Riptide (American TV series)

Did You Know?

• The series previously appeared on MeTV+, a sister network of MeTV.
• The DVD sets feature a bonus episode of 21 Jump Street (Season 1).
• The Season 2 German sets contain an episode not broadcast in Germany, "The Twisted Cross", in English with German subtitles.

Premise

Cody Allen and Nick Ryder, former Vietnam War Army buddies, open the Pier 56 Detective Agency (later the Riptide Detective Agency) in Los Angeles. They recruit Murray "Boz" Bozinsky, a brilliant but nerdy scientist and computer hacker they met in the Army. The team operates from Cody's boat, the Riptide, moored at Pier 56 at King Harbor Marina in Redondo Beach. Their tools include Murray's nonspeaking robot, The Roboz; Nick's aging Sikorsky S-58T helicopter, The Screaming Mimi, used for aerial harbor tours; Cody's speedboat, the Ebb Tide; Nick's red Chevrolet Corvette; and Cody's orange "Woodie" station wagon, later replaced by a four-wheel drive custom GMC Jimmy. Lt. Quinlan, a local police officer, harasses the trio, while Lt. Parisi, the agency's police contact in final episodes, is more cooperative. Early episodes feature Mama Jo, skipper of the tourist boat Barefoot Contessa, and later Max, a comedian. Second-season episodes include Dooley, a dock boy who assists the team. The penultimate episode parodies Moonlighting, with Cody and Nick consulting on a television detective show pilot. Episodes often involve local mobsters, but also cover corruption in the U.S. Army, high-level cover-ups, and black operations by corporate America. The third-season episode "Home for Christmas" features James Whitmore and has a strongly emotional tone.

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a three-disc DVD set of Riptide: The Complete First Season on February 14, 2006. Visual Entertainment released all three seasons, though several episodes have music replaced and sequences edited due to copyright issues. On October 14, 2008, VEI released Riptide: The Complete Series, a 13-disc box set of all 58 episodes, initially scheduled for September 9, 2008 but delayed. As of 2013, these releases are discontinued and out of print. In Germany, the series was known as Trio mit vier Fäusten, and Universum Films released all three seasons in 2009. The German box sets retain the original U.S. music, unlike Canadian box sets 2 and 3.