Take 5: When 'The Mod Squad' was really mod

Clarence Williams III guests on Tuesday's episode of "Memphis Beat" (TNT at 10 p.m.), playing a hostage taker. Williams, 70, is best known for playing Linc Hayes, one-third of "The Mod Squad," the series, about three bad kids (the others were played by Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton) who are given a second chance by becoming undercover cops. The show was one of network TV's first attempts at being "relevant," or relating to younger, hipper viewers. Here are five things about the show, which aired from 1968 to '73 on ABC:

The series was created from the true experiences of Bud Ruskin, a former member of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, who was part of an undercover narcotics squad made up of young officers during the 1960s.

Ruskin first wrote a pilot for the show in 1960, but it took eight years to make it on the air.

Bill Cosby recommended Williams to Aaron Spelling, the show's co-executive producer. Even though he had never met the young actor, Cosby was impressed by his performance two years earlier in a Broadway show, "Slow Dance on the Killing Ground."

The term "The Mod Squad" was first used in a "Dragnet" episode that aired on May 4, 1967, to describe a gang of teenage shoplifters.

The show's promotional line in ads and commercials was "One White, One Black, One Blonde."