"One black, one white, one blonde." That was one way to describe the three members of The Mod Squad, executive producer Aaron Spelling's enormously successful late-1960s "hippie-oriented" cop drama. With a broadcast run on ABC from September 1968 to 1973, the series was part of an attempt by all of the networks to lure baby boomers back to prime-time during a period when it appeared that this lucrative demographic had abandoned the medium for cinema, rock music, and social protest. The show's premise provided an ingenious means to bridge the generation gap: take three rebellious, disaffected young social outcasts and persuade them to work as unarmed undercover detectives for the Los Angeles Police Department. The intent was that younger viewers would identify with the lead characters, while the older generation would find comfort in the law-and-order nature of the series.

The cast of The Mod...