capped off 30 years of development, as the series’ producers struggled to find a way forward after 1994’s disastrous Axel Foley investigating the murder of his buddy Billy Rosewood ; at some points the project could have been directed by Brett Ratner and Adil & Bilall. We also almost got a project that would have ensured that franchise by playing Axel Foley in the pilot episode.) is that his presence in the pilot became a double-edged sword.
Axel shows up about a third of the way through the 45-minute episode, Detroit Lions jacket and all, to check on Aaron. Murphy’s role is larger than you might expect given his unwillingness to return for future episodes; if I was a test audience member who watched this, I would have assumed Murphy was the co-lead of the show. Jackson and Murphy had a pretty good rapport, and with his swagger and quick wit, Aaron is a plausible son of the great Axel Foley.
He’s not an especially charismatic or dynamic TV lead, though, and he does play like a substitute for the real Axel Foley. Which he was; they couldn’t convince Eddie Murphy to make this show so they hired a handsome young actor to play his son, wear his jacket, and behave like his character. It’s a bit of a bait-and-switch. The pilot suggests a two-hander with father and son solving crimes together. Had the pilot gotten picked up, the actual series would have been a lot less exciting. Plus, t
he other supporting characters, including Christine Lahti’s uptight Beverly Hills PD boss, come off as fuzzy carbon copies of the old cast like Ronny Cox, John Ashton, and Reinhold ., most obviously in the fact that Axel returns to Beverly Hills to help his daughter solve a case of her own — although she’s a defense attorney, rather than a police officer. There’s no mention of Aaron or Axel’s son; he’s presumably been erased from existence.