Hardcastle and McCormick is an excellent TV show. Yes, it is predictable much like The Dukes of Hazzard, Hunter, The A-Team, etc etc etc.This show is just good clean television. The relationship between Hardcastle and McCormick is quite amusing. They often take jabs at each other several times an episode, which adds a great deal of humor to the show. It contains several car chases in almost every episode, but, who doesn't enjoy a good car chase? Especially with the Coyote! I only wish they made clean television like this today I highly recommend this!

The 'Coyote' was a kit-car for the pilot and first two seasons. It was in actuality a 'Manta Montage', a fairly popular kit car available at the time. There were a couple of minor body modifications to disguise it, but it is plain to see what it really is.It was powered by the new-at-the-time Chevy 2.8L V-6, which was a fairly sophisticated engine for it's time. This is the same engine that came in the Chevy Citation X-11.Brian Kieth, being as overweight as he was, clearly found it next to impossible to climb in and out of the Coyote easily and the scenes were filmed in such a way that this was not emphasized.The last season of the show, a 'DeLorean' DMC-12, the infamous stainless-steel, gull-winged sports car from John DeLorean was heavily modified to resemble the original coyote as close as possible. The heavy gull-wing doors were removed completely, and lots of fiberglass bodywork was created to disguise the fact that this was a completely different, much larger car. Mr. Kieth could more easily get in and out of it, so that was one big reason they switched.Side by Side, the differences between the original 'Coyote' and the DeLorean-based model were clearly obvious, and when the show used existing footage of the original Coyote interspersed with newer footage of the DeLorean-based model, the continuity of the episode was shot all to hell!The poster above mentioned that he thought the car was really a Porsche 917 race car. Not quite, but on the right track: The original car used for the Coyote, a 'Manta Montage' was a replica of sorts of the Porsche 917, although nowhere even close to the Porsche in terms of performance.

This show pretty much was an update on classic legends like the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid with a little bit of Dirty Harry thrown in. This also came out at a time when shows like "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Knight Rider", which featured good looking young men with fast cars were all the rage. Brian Keith pretty much buried his old character of "Uncle Bill" with his wild characterization of Milton Hardcastle. He made this show fun to watch and it was one of those shows from the mind of Stephen J. Cannell that had lots of action but really didn't take itself too seriously. Also, Daniel Hugh Kelly provided enough beefcake to keep the ladies interested. This was definitely one of the wildest shows of the 1980's.

Hardcastle And McCormick starred Brian Keith and Daniel Hugh-Kelly and featured the red Manta Montage/Coyote X car. The show involved a retired and athletic judge named Milton C. Hardcastle and convicted felon Mark McCormick driving around in a red Manta Montage/Coyote X car solving 200 cases that walked out of the retired judge's courtroom. Episodes include ROLLING THUNDER MAN IN A GLASS HOUSE THE CRYSTAL DUCK FLYING DOWN TO RIO THE PRINCE OF FAT CITY HOTSHOES LOVE THE PICTURE, HATE THE FRAME THE HOMECOMING THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED HARDCASTLE, HARDCASTLE, HARDCASTLE AND McCORMICK THE LONG AGO GIRL SURPRISE ON SEAGUL BEACH THE YANKEE CLIPPER SOMETHING'S GOING ON ON THIS TRAIN, IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER McCORMICK'S BAR AND GRILL CONVENTIONAL WARFARE THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED and A CHIP OFF THE O'L MILT.JOE SANTOS, SARAH WICKS AND JOHN HANCOCK WERE SPECIAL GUEST STARS AND MICHAEL ANSARA, CHARLES ROCKET AND STEVE LAWRENCE HAD RECURRING ROLES.