The Renegades (TV series)


The Renegades is an American action crime drama series about a street gang that becomes a special police undercover unit in order to avoid jail time. The show starred Patrick Swayze as "Bandit", the leader of the gang.

Cast

The two-hour television movie backdoor pilot for this series aired on August 11, 1982.

Broadcast history

After the success of the movie The Warriors, Hollywood looked to take the youth gang concept and market it to TV. In 1981, Swayze did a TV show, Return of the Rebels, about an aging motorcycle gang who get together to help a friend who owns a popular campground that is being threatened by a band of arrogant groupies. However, the show didn't catch on and was quickly canceled.
Brother team Lawrence and Charles Gordon tried to market Swayze's rebel look, combine the gang concept with a police angle and came up with The Renegades. Roger Spottiswoode directed the TV movie pilot that first broadcast on August 11, 1982 and a six-episode series was later broadcast in 1983. It had weak ratings and ABC cancelled the show.

Ratings