M&C Interview: Michael Cole of The Mod Squad: Pete Cochran unleashed

By April MacIntyre Jan 8, 2008, 16:48 GMT

Meet Pete, Linc and Julie: The Mod Squad. This trio consisted of rich, long-haired Pete Cochran, Lincoln "Linc" Hayes from the tough streets of inner city Los Angeles, and beautiful flower child Julie Barnes, a runaway from San Francisco. They’re recruited by police captain Adam Greer (Tiger Andrews) for a covert unit that will help bridge the generation gap. Each week these three cops with love beads wrestled with criminals ...more

It's a bizarre experience to have one of the first crushes from my youth call me on the phone, but that's what happened recently. Even before I knew what the "hots" were, I had them for Pete Cochran, played by Michael Cole of the Mod Squad. 

Timely in its release, the DVD box set of the The Mod Squad, which originally aired from 1968 to 1973 is out - and given Barack Obama's igniting of today's youth who are fed up with another poorly planned war - it seems fitting. 

Even though I hadn't hit puberty or was able to enjoy the drug culture and that whole free-love deal yet, the show was an educational primer on modern American campus troubles, drug dealing, sex and of course, Vietnam.

The Mod Squad featured three young, hip, crime fighters. One White, One Black, One Blonde - was the promotional tagline. For the time, the contrasting casting was intentional to appeal to a counter-culture audience. The basic premise was that the youthful investigators were offered work fighting crime as an alternative to being thrown in the pokey themselves.

The show was debuted during the tumultuous year of 1968, when the real nightly news played one horrifically shocking event after another.  Aaron Spelling' art imitates life parallel show ran five seasons and 123 episodes.

Tige Andrews (Captain Greer), Michael Cole (Pete Cochran), Peggy Lipton (Julie Barnes), and Clarence Williams III (Linc Hayes) starred. Police Officer Bud Ruskin wrote a script for the idea based on his own experiences for ABC television studios.

"We were a generation that watched ourselves come into our own, there were no computers, and the biggest similarity to today really was the war," said Michael, explaining the phenomenon of the show and its timeliness in certain ways to today.

"We were fighting control our world, what scares me about today is that kids aren't plugged into but are drowned out by huge corporations, or someone else's world, not theirs."

Cole told me the secret of the show's success.

"The most important thing to the success of the show was how much we all loved each other."

Cole continued. "Aaron used to say, 'the show was about caring people,' it had to be real, and not once in five years of shooting did we have an argument, any of us. We needed each other."

Cole elaborated. "I do think the love between us was very real. We wouldn't have a show like that without it, even the crew of the show was tight, there was enormous caring at all levels."

The racial nuances of the show were newsworthy in the Sixties.

"The racial tone of the show was an issue.  Aaron fought to get it on, that was hard.  Some people wouldn't accept it, he had to fight like Hell," revealed Cole.  "Even the sponsors worried about the racial overtones."

Cole's best remembrances were for the dynamo television producer from Dallas, Aaron Spelling.

"The first time I met Aaron Spelling, my 'James Dean' years, no one knew me - just an unknown actor, but he told me about the show. After he pitched me, I was like 'this is the dumbest thing I have heard of, but if you want me to be the bad guy, fine.' Real cocky.  I thought Aaron was going to throw me out of his office and off the set. Then Aaron says, 'Michael, that is exactly what I want Pete Cochran to be like,' and that interview got me the job with this incredible show."

"Aaron said a very profound thing to me, the difference between television and film audiences is that the television audience has to like well enough to invite back into their home."

The Mod Squad – Season 1, Volume 1 is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.