ORIGINAL SERIES - SEASON SEVEN

Season Seven:

 

 

 

 

Season Seven aired in 1979 and was the last season of Shields Of Justice ever to be aired.

Featuring a bigger budget than previous seasons, season seven had many a car chase and expensive set piece, all meticulously underpinned with brilliant plotting and stellar performances.

An over-riding plot arc in this season featured the mad bomber 'Mozart' MacDuff - a bitter clansman who wished to destroy Crash and Burn for something they had said about his home town in season four.

A famously moving moment in this season was the destruction of the PCPD building - one of the most stunning sequences in the entire series.

Unable to accept defeat, Chief Rappappaport refuses to leave his beloved headquarters, returning to the blazing ruins.

Thankful Crash and Burn return to save him, in what is possibly the second most stunning sequence in the series.

This season also featured the returning character of Doyle O'Flannegan, who reappeared as a ghost - bent on fighting crime from beyond the grave.

An interesting note for this season was that the actor playing Chief Rappappaport had been under great pressure from Tilsbury CEO Eli Caesar and as a result had developed agoraphobia.

A large portion of his footage had to be shot in his Malibu beach house, which was meticulously redressed to resemble his office location.

These scenes were filmed in a two-walled set with no ceiling and the reflected light of the ocean had to be removed in post, at great expense. None of the recorded sound could be used either due to the constant sound of gulls and ocean waves. It was replaced later at Tilsbury studios, again, at great expense.

At present some damaged betamax recordings remain of early TV promos and footage has been rumored to exist of the highly acclaimed episode 'Nuns Of Exploding Fury'.

 

Episode List For Season 7:

 

It Makes Them Sick!
Jilted Bride!
Poisoned Bagel!
Exploding Nuns Of Fury!
Bomb Scare!
Badly Motivated Juror
Showdown on Highway 48!
Debt
Polish Pickpocket!
They Came from the Clouds
Mechanical Machine!

Notable lines:

"You boys are just the best! I’m glad the ghostly spectre of my old friend and war comrade came to me in the night to put you on this case.

I’ve no idea what makes you so good, no clue as to how you, Burn, rescued three jubilee nuns, a high ranking bishop, and four hundred and seventy-three orphans all out for a good time.

And Crash, no-one in all of creation will ever know how you held up a collapsing, thirty-nine storey cathedral weighing over a million tonnes, just long enough for  partner to save the day.

You boys are special, two of a kind. It’s my honour to know you."

- Chief Rappappaport.

Tagline:

 

'Bombs are falling...Justice is calling!'