Hunter

Inspired by the popular Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry movies, the weekly, hour-long NBC cop drama Hunter starred former NFL star Fred Dryer as the Eastwoodesque title character, LAPD detective sergeant Rick Hunter. Originally operating out of the Homicide department, Hunter spent the series' first season patrolling the mean streets of Los Angeles' less savory districts, partnered with the equally no-nonsense lady cop Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer), aka "the Brass Cupcake." Using a Magnum revolver that he called Simon--as in "Simon says 'Freeze'!"--Hunter gave no mercy or quarter to the various thugs, pimps, pushers and lowlifes with whom he came in contact. And like Dirty Harry, our hero was given to pithy catchphrases, notably the oft-repeated "Works for me." Introduced with a two-hour TV movie on September 18, 1984, Hunter languished near the bottom of the ratings during its first season due to the stiff competition of CBS's Dallas. Things improved significantly when Roy Huggins took over as executive producer at the beginning of Season Two, primarily due to a softening of the previously grim and intractible characters of Hunter and Dee Dee, and the decision to move them to a more upscale section of LA to provide them with a wider variety of antagonists. Also, Hunter's unsavory past as the son of a mobster--and his checkered present with a slew of crooked relatives and former acquaintances--faded into the background and eventually disappeared altogether. During the first two seasons, Hunter went through several superior officers, each one of whom despised him and sought out any excuse to divest him of his badge. Finally in Season Three, the producers settled on Charles Hallahan as Charles Devane, who remained with the series for the remainder of its run. Though not much more fond of Hunter than his predecessors, Devane was at least willing to cut his most contentious cop a little slack due to the results he'd gotten with his strongarm methods. At the end of Season Six, Dee Dee McCall left the department to get married. The following season, both Hunter and Devane were moved out of Homicide and into the department's elite Metro Division, focusing on cases that warranted extra-special attention. Hunter's new partner was Officer Joanne Molinski (Darlanne Fluegel) who unfortunately was killed halfway through the season. In the series' final months on NBC, Hunter developed a romantic relationship with Sgt. Chris Novak (Lauren Lane), a former girlfriend and presently the single mom of a cute little girl named Allison (Courtney Barella). Ending its network run on August 30, 1991, Hunter was briefly revived four years later in the form of a TV movie, The Return of Hunter: Everyone Walks in L.A.