The Checklist: High Tide (S1 Ep4) “Party Time”

Despite a three season run, High Tide is probably not amongst the most known action adventure series of the 1990s. High Tide was not on my radar (and possibly not syndicated in my market) during its initial run (September 24, 1994 – May 25, 1997) but thanks to the power of streaming it landed on my radar a while back and now I think it is high time that I put High Tide to The Checklist test, so I randomly selected an episode from the first season and landed on Episode 4…

#1. Is the cold open hot?

The show starts off in the French Riviera where we see a “working girl” meet her demise… offing somebody in the opening moments has to be considered a hot start and it perfectly sets up the “case of the week” for our former LAPD officer turned private investigator Mick Barrett (Rick Springfield) and his younger brother Joey (Yannick Bisson, Velocity Trap), who fancies himself an amateur sleuth.

But if a murder wasn’t hot enough for you, we also get a little brotherly competition between Mick and Joey back in San Diego as they race on the beach before learning that former C.I.A. agent Gordon (George Segal, Army of One) has some work for them in the French Riviera. You see, the working girl that was killed was employed by an old friend of Gordon’s from his C.I.A. days and he has promised her assistance in the form of the brothers Barrett. 1/1

#2. Does the show have a quality open and theme song?

With a name like High Tide, I was expecting an opening with high energy music and feel PLUS beach related footage… I got exactly what I was expecting and more. The opening shot is a huge tidal wave, followed by the High Tide logo and from there it is explosions, big stunts, bikini clad babes, bullets flying, speed boats, running, rollerblading and surfing. 2/2

#3. Does the premise have legs?

By 1994, the private investigator theme was a tried and true television formula… if Thomas Magnum and Jim Rockford could do it why not Mick Barrett? Rick Springfield, will always be primarily known for his music career, but he did come into this series with some acting experience, he even was the star of a short lived action adventure series, Human Target, two years prior to High Tide. And since I mentioned Jim Rockford here’s a fun fact… Rick Springfield was a guest star on an episode of The Rockford Files back in the day.

High Tide does have the added element of Joey Barrett, who often adds to the troubles that Mick faces as much as he helps. For example, in “Party Time” Joey falls in love with one of the girls at the cat house and when she ends up as the latest victim of the serial killer, Joey ends up as a person of interest and behind bars, even though Joey was not even in the country when the previous murders occurred. 3/3

#4. Were there any notable guest stars?

Some could argue that George Segal was a notable guest star since his time on the series ended up being short lived, but officially he was a featured performer on the show so he doesn’t count and unfortunately there was nobody else that would qualify as a notable guest stars in “Party Time” …the randomizer let me down this time. But, a quick scan of IMDb and I do see some familiar faces that would qualify, so maybe the next go around for High Tide on The Checklist will be a different story. 3/4

#5. Was there any romance teased for Mick?

Rick Springfield has been making the ladies swoon dating back to his time on General Hospital as Dr. Noah Drake… so it is only natural that with Springfield cast as the lead in High Tide that they’d want to get him in romantic situations so his adoring fans watching at home could live vicariously through the lady starring opposite Springfield.

There was a bit of romance teased between Mick and Gordon’s assistant Fritz (Cay Helmich) especially when Mick is complimentary towards not only Fritz’s skills but her looks when he requests that she assist with the case and pose as one of the girls to bait the killer. So there were definitely some seeds being planted for a potential Mick/Fritz relationship down the road but much like the Gordon character it doesn’t appear that Fritz was long for the series. It also appears that there were two different actresses that portrayed Fritz… the aforementioned Cay Helmich and Diana Frank. This seems like a prime example of a series still figuring things out in their first season. 4/5

• Final Score = 4/5 (80%) After finally watching an episode of High Tide the chances of me watching more are very high. Who doesn’t love a good whodunnit? And “Party Time” provided that…. really the only downer was the lack of notable guest star, but you can’t win ’em all.