The Renegades

Having bad boys turn good for their own purposes is a heavily used trope in Hollywood, particularly in police serials.  The Renegades is an example of this, being a somewhat edgier version of Aaron Spelling's 1968 drama The Mod Squad.  Airing on ABC as a mid-season replacement in the spring of 1983, the show was described by producers Lawrence and Charles Gordon as a combination of a police squad with the youth gang concept from the successful 1979 movie The Warriors.

Patrick Swayze starred as "Bandit", the leader of a gang of street punks.  He and his posse are caught up in a sweep by police and given a choice: go to jail for their gang-related crimes or become special police informants.  Being smart young people and valuing their freedom, they choose to help the police with their knowledge of the streets and certain criminal elements.  They proceed to crack increasingly difficult cases, from ferreting out a car stripping operation to protecting a young witness to a murder.

Weak ratings contributed to the series' cancellation after only six episodes.  To date there has been no release to home video but clips from the pilot are watchable on YouTube.