I do so love a staycation. I often say that preferrable even to winning a million on the lottery, I’d love to just win the time back. My current wage is fine – give me that every week but don’t make me go to work as there are so many more things I’d rather do, as you can probably relate. Packing up and going away for a hotel stay, to the cottage or with family somewhere certainly has its charm but sometimes the prep, the logistics and the execution can seem a little like work. Big reward, yes, but – heck – sometimes you just want to spend time at your home without worrying about work in the morning.
One thing I like doing on a staycation is catching the vintage shows that local station CHCH-TV will play throughout the day. Partly because it seems so excessively luxurious; I’m normally supposed to be at work but instead I’m on the couch in the basement in the middle of the day watching Rockford on the sunny Seventies streets of Los Angeles? Cool! During one staycation, this channel was showing me The Mod Squad. This cop show with a twist ran for 124 episodes for five seasons between 1968 and 1973. What made it quite different for it’s time was it’s premise; three aimless young people get in jams with the law and, instead of Tehachapi, they get sworn in as undercover cops. Three boxes are checked by this team. Michael Cole played long-haired Pete Cochran who was kicked out by his wealthy family and got caught stealing a car. Flower child Julie Barnes, portrayed by Peggy Lipton, lammed it from her prostitute mother’s home and was busted for “vag”. Stoic Clarence Williams III plays Lincoln “Linc” Hayes, an African-American from a family of 13 who was arrested during the Watts riots.
While the show inevitably descends into cliché now and then with its depictions of hippie culture, it should be commended for its presentations. It attempted to show three young people across a broad spectrum – the show’s tagline was “One White, One Black, One Blond” – who were on the side of good hoping obviously to teach the viewers that not all kids were bad seeds. The “Mod Squad”, who never carried guns or arrested kids, were lead by Capt. Adam Greer, played by Tige Andrews. His Syrian and Lebanese parents followed Syrian custom by naming him Tiger after a strong animal. Still not sure how he pronounced “Tige”.
The episode that captivated me one lazy, summer afternoon taking a break from the heat in the cool of the basement was called “A Quiet Weekend in the Country”. It was the ninth episode of the first season and aired Tuesday night, December 3, 1968. This particular episode saw the team head undercover to a campground to investigate the death of an undercover cop who had died before he could give Capt. Greer the details of a drug smuggling operation. Pete and Julie pose as a newlywed couple and Linc gets a job there as a handyman. The owner, Gus Williams (James Gregory) is a crusty old fella who is married to a much younger and very beautiful wife, Doris, played by Ahna Capri. Linc ingratiates himself with Doris who had befriended the dead undercover cop but, trouble is, Gus has a mean jealous streak; he watches Linc like a hawk making it hard for him to turn up clues and to commiserate with the “newlyweds”, Pete and Julie. What’s worse, Gus even blows a gasket and throws the dukes with Linc, who eventually puts the ornery old codger down. Eventually, though, the team puts the pieces together and is able to close the case. Linc does a lot of the heavy lifting in this episode and delivers one of his catchphrases – “solid” – 5 times, the most times of any episode in the series.
Just about every guest star here bears noting. James Gregory has one of the most recognizable faces in all of Hollywood history though he never really put his stamp on any one movie or TV show. By this point, he had already been in The Manchurian Candidate, the Matt Helm movies and scores of TV episodes. Later would come Beneath the Planet of the Apes and his recurring – and perhaps best known – role on Barney Miller. Ahna Capri I have known since I was a child; one of the first three films I ever saw was Enter the Dragon in which Ahna appeared. It was not until much later in life that I began to see her in other things, Darker Than Amber, for example, which I have profiled here at SoulRide. Check that review here for details on Ahna, her brother and her tragic death. Also, I noticed that Capri does really well here. I am used to seeing her playing it very sexy and alluring but her performance here is much more tender and understated. Good for her. Dub Taylor has been in every film and TV episode ever made. Not really, but over 260 credits! Bruce Glover is Crispin’s dad, a fact that escaped my knowledge for years and we all know Bruce as one half of a sinister henchman team in Diamonds are Forever. So nice for me to spot Irene Hervey’s name in the credits. I had never seen her in anything else but she, ladies and gentleman, is the mother of Jack Jones. I wrote about her and Jack’s dad, Allan Jones, in my piece on Jack. Not an actress of much renown herself, she has over 100 credits to her name including a regular role on TV’s Honey West. She made one more notable appearance after this Mod Squad and that was in Clint’s Play Misty for Me.
I do so love a cast loaded with notable faces but the real star of this episode and all of its charm comes from the location, what is today known as the Camp Williams Resort. Jim Williams founded Williams Camp in 1913. It sits now where it did then, at 24210 East Fork Road in Azusa, California – an hour-and-twelve-minute drive from Hollywood and Vine at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains. Jim Williams was known for his home brew during prohibition and this kept his camp full during the 20s and 30s but Jim was more a miner and cared little about being an innkeeper; his property has changed hands many times over the last 100 years. Seems winter weather always brings spring flooding to the area particularly in 1993 when severe flooding put the camp out of business for a time.
