B. J. and the Bear

The series was created by Glen A. Larson and Christopher Crowe and aired on NBC from 1979 to 1981, produced during the height of the CB radio and trucking craze in the United States.

B.J.'s pet chimpanzee, Bear, was named after Bear Bryant, the famed football coach for the University of Alabama.

The theme song, also titled 'B.J. and the Bear', was written by Glen A. Larson and performed by star Greg Evigan himself.

Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo, played by Claude Akins (who had previously starred in the trucking series Movin' On), was such a popular recurring guest character in the first season that he was spun off into his own show, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.

Two season two episodes, 'Eyes of Texas' (1979) and 'The Girls on the Hollywood High' (1980), served as back-door pilots for a proposed spin-off series about private detectives Heather Fern and Caroline Capodi, with the role of Caroline being recast between the two episodes (Lorrie Mahaffey, then Heather Thomas).

'The Girls on the Hollywood High' featured cameo appearances by John S. Ragin and Robert Ito reprising their characters from Quincy, M.E., another series created by Glen A. Larson.

When the show returned for its third season in 1981 with 'B.J. and the Seven Lady Truckers', the format shifted to B.J. running a Los Angeles trucking company staffed by seven female truckers, in a storyline built around his rivalry with corrupt official Rutherford T. Grant.

Despite the show's cult following, Universal has never officially released B. J. and the Bear on home video, and only bootleg DVD editions exist.