January 2, 1975: “The Sweeney” Premieres

January 2, 1975: The Sweeney premieres on British network ITV. The name comes from "Cockney rhyming slang." The Metropolitan Police unit, which deals with armed robbery and other violent crimes in London, is called the Flying Squad, and this got rhymed into "Sweeney Todd," or "The Sweeney" for short.

It starred John Thaw as Detective Inspector Jack Regan, and Dennis Waterman as his partner, Detective Sergeant George Carter. A Manchester native like his portrayer, Regan had been in London for several years, and was frequently frustrated by his department's red tape. He is unwilling to cheat for either personal or professional gain, but will bend the rules to gain a desired result. He is divorced with a daughter.

Carter is a South London native. He is married, but his wife is murdered in Season 2. In spite of this, he never loses his idealism, and is usually the "good cop" to Regan's "bad cop."

The show ran for nearly 4 years. Its popularity led to 2 feature films: Sweeney! in 1977, and Sweeney 2, both starring Thaw and Waterman. In 2012, there was a film reboot, starring Ray Winstone as Regan and Ben Drew as Carter.

The show ran for nearly 4 years. Thaw later became known in America for starring as the title character in the ITV and PBS series Inspector Morse. He died in 2002. As of January 2, 2022, Waterman is still alive. (UPDATE: He died on May 8, 2022.)

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January 2, 1975 was a Thursday. Baseball pitcher Jeff Suppan and actor Dax Shepard were born.

Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its regular season and its Playoffs. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Phoenix Suns, 117-113 in overtime at Madison Square Garden. Walt Frazier scored 32 points.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the New Orleans Jazz, 99-95 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Bob Lanier had 36 points.

* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 116-111 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena). Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 52 points.

There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The Spirits of St. Louis beat the Virginia Squires, 112-88 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the San Diego Conquistadors, 122-104 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* And the Memphis Sounds beat the Utah Stars, 95-88 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ron Boone scored 33 points in defeat for the Stars. Stew Johnson led the Sounds with 25.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Atlanta Flames played to a tie, 1-1 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Los Angeles Kings at The Forum outside Los Angeles in

Inglewood, California.

* The St. Louis Blues beat their cross-State never-quite-rivals, the Kansas City Scouts, 2-1 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* And the New York Rangers, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Black Hawks, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Oakland Seals were not scheduled.

And there were 3 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Cleveland Crusaders, 4-1 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Houston Aeros beat the Michigan Stags, 6-3 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) Just 16 days later, the Stags folded, and were moved to become the Baltimore Blades. They folded at the end of the season.

* And the Vancouver Blazers beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.