What became of the original Mod Squad?

By Ewan McDonald

They were cool. They wore paisley pants and tie-dyed shirts and said things like, "Groovy, man." But most of all, in the grey-suited, buttoned-down, short-back-and-sides world of American cop shows in the 60s and 70s, they were young.

The 123 episodes of The Mod Squad, which ran from 1968-73, told of the far-fetched adventures of three kids who had gone wrong but came right when they were put on a kind of pioneering police diversion scheme. There had to be three of them: a white boy to be the brains of the outfit, a black youth for the street-smarts, and a white girl ... well, just to be a white girl, actually.

Now there'd be a Hispanic kid, too. Oh, and there was kindly Captain Adam Greer, who was always grumpy to the kids but would go out on a limb and defend them to the bosses every week.

If you remember The Mod Squad when it was a television show and not the movie that's coming out next week, try playing the trivia game that's been going around our office this week: name the three actors in the gang.

Most will guess Clarence Williams III, he of the mighty Afro, and Peggy Lipton, the blond, but anyone who comes up with the white guy should seriously consider getting themselves a life. We had to go to the photo files and the Internet to find Michael Cole's name.

And what's happened to them since they grew up?

Williams has been the most successful - making more than 30 movies, four this year alone. Few have been memorable, apart from his turn as Prince's dad in Purple Rain, though La leggenda del pianista sull'oceana, an Italian production in which he played the legendary jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, piques the interest.

Williams has been romantically involved with Tyne Daly, of the Cagney and Lacey cop series.

Lipton took time out after The Mod Squad to marry Quincy Jones, the mastermind behind Michael Jackson, and had two daughters during their 15-year marriage, which ended in 1989. She's made a number of TV-movies since, her best-known appearance coming in Twin Peaks (which also employed Williams).

Cole, the one who no one can remember, has become ... well, the one who no one ever sees. He's had the odd role, often as a cop, on series like General Hospital, CHiPs and Murder, She Wrote.

* The new Mod Squad movie starring Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi and Omar Epps is released in cinemas nationwide from August 12.