Hunter: Season 01  (1984)

Theatrical Release Information:
Hunter: Season 01

The long-running NBC cop drama Hunter got under way in September of 1984 with the two-hour pilot, in which tough-as-nails LAPD homicide detective Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) is teamed with the beautiful but equally hard-nosed Detective Sgt. Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) to trap a mad killer. Also in the pilot is Michael Cavanaugh as Hunter's superior, Captain Lester Cain, who dislikes our hero's strongarm tactics and intends to take his badge from him on the slightest provocation. When the series proper began, Arthur Rosenberg replaced Cavanaugh as Captain Cain--but not for long, inasmuch as Cain himself is soon succeeded by Captain Dolan (John Amos), who also has little patience with Hunter and McCall as they bust perps--and heads--in the mean streets of downtown LA. As for Hunter, he had in his own cross to bear in the form of Sgt. Bernie Terwilliger (James Whitmore Jr.), an eager but incompetent senior detective with whom he was forced to work from time to time. During the first season it was established that Hunter is the son of a mobster, and that he still retains embarrassing ties with certain unsavory relatives with broken noses and cities for nicknames. Though Hunter himself is a "clean" cop, his not-so-clean associates tend to give Captains Cain and Dolan additional ammunition in their campaigns to boot Hunter off the force. This season, Hunter and McCall are swept up in the intrigues surrounding the murder of the Police Commissioner's wife, and later they stop a gang war, protect a drunken murder witness, wage personal combat against drug dealers who traffic to elementary school kids, thwart a murderous "avenging angel" who murderously takes the law in his own hands, and tangle with an obstreperous TV news anchor while trailing an arsonist. On his own, Hunter is faced with arresting a suspected hitman who is also the husband of a former girlfriend, while Dee Dee gets the first of several clues relating to the person who murdered her husband. Dee Dee is also the focus of the season's only two-parter, "The Snow Queen", as she goes undercover to smash an international cocaine ring. Scheduled opposite CBS' blockbuster Dallas, Hunter played to distressingly low ratings during its first season, and only the reputation of series producer Stephen J. Cannell rescue the series from an early cancellation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide