240-Robert followed the exploits of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Services Detail (ESD) – the official search and rescue force for the most populated county in the US.
Utilising helicopters, light aircraft, boats and a customised Ford Bronco, the team of scuba divers, mountaineers and paramedics managed to extract hapless citizens from various dangerous situations.
John Bennett Perry, a 6-foot-2 veteran of action shows such as S.W.A.Tand Kung Fu, played a high-spirited macho deputy called ‘Trap’.
His flinty-eyed clean-cut blonde guitar-playing buddy, Deputy Dwayne L (“Thib”) Thibideaux, was played by Mark Harmon, a one-time UCLA quarterback and son of American football great, Tom Harmon.
Cast as determined Deputy Morgan Wainwright, the pretty redhead lady helicopter pilot who kept fishing the boys out of trouble, was Joanna Cassidy.
The ABC series was based on a real-life unit of the Sheriff’s Department who used “240-Robert” as their radio emergency code.
The show rated poorly on initial screening but was brought back in 1981 for a limited run with Pamela Hensley as Deputy Sandy Harper and Stephen Burns as Deputy Brett Cueva.
Mark Harmon did not return as he had already moved on to Flamingo Road.
Deputy Theodore Roosevelt ‘Trap’ Applegate III
John Bennett Perry Deputy Dwayne ‘Thib’ Thibideaux
Mark Harmon Deputy Morgan Wainwright
Joanna Cassidy Big Bird
Brian Frishman Deputy Sandy Harper
Pamela Hensley Deputy Brett Cueva
Stephen Burns
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