Sat 3 Mar 2012
A TV Review by Michael Shonk: HUNTER [Pilot and Series; 1977]
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[23] Comments
HUNTER. CBS / Lorimar Production. 1977. PILOT: (never aired) Cast: James Franciscus as James Hunter. Guest Cast: Linda Evans, Ned Beatty. Written by William Blinn. Directed and Produced by Tom Gries. Executive Produced by Lee Rich and Philip Capice. SERIES: Cast: James Franciscus as Jim Hunter, Linda Evans as Marty Shaw, Ralph Bellamy as General Howard Baker. Created by William Blinn. Produced by Christopher Morgan. Executive produced by Lee Rich or Lee Rich and Philip Capice.
The fifty-four minute pilot proposed series premise featured James Hunter as a man who had spent eight years in prison for a crime (fraud and bribery) he did not commit (a popular character trait in the 70s). He now wants to find the man who framed him, his former boss Mr. Ingersoll, and clear his name.
The weekly series abandoned that premise, James Hunter is a rare books bookstore owner and spy, and Marty Shaw (the doomed prostitute in the pilot, played by Linda Evans) is now a famous model and spy.
It is 1977 and the seeds of our distrust in the American government are growing. Spymaster General Baker is told to start a new covert agency of six agents. His first choice is retired “Agency†spy, now Santa Barbara (CA) bookstore owner, Jim Hunter. The unnamed agency’s purpose is to watch over any activity threatening the country be it from overseas or within our own government. Marty Shaw was another agent working for Baker.
Hunter resigned from the “Agency†in 1969 because he disapproved of our side’s methods. He works alone or is assigned someone or to a “Control†in trouble. All episodes but two has Baker assigning Marty to assist. Marty also had her own assignments away from Hunter.
Hunter and Marty’s relationship reminds one of Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin in Man from U.N.C.L.E.; both are talented capable spies on their own and together. But Hunter and Marty are also unmarried lovers who live in different parts of the country and openly shared a bed during assignments. The chemistry between Franciscus and Evans worked well. It is not a surprise that their chemistry was the only part of the pilot to survive.
Of the two covers, Marty’s modeling was the most useful. The bookstore never played a significant role in any episode. But each episode had Hunter sitting at a desk in front of a wall of bookshelves when Baker would call and give Hunter his new assignment.
The action took place in the United States, except for a flashback to Hunter’s days as head of operations in West Berlin (“The K Groupâ€). Exotic locales did not play a role. Gadgets were not used. Everyone seemed to drive huge Oldsmobiles rather than the latest sports cars. The series featured the usual TV action of chases, fights and gunplay. The music by Richard Shores (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) was nothing special but set the right spy genre mood.
Hunter was no lost gem, but a better than average TV spy series that deserves to be remembered. Some of the twists were worthy of the best of TV spy shows such as using a third mystery group interrupting business between the Americans and the Russians.
Too often the series abandoned all logic such as when Hunter would learn someone is about to kill someone, and without bothering to phone a warning, Hunter would race off so he could arrive at the last moment to save the day.
CBS picked up Hunter in 1976 to replace any early failures in the upcoming 1976-1977 fall schedule (Broadcasting 8/23/76). It would premiere February 18, 1977, Friday at 10pm (Eastern) opposite NBC’s Quincy and ABC’s Friday’s Movie.
HUNTER Episode Guide:
PILOT. Hunter’s search for the man who framed him leads him to a 25th reunion of Ingersoll’s former military unit. While in the hotel underground parking lot Hunter escapes a deadly attack by a tank. Later he escapes an exploding room service cart, and falls for prostitute Marty Shaw. We see the recluse Ingersoll from the back only as he gave orders to his evil minions. In the end, a killer goes to jail and Hunter is no closer to Ingersoll.
