#39 "Coach Of The Year" (Season 3 #4)

#39 "Coach Of The Year" (Season 3 #4)

Photo Gallery 1 (scroll to find correct episode once you get there)

Original Air Date: Nov. 27, 1988

Writer: Bill Nuss

Director: James Whitmore, Jr.

Production Code: 16304

Things To Note:

Opening Theme:

Closing Theme:

LOD:

Regulars:

Friends, Family & Guests: Gary Lahti [ Unknown ], Scott Allan Campbell [ Unknown ], Charles Cyphers [ Unknown ], Cliff Bemis [ Unknown ], Michael Laskin [ Unknown ], Andy David [ Unknown ]

Episode Summary from The 21 Jump Street Episode Guide:

NOTE: Stop with this one if you don’t want spoilers.

Penhall and Booker join a high school football team in attempt to prove that the coach's negligence led to the paralyzing injury of one of the players.

Detailed Episode Review (contains spoilers!):

(NOTE: I am doing these from the FX repeats. Email me with missing scenes & I’ll add them).

Commentary:

Cyndi Glass: Looks like a Depp phone-in to me. I noticed this in #43 "Blu Flu" - everyone else gets the plot, and Hanson/Jackie do generic boyfriend/girlfriend scenes that don’t even look like they were filmed the same day. Still, I can’t see Depp playing football, so maybe this one was one they did write for Grieco, though I can also see the possibility that he was just added in. He plays no really crucial part in the undercover work besides antagonizing Penhall to protect their cover of being brothers. Most of the storyline focuses on Penhall and his reluctance to believe the coach was doing anything criminal (nice continuity here with the previous episode, in which Penhall learns the consequences of wrongly accusing someone of something they might not have done). I have to mention the locker room scene where Penhall throws the football at Booker and it bounces off his perfect abs, causing that self-satisfied little smile. These two play off each other SO well. Compare this with the locker room scene in #21 "Honor Bound" where they are playing similar antagonistic cover roles and have the chance to drop them for a second - here, Penhall and Booker argue and show that they really dislike each other, while Penhall and Hanson in "Honor Bound" shift their entire body language and discuss the case as friends.

John DeCarli: An average episode. This looks like one where Depp just memorized his lines and did not read the script. I noticed that everyone made it to the big game - even Jackie and Sal - but Hanson/Depp didn’t. Up to now, I never really had a problem suspending disbelief that the undercover officers weren’t recognized as they went from school to school. But I did notice that Penhall was sent to "Augustana High School" in both #23 "How Much Is That Body In the Window" and this one. While I admire the consistancy of using Augustana as "the jock school," I have trouble believing Penhall would not have been recognized since the episodes are less than 1 year apart, and he’s undercover on the football team in both. Bothersome. It was a different coach, too.

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