officers less than in the previous season. Overall, though, it's still excellent.