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BJ and the Bear

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This Memory is looking a little short on nostalgia! Have you got anything you could add?

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One man, his monkey and his truck - you can't really imagine that pitch working today, can you? I can't remember much about the show other than a huge crush on Greg Evigan (who later showed up, I believe, in My Two Dads, and in a cameo or two in Veronica's Closet, Columbo and the like). And he's still cute!

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Do You Remember BJ and the Bear?

Do You Remember BJ and the Bear?

  • Andrew Dexter
    on
    I remember this show too!, it was from 1979, i still remember the theme, it went something like,' BJ mckay and his best friend bear'.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    His full name was Billy Jee McKay, as I recall- basically it followed the travels and adventures of this freelance truck-driver and his pet chip Bear. I recall the opening theme's lyrics: "Rolling down to Dallas, My wheels provide my palace. I'm off to New Orleans or who knows where? Places new and ladies too, I'm BJ McKay and this is my best friend Bear!" (Then a cut to the cab interior, when BJ would say 'One day Bear, I'm going to teach you how to sing. How would you like THAT?!') There was one unforgettable episode when BJ is waylaid by a beautiful young witch (the only episode ever to contain a supernatural element). She makes his truck break down so that he has to spend the night with her, brushing aside his scoffs about her craft by 'I don't believe in coincidences, Mr.McKay'. She attracts the hatred and fury of a local Christian fundamentalist preacher, who ultimately gets up a mob against her and burns her to death inside her own house (he is subsequently arrested). The episode ends with BJ soulfully gazing at the Pentagram necklace she gave him and declaring that he'll never forget her, then looking up to the clouds scudding across a full moon....Powerful stuff, not least because it avoided the happy ending so often adopted by shows like this. It was also a welcome departure from the programme's usual format of punch-ups with rival truckers in roadside diner car-parks.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I can remember it being hugley popular at the time. The story each week seemed to revolve around BJ helping out damsels or good causes with the aid of Bear (the chimp) and his truck. Then i think there was a strike at ITV and i don't think it ever came back.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfYiJpz76e4
  • Anonymous user
    on
    My most favourite programme of my childhood, I even wrote to "Jim,ll fix it" to get to ride in that big kenworth, but got no reply. I can remember one episode of of the truck getting stolen & repainted in black to diguise it.

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