Camp Williams as seen here in 1968 is utterly enchanting. And before you scoff at what “trailer park” can mean nowadays, consider that I grew up in the one my parents owned and operated so I say this. Just like anything else, there are good versions and bad and trailer living can be a delightful escape. Here in 1968, we see cozy, little trailers offering that tiny living space that can be so nice. We see older folks playing a game of cards, preparations for a fishing jaunt, pretty young girls who play their radio late (I’m there) and walk to the pool in brightly-coloured bikinis. We see a way of life that reduces distractions and noise and sticks to essentials like nature, leisure and comfort. This episode is not only a great time capsule but it depicts the joys of this mode of life.
Camp Williams is thriving today and still offers the chance to live outside the cacophony of the city. Visitors can pitch a tent by the San Gabriel River East Fork and enjoy fishing, swimming, hiking and biking. They offer “clean, modern restrooms and showers, and the convenience of our great Café & General Store will make your visit a comfortable one”. Also available for rent is the Hobbit House which offers four cots, electricity and a large front porch. Warning; a weekend stay may cause you to fall in love with the place in which case you can make it your home. Camp Williams is also still a mobile home park – just as seen in this episode – and you should inquire about available lots and units for sale. Residents (only) can enjoy the in-ground pool, great weather the year round, a safe and secure environment, proximity to Los Angeles and other area attractions and laundry facilities. I dunno – what’s the problem? Slow coffee mornings, strolling the grounds, eating in that café… Let’s all go live there. I’ll organize weekly Mod Squad viewing parties. Head to their website today to book your stay. Or, heck, just to browse and imagine your stay.
The final episode of The Mod Squad aired March 1, 1973 and had the squad dealing with a heist masterminded by a guy who’s wife may have cervical cancer. And the next week, they were gone. As was often the case in the old days, when a show was over, that was it. Done with no wrap up; The Fugitive being the historic exception. The band got back together, though, in the spring of ’79 for a reunion TV movie.
During its run, the show was well-received and notable though only during its third season did it ever break into the Top 20 on the Nielsen Ratings. After the show ended, that was about it for Michael Cole who struggled with alcohol addiction and uttered the first “shit” on live Australian television. Clarence Williams III did little throughout the 70s but later was a frequent guest star on television and was used often by young black filmmakers, showing up notably in Purple Rain and American Gangster.
Pretty Peggy Lipton cared little for acting. Having earlier been linked with Paul McCartney, she married my main man, Quincy Jones, in 1974 and left the business to concentrate on her family. She was rediscovered in the Nineties when she scored a recurring role on TV’s Twin Peaks. Peggy had been a model and singer back in the day and even released an album in 1968 on Lou Adler’s Ode Records – find me that! Additional points for Peg – she co-wrote with her husband, Q, “L.A. is My Lady”, the title track of the last proper Frank Sinatra album. Atta girl.
I’m happy to offer below an edit of some scenes from the episode. I included views of Camp Williams to give you a sense of the place but also note a couple other things. While the characters were never an item, it is interesting to see Pete and Julie kissing and speaking of interesting kisses, note that Ahna Capri kisses Clarence Williams on the cheek at the end; that, dear readers, is an inter-racial kiss in 1968, when such things were rarely seen.
And the quick-eyed will note in the closing credits the Stunt Coordinator is Ronnie Rondell, Jr., a role he fulfilled in all but a half-dozen episodes of the series. In all, Ronnie amassed over 160 screen credits spanning from Richard Diamond, Private Detective in the late 1950s right up to The Matrix Reloaded from 2003 with stops at classic feature films Spartacus, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, Diamonds Are Forever, Electra Glide in Blue, Magnum Force and Hooper, modern era movies Commando, To Live and Die in L.A., Lethal Weapon, The Hunt for Red October and Waterworld and all over television with work on S.W.A.T., Vegas$, Charlie’s Angels, Dynasty and Hart to Hart. And, truth be told, Ronnie Rondell is as much a model for Cliff Booth as we have always heard that Hal Needham is. Ronnie had two sons that went into the family business; one sadly passed away in a helicopter crash while working on Airwolf and the other was the Stunt Coordinator on the Matrix film and brought Dad out of retirement to work on a complex car chase scene. When Ronnie Rondell passed away at 88 in 2025, he was celebrated and remembered also as the man who stood shaking hands while on fire on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album Wish You Were Here. So often you’ll read that a Hollywood player was born in Coyote Nowhere and died in Hollywood; but Ronnie was born in La La Land and passed in a retirement home in Osage Beach, Missouri.
The 1999 film version of The Mod Squad was a bomb – despite the appearance of my man, Dennis Farina, as Capt. Greer – who is killed, incidentally, in the film. It’s one of those instances when, at the end of the movie, the team is asked to stick together to fight crime, an obvious set-up for a franchise that never eventuated. Here’s a case then of the fancy modern film version paling in comparison to the cool original. Television’s Mod Squad is, indeed, cool, always showcasing some great practical locations and groovy Sixties homes. And it’s always fun to watch – whether you’re on a staycation or not. Solid.
Further Studies
East Fork Part IV – AngelesAdventures.com
SoulRide 