Jason Carr (Stewart Granger) is the owner of the L.A. Post. The paper has been instrumental in ferreting out corruption. In his spare time Carr is an undercover superhero. Together with his partner, Ryan Delaney (Marcus Gilbert) they form a dynamic duo that calls itself “Captain Chameleon and the Paraclete of Justice”. Their biggest threat is a secret Star Chamber organization made up of corrupt judicial and police agency members. While off on a clandestine mission, Carr is captured and murdered. The police make it look like he died of a heart attack while sleeping with a hooker.
Carr has two granddaughters. Jessica Carr (Mary Bergman), is a levelheaded and honest young woman who works with the DA’s office. His other granddaughter is Shelly (Crystal Bernard). Shelly is equally as scatterbrained as her grandfather and has recently spent some time in a mental institution. At the funeral they are approached by their uncle, Alex Manning (George Murdock). Uncle Alex tells them that he has a mysterious journal that their grandfather wanted to give them for safe keeping.
When Uncle Alex disappears, Shelly has a locksmith open the office safe. Shelly reads the journal. It explains her grandfather’s exploits as a costumed crime fighter. Shelly thinks her grandfather was even crazier than her until she finds his underground lair and meets the other half of the crime fighting duo, Ryan. She also learns that the family butler, Henry (John Standing) was aware of Carr’s alter ego. When Ryan tells her that her grandfather was murdered and when she learns that Uncle Alex is also dead, Shelly begins to believe that there is something nefarious going on.
Shelly and Ryan eventually convince Jessica that there is corruption in the local government. Together the three of them, along with Henry, launch an investigation to find out who murdered their grandfather and uncle and to what extent the crime and corruption infests the government.
“Chameleons” was released in 1989 and was directed by Glen A. Larson. It is a superhero screwball comedy and an unsold television pilot.
This rather offbeat pilot was directed and written by Glen Larson. Larson was responsible for some cool stuff and some not so cool stuff. “Chameleons” is not one of his best, but it is still ridiculous in a fun and exciting way. There is a bunch of camp and some downright silliness involved but for some reason it is watchable.
You can see some hints of Larson’s other ventures in it. You have a star chamber where they use “Battlestar Galactica” Cylon voices, a fancy car, called a “car-meleon”, like “Knightrider” and an invisible cape like in “NightMan”.