“Bluebird Is Back.” Guest Cast: Edward Mulhare. An archenemy of Hunter’s, Bluebird is a killer who enjoys his work. He leaves a trail of victims that lead Hunter and Marty to a Russian plot to discredit the American atomic electric plant design.
“Mirror Image.” Guest Cast: Diana Muldaur. A Russian double of Hunter must fool Marty in a plan to assassinate General Baker and frame Hunter.
“Lysenko Syndrome.” Guest Cast: William Windom. Windom is a wonderfully over the top mad scientist. First they program an American agent to kill Hunter. Then they program Marty to, when learning Hunter is dead, kill her Uncle, an Admiral.
“The Hit.” Guest cast: Nehemiah Persoff. When a hitman dies during the car chase, Hunter switches wallets and takes his place. Now all Hunter has to do is find out who hired the hitman and who is the target.
“Costa Rican Connection.” Guest Cast: Donald O’Connor. After the murder of a witness for a Senate Committee looking into the connection between organized crime and the “GIA†(CIA), Hunter and Marty need to convince the last witness to testify.
“The K Group” (Part One). Guest Cast: Vic Morrow. Hunter and others want to know who killed the East German spy at an L.A. film festival.
“The K Group” (Part Two). Hunter, Marty and Baker must stop the rogue American agents from assassinating an American government official.
“Barking Dog.” Guest Cast: Robert Mandan. An American scientist demands ten million dollars in 48 hours or he will poison the southern California water supply. This episode even has a scene when the villain reveals all to a tied up Marty.
“Yesterday, Upon the Stair.” Guest Cast: David Wayne. Hunter is sent to help with a spy exchange involving his favorite spy teacher. Things go wrong during the exchange and both sides’ spies disappear, kidnapped by persons unknown.
“The Backup.” Guest Cast: Leif Erickson. An American agent disappears after his attempt to escort a Chinese defector to a safe house fails. Hunter is sent in to find the agent and get the defector back.
“The Hand Is Burning.” (Note: My DVD is missing opening titles. Title from TVTango.com). An American agent with information about African nation Chand is killed in Los Angeles. Hunter and Marty save the Republic of Chand, uncover political corruption, and find the killer.
“The Lovejoy Files.” Guest Cast: Sorrel Booke. A file meant for the President’s eyes-only is missing. A group agrees to ransom it, but when Hunter and a man from government archives arrive to pick it up, a third group steals it from them.
“UFM 13.”. Guest Cast: Cameron Mitchell. Hunter goes undercover to stop an American radical conservative group from using stolen plutonium to make an atomic bomb.
Currently there is no official DVD available for Hunter. Warner Brothers took over Lorimar so they probably have the rights to the series. The show’s introduction can be seen on YouTube here, in French.
March 3rd, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I don’t remember this series at all, and not because it was on opposite QUINCY, as I almost never watched that one either. It was probably because it was shown on Friday nights, that plus the fact that it lasted for so short a time.
Obviously I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t paying attention.
HUNTER was a popular name for a TV series. I thought at first this was the one with Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer that was on for seven seasons, starting in 1984. (I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one who thought so before they started to read Michael’s review!)
I did not know they revived the series very briefly in 2003, and I thought I was paying attention.
According to IMDB, there was an Australian series that was on from 1967 to 1969, and a two episode mini-series entitled HUNTER on British TV in 2009.
There was also a made-for-TV movie called HUNTER that was shown on CBS in 1973.
March 3rd, 2012 at 2:01 pm
There was also a TV spy series called THE HUNTER with Barry Nelson (1952) or Keith Larson (1954) as Bart Adams.
You can watch an episode of the Australian spy series called HUNTER at YouTube. The quality of picture is poor. Part One is at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sNPq52FRoc
March 3rd, 2012 at 2:18 pm
HOHOO, Steve !
No time for ‘Hunter’ on Friday nights, because that’ when you were paintin’ the town red !
