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''B.J. and the Bear'' was a comedic ActionSeries created by Glen A. Larson and Christopher Crowe that aired from 1979 to 1981 on Creator/{{NBC}}, about a professional itinerant truck driver with his pet chimpanzee, Bear.

Greg Evigan starred in the role of Billie Joe (B.J.) [=McCay=], and drive a red and white 1977 Kenworth K-100 cab-over-semitrailer truck. Although no home base was ever specifically specified, he was presumably based in Orly County, Georgia, as – at least during the first season – there were many {{crossover}} episodes with a sister series, ''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo'', starring Creator/ClaudeAkins as a corrupt sheriff who wanted to put B.J. out of business.

Bear (as it was explained in many episodes) was named for Paul "Bear" Bryant, head football coach at the University of Alabama from 1958–82. Bear's houndstooth cap was inspired by Bryant's choice of headwear.

A mid-season replacement on NBC during the 1978–79 season, ''B.J. and the Bear'' was a modest success during one of the network's darkest eras, and was renewed for the 1979–80 season. Plots during this era generally involved B.J. meeting a beautiful young lady, who was in some way affected by (or involved with) criminal activity, and B.J. eventually gathering enough evidence to defeat the bad guys. Other episodes involved Lobo's latest scheme to run B.J. out of business, but failing.

After a hiatus, the series returned in January 1981. Here, B.J. decides to settle down and take over a friend's trucking company in California, renaming it Bear Enterprises. While Bear still figured heavily into the plots, seven beautiful young women – whom B.J. had hired to help run his company – take the spotlight. The reason is because of one Rutherford T. Grant, the corrupt head of the Special Crimes Action Team and a silent partner in a competing trucking firm. Plots revolved around Grant's latest schemes and B.J.'s efforts to defeat him.

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!!This show provides examples of:
* BizarroEpisode: "BJ and the Witch".
* DirtyCop: B.J.'s main antagonists were corrupt police officers – Sheriff Lobo during the first year or so, and Captain Grant during the 1981 episodes.
* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Greg Evigan sang the title song.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In one Season 3 episode where Captain Grant is involved with a drug dealer, he insists – but does not get assurance – that no children are to be involved.
* GirlOfTheWeek: Most episodes during the first two seasons, all of them hot, hot, sizzling '''''HOT'''''!!!!!!!!!!!!! All had a deep, dark secret, but they all played off Greg Evigan's good looks.
* NameAndName
* PetsHomageName: B.J.'s pet chimpanzee Bear is named after Bear Bryant, the famed football coach for the University of Alabama.
* PoliceAreUseless: In fact, two law officers – Sheriff Elroy T. Lobo (who got his own show) and Captain Rutherford T. Grant (in Season 3 episodes) – were his adversaries. Other officers were portrayed as uncaring or outright suspicious of B.J. and typically refused to assist him.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot / SharedUniverse: With Sheriff Lobo and his own series, ''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo''. Additionally, two ''B.J. and the Bear'' episodes were pilots for a proposed series about a pair of foxy private detectives called ''Eyes Of Texas''; the second such episode, "The Girls Of Hollywood High," took the lasses to the L.A. County Coroner's Office, home of ''Series/QuincyME'' (another Glen A. Larson show). His boss Asten and assistant Sam appeared, but the main man didn't (understandably).
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