The Checklist: Renegade (S3 Ep8) “Muscle Beach”
Renegade, starring Lorenzo Lamas as bounty hunter Reno Raines / Vince Black, premiered on September 19, 1992 and aired on first run syndication for five seasons.
What better way to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Renegade than by putting a randomly selected episode for the series to The Checklist test. With the help of Alexa, I landed on Episode 8 from the third season titled, “Muscle Beach”…
#1. Was the cold open hot?
The episode opens up with a drug deal gone bad as two low level drug dealers are double crossed by drug kingpin Eddie Bruno (Gary Wood) and one of the poor saps is thrown off Bruno’s yacht by Rip Towers, Bruno’s paid muscle, right into the Pacific Ocean. A strong introduction to our villains of the week and it is time to cue the Don LaFontaine narration… 1/1
#2. Did Reno have to go undercover using his Vince Black alias?
There is a huge bounty being offered for drug kingpin Eddie Bruno and Bobby Sixkiller (Branscombe Richmond, The Taking of Beverly Hills) wants to collect.
Bobby meets with Reno and Cheyenne (Kathleen Kinmont, Final Impact) and tells them about Eddie Bruno’s expansion into the world of anabolic steroids. It is believed that Bruno plans on using the Power Bloc Gym to find customers for his new product, which make sense since the owner/operator of the Power Bloc is Bruno’s right hand man Terry Houston.
As luck would have it the Power Bloc Gym is holding a fitness competition, allowing Reno (as Vince) and Cheyenne the perfect opportunity to pose as contest hopefuls, much to Reno’s chagrin… Later in the episode Bobby also goes undercover, posing as Reno’s steroid dealer looking to make a deal with Eddie Bruno. 2/2
#3. Were there any notable guest stars?
For the purposes of this post the Power Bloc Gym could just as easily be named the Notable Guest Star Gym…
I mentioned owner/operator Terry Houston. Houston was played by Eric Allan Kramer or Thor from The Incredible Hulk Returns.
Rip Towers (Ripper for those in the know) is a regular at the gym when he is not tossing guys off of Mr. Bruno’s yacht. Ripper was played by Andrew Bryniarski of Street Fighter and Black Mask 2: City of Masks fame.
Aurora Taylor works at the Power Bloc. Aurora was played by Corinna Everson (Cory Everson for those in the know) of Double Impact and Ballistic fame.
Aurora’s sister, Nikki Taylor is preparing for the fitness competition and finds herself constantly being encouraged to juice by Terry who is hoping to hook her and make her a regular customer like his buddy Ripper. Vince hits it off with Nikki and uses his new friendship to get more info on the inner workings of the Power Bloc Gym. Nikki was played by Cameo Kneuer, who I remember from her involvement in Vince McMahon’s ill-fated World Bodybuilding Federation. Cameo co-hosted WBF Bodystars with McMahon on the USA Network in 1992. 3/3
#4. Was there a montage?
What better way to prepare for a fitness competition than with a training montage?!? The answer is, there isn’t. We get to see Aurora put Vince through the paces as she closely supervises his workout.
As a bonus, we get to see Cheyenne practicing her dance routine for the fitness competition and I am 99% sure it was inspired by the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic, Kickboxer. 4/4
#5. Was there a light hearted ending?
Early on in the episode, Bobby did not hide the fact that he had an issue with female bodybuilders… well, Bobby had to eat those words when he meets the Taylor sisters as the episode wraps up and before he knows it he is being whisked away to the Power Bloc by Nikki and Aurora who promise to help him get into shape… no matter how long it takes. 5/5
- Final Score = 5/5 (100%) There’s a reason that shows like the Renegade have a good run on television, and that’s because they deliver what the fans want. “Muscle Beach” hit so many of the Renegade high notes it more than deserves its perfect score.
