B. J. and the Bear

This was a comedy series that I loved to watch and I even collected the toy line as well.

Greg Evigan starred as B.J. (Billie Joe) McKay, a professional freelance itinerant trucker who traveled the country's highways in a red and white Kenworth K-100 cab over semi truck with his pet chimpanzee, Bear (named after Bear Bryant, the famed football coach for Alabama, explaining the chimp's choice of headwear). He was constantly harassed by Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo (Claude Akins, who eventually spun off onto his own show, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo). Ben Cooper appeared in an episode of B.J. and the Bear and continued his "Waverly" character in The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.