Joe Penny: Remembering “Riptide”

Joe Penny played private investigator Nick Ryder in "Riptide" from 1984 to 1986.

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There was a point in my life where one of my favourite shows centred on two private investigators who share a house boat, a beaten up old helicopter and the friendship of a nerd, decades before “The Big Bang Theory” made that cool.

When I was in junior high, I used to look forward to watching “Riptide” every week, and sharing the adventures of Nick, Cody and Murray.

Nick was played by Joe Penny, who was actually in a few shows I really liked back in the ‘80s.

It’s his birthday today, and a good chance to look back on his career.

Familiar face
As it turns out, I had seen Joe Penny before “Riptide”. Back in 1981, I stumbled on this show on Channel 7 on the peasant vision dial called “The Gangster Chronicles”. It was about three gangsters Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, played by Michael Nouri; Michael Lasker, played by Brian Benben; and Benny Siegel, played Joe Penny. It was strange because these three gangsters were the good guys. This show also spurred my curiosity in gangsters. Only later did I discover the criminal activity Luciano, Siegel and Meyer Lansky, who Michael Lasker was based on, were really involved in.

It was still a cool show, that made me want to learn more about gangsters.

Initially, I thought it was cancelled after one season and 13 episodes. That belief was reinforced by the fact I recall reading in “TV Guide” a list of cancelled television shows for a particular season, and “The Gangster Chronicles” was among them. However, upon further reading it seems “The Gangster Chronicles” was actually a 13-part miniseries.

In any event, Joe Penny was excellent as Benny Siegel.

The early years
In those early years, Penny appeared in feature films such as “Our Winning Season”, “Bloody Birthday”, and “S.O.B.”, opposite Julie Andrews, Richard Mulligan, Robert Vaughn and others.

He was in a number of TV movies, and had guest spots on shows such as “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries”; “CHiPs”; “Mother, Juggs and Speed”; “Lou Grant”; “Paris”; “Flamingo Road”; “Vega$”; “Tucker’s Witch”; “Archie Bunker’s Place”; “Lottery!”; “Matt Houston“; and “T.J. Hooker”.

In 1983, he got his big break on network TV.

Riptide
It was Grade 9, early January of 1984, when some guys at school were talking about this movie they had seen on TV. Unlike many shows that would appear on cable and not air on peasant vision until weeks later, “Riptide” was on later in the week, on Channel 13, so I got a chance to see it.

“Riptide” started as a two-hour movie that became a mid-season replacement in the 1983-1984 season.

It was the kind of show I absolutely loved, especially that first season. Joe Penny plays Nick Ryder and Perry King plays Cody Allen, two Vietnam veterans who team up as private investigators, and live on a boat called “The Riptide”. They take on a third partner, Murray Bozinski, who is a computer programmer, expert on technology and supreme nerd. Nick and Cody served with him in Vietnam and, initially, they help him out. He then joins them as a third partner, offering all kinds of help cracking cases using technology, including this weird robot he created. They also ran afoul of the police on a regular basis and Lieutenant Quinlan in particular, played by Jack Ging.

The first season was just 14 episodes long, but I watched it regularly. There were some neat things about the show. Cody had a speed boat called the “Ebb Tide”. In the pilot, it gets stolen and Murray actually has to use a high-powered rifle to disable it. I remember Cody watching and wincing as Murray kept shooting. That scene also sticks out to me because, although Murray came off as a nerd, he was also a trained soldier.

Nick had this old helicopter called “The Screaming Mimi” that took some time to fire up, but proved useful.

Another funny bit from that first season was a joke. Murray asks Nick, “What do you call 1.7? A piece of pie.” Nick didn’t get it. A waitress comes up, and Nick tells her the joke, not expecting her to get it either, but she laughs too. It was kind of a reversal of roles because Nick and Cody were always trying to make Murray more “cool” and less nerdy.

Our Grade 9 science teacher, Mr. Matson, actually saw the episode on cable before it came on peasant vision and told us the joke in class. A few days later I saw it for myself.

The show also had these on-going inside jokes. One was that Murray always punched with his thumb inside his fist, and always broke it. Another was that Nick and Cody kept score of the number of broken noses each one had. Murray soon joins in with one of his own.

The show was written by Stephen J. Cannell, who is another one of my heroes like John Hughes. What inspiried me about Cannell’s projects was the number of shows he created, and the characters all battled crime in some manner. In addition to “Riptide”, there was “Greatest American Hero”; “The A-Team”; “Hunter”; “Hardcastle and McCormick”; “Stingray”; “21 Jump Street”; and a few other minor ones. Many also had connections to the Vietnam War which is another interest of mine.

Sadly, over time Channel 13 sporadically aired “Riptide” and, by its third season, I was going out more and just lost touch with the show. I do have all three seasons on DVD though.

“Riptide” lasted three seasons, airing from 1984 to 1986 for a total of 58 episodes. It initially benefitted from being on the same night as “The A-Team”, which was very popular initially. But, when it began to sag, so did “Riptide”.

However, Joe Penny would not be out of work very long.

Jake and the Fatman
Penny had guest spots in “Matlock” and “The Twilight Zone” as well as three TV movies including “Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star”, before he landed another starring role in a TV series.

This time he starred with William Conrad in “Jake and the Fatman”. Conrad played J.L. “Fatman” McCabe, a district attorney, while Penny played Jake Styles, a special investigator.

“Jake and the Fatman” ran for five seasons from 1987 to 1992 for a total of 106 episodes.

For whatever reason, I never saw an episode of this show and, like “Riptide”, it's in my wheelhouse.

The years after
Joe Penny kept working until 2016. He appeared in TV shows such as “Touched by an Angel”; “Diagnosis: Murder”; “Twice in a Lifetime”; “Walker, Texas Ranger”; “Chicken Soup for the Soul”; “The Sopranos”; “Boomtown”; “7th Heaven”; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”; “Days Of Our Lives”; “CSI: Miami”; and “Cold Case”. He also appeared in some feature films and a lot of TV movies, including the “Jane Doe” films with Lea Thompson.

Parting thoughts
Whenever I think of Joe Penny, I will always think of “Riptide”. That first season was just really good television, and something I aspired to writing. I still do. It had all the elements I find interesting – humour; the connection to the Vietnam War; team building; and detective work.

And Joe Penny was a big part of that.