The Doc
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Doc
QUINCY M. E. must have done all right on Friday nights, but not many shows do. And maybe even it didn’t last long on Fridays. I remember it as a Wednesday night series, but I might be wrong about that. They didn’t ask me, then or now, but I think networks do way too much shifting of shows around, especially new ones, so nobody knows when anything is on anymore. But that’s another rant altogether.
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:04 pm
And he was missing THE ROCKFORD FILES too. If only he had known.
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Michael
ROCKFORD was on Friday night back then? I don’t remember that, but I’m sure I watched it. Rather than painting the town red, maybe I went to bed at ten.
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Well , well ,going to bed at ten leaves lots of possible interpretations !
The Doc
March 3rd, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Add me to the list of people who don’t remember this series. Steve, I also thought that the review was going to be about the Fred Dryer series.
March 5th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
This was a hard series to find information about. Even the episode guides disagree about dates and TVTango.com was the only one with all thirteen titles.
TVTango.com has an interesting service. You can put in any date, such as your birthday, and it will show you what was on TV that night. It is rarely a complete listing, but I found it helpful tracking this series air dates.
CBS must have had high hopes for this series since it debuted during the February sweeps (a big deal in 1977). But by the middle of March it appears CBS preempted it with CBS FRIDAY MOVIE at least once. Then I don’t know whether HUNTER aired or not regularly or off and on until its apparently last airing May 27, 1977. It is unlikely all episodes aired (mostly eight of the thirteen aired).
I saw it with Norwegian subtitles.
The videotape of the pilot may have existed but good luck finding it.
March 6th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Michael, according to TV Guide, this show premiered at 10 pm on Friday, February 18, then aired again in the same time slot on February 25, March 4, and March 11. On Friday, March 18, CBS flipped Hunter with Sonny & Cher, so that Hunter aired at 9 and S&C at 10. On March 25 it was preempted by the last 30 minutes of a 1967 movie, The Way West, plus a 30-minute pilot titled Bravo Two, which was about a harbor patrol and sounds like it could wind up the subject of one of your posts one day. On April 1 it was preempted again, by “Winner Take All,” a crime-drama pilot with Michael Murphy and the ubiquitous Clive Revill. Clearly there is some lack of interest on CBS’s part by now, as you point out above. Still, the show returned on April 8, back in its 10 pm slot, with the first of a two-part episode guest-starring Vic Morrow. What is interesting is that the April 15 listing makes no mention of part two, and on top of that, for the first time it begins its description of the episode with the word “Scheduled” … for reasons unclear to me. So what happened to part two? Unfortunately our April 22 issue is MIA, but Hunter is nowhere to be found on April 29, May 6, May 13, or May 20 either, and then finally returns on May 27. Once again, this last synopsis is preceded by the word “Scheduled” but there is no mention that that is the final show of the series. I know that IMDB also seems to lose track of Hunter from this point on.
March 6th, 2012 at 3:00 pm
David, thanks for the help of your TV GUIDE.
Because my copies (does the Paley Center need any copies?) are missing much of the credits I left off the writers and directors credits. The Executive Story Consultant was David Shaw, one of the group of writers known for the quality programs of television’s early days. George Bellak was story editor.
This is my guess for episodes dates:
2/18: “Bluebird Is Back” written: Seth Freeman. directed: Gerald Mayer
2/25: “Mirror Image” w: Wallace Ware (David Karp). d: Bruce Bilson
3/4: “Lysenko Syndrome”
3/11: “The Hit” w: Parke Perine. d: Harry Harris
3/18: “Costa Rican Connection”
4/8: “The K Group Part One” w: John Smith. d: Gary Nelson
4/15: “The K Group Part Two”
4/22: “The Barking Dog” w: Bruce Henstell and Bryan Gindoff. d: Lawrence Dobkin
5/27: “Yesterday, Upon the Stair”
“Lovejoy File” (not aired) w: George Bellak. d: Harvey S. Laidman (I considered this episode the best spy story)
March 6th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
David Shaw was indeed an important Golden Age writer, and also a story editor on The Defenders. His five-part interview with ATAS is available online. Another interesting tidbit from your credits above: Lawrence Dobkin, who directed The Barking Dog, was the narrator on Naked City (the TV version). The Paley Center has zero episodes of Hunter, Michael. I’m curious to know what format you have.
