"HIT PARADE" Wife Number Three? November 23, 1996

by
Gordon Hom

NASH BRIDGES since it's inception has always balanced the trials and tribulations of Nash's private life along with his police work. The series is part police story and part soap opera. No where is it more apparent than in "Hit Parade" where this balancing act of police story/soap opera reaches a fever pitch. Right from the start of the pre-credit teaser, Nash's meeting with an informant is interrupted by a phone call from ex-wife Lisa. The framework for the entire episode is laid out in informant Cecil Riskin's threat to kill Nash and Joe if he is killed. The "Hit Parade" of assassins is intertwined with, as per usual NASH BRIDGES, the humorous elements of Nash's private life.

The soap opera rolls out at near hysterical pace - ex-wife Lisa is expanding her business, daughter Cassidy is up for a Student Academy Award, father Nick makes a pass at his new nurse, and Joe's wife Inger announces she is pregnant. These kinds of developments come and go (such as Cassidy's award, which is resolved by the end of the episode) but the introduction of nurse Whitney Thomas has possible legs - not her legs but as potential for long-term romance for Nash. Whitney's not a Woman-of-the-Week with credits listing actress "Kate Vernon as Whitney Thomas." She has the characteristics of a Nash woman:

• Beautiful - blond hair, blue-eyes;
• Tough - when Whitney first meets Nash, she's got a gun pointed at him. (A woman who knows how to handle a gun - what more could a cop ask for?);
• Diplomatic - Whitney handles dirty old man Nick's pass smoothly without insulting Nick;
• Flexible - Whitney gets along with ex-wife Lisa. Whitney is brought into the Nash Harem when Nash must move Nick into Lisa's house temporarily. During their girl talk, Lisa fills in Whitney on his hectic police life which always intrudes into family life.

When Nash literally and symbolically disarms the female assassin Jamie in front of Whitney - you know that's love. It's only fitting that this occur in front of Whitney because Nash and Whitney first meet by pointing guns at each other. Whitney is accepting of Nash's hectic life which leaves him beaming at the close of the episode.

For more, see synopsis for Episode 18

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