March 7th, 2012 at 2:12 am
George Bellak was another interesting figure, sort of a busy “B team” writer from the generation of live TV dramatists. David Shaw must’ve known him from their days in NYC. Bellak figures into something I’m working on now in an interesting way.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’d never heard of HUNTER either, until Michael sent this my way.
March 7th, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Stephen, after all the information you have given me about TV’s past, I am pleased to introduce you to a part of TV’s past.
Anyone interested in TV should visit Stephen’s website, Classic TV History at:
http://classictvhistory.wordpress.com
Be sure to look for the recent MCCLOUD blog where Stephen found someone selling the lost sixty minute episodes of MCCLOUD aired under FOUR-IN-ONE series before it moved to NBC MYSTERY MOVIE group.
March 7th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Thanks, Michael. I hadn’t known about Stephen’s blog until now, but now it looks essential. That’s really remarkable information about those McCLOUD shows. I remember the series vividly — and in fact how could anyone who’d watched it regularly back then not remember it vividly? The image of Dennis Weaver riding his horse through the streets of Manhattan will, I suspect, stay with me forever.
In another recent post the career of early TV screenwriter Jerome Ross (1911-2012) is discussed and includes an interview with him. Here’s where synchronicity really hits home, in a woo-woo sort of way. Last night my wife and I watched an early episode from the first season of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. When Stephen asked Mr. Ross the following question:
“Do you have any favorite shows from the Hollywood half of your career?”
His answer was:
“I remember this Mission: Impossible, “Operation: Rogosh,†which was very good. The difficulty of letting complications box you in a corner, and then having to figure it out.”
That’s the one! And he’s right. It’s one that helped give the show its reputation, I’m sure. (In order to get vital information from him, the IMF tries to convince a terrorist that he’s had amnesia for the past three years.)
August 20th, 2012 at 11:52 am
I recall fragments of this series and I loved the ending music score.
Wish I could put my hands on the series either tape or dvd…
August 20th, 2012 at 9:34 pm
Pierre, I have seen it offered in the collector to collector market. Both sellers were offering the collection I referred to in comment #9. Neither has a website I could send you to. You might occasionally check ioffer.com, it is one of the sites collectors use to find such forgotten stuff.
August 28th, 2012 at 2:00 am
Thank you for the information Michael. I’ll also search international stations as my last sighting of a hunter episode was on an local tuscany station dubbed in italian. I suppose the series at tv stations would be in some form of tape..maybe.
August 28th, 2012 at 9:08 am
#18. It was most likely videotape, a special professional size videotape not VHS. It is possible it was on film but very unlikely.
That brings up the question. As digital replaces film and videotape (most American theaters use digital rather than film for movie prints), what will happen to these old forgotten abandoned shows no one wants to bother to convert to digital?
November 8th, 2016 at 12:22 pm
Where can I find this series? I remember watching this with my dad when I was little and would love to get a copy to show him again!
November 12th, 2017 at 8:28 am
Such a great show.
In ’78, I used to record the audio-track of episodes of shows I liked (The Champions, The Persuaders, The WW West… this Hunter series…). I had also recorded the audio of Star Wars in the theatre. It was before VHS.
I saw it on French Television, though I don’t remember specific details apart from the music.
I truly enjoy the back ground music of this series. It is great. I found it fascinating with the violins playing a dark mood theme. Listen to it at 1’20” on youtube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-a7zgTiW1Q]
Thank you for the infos.
Philippe
April 1st, 2019 at 10:22 pm
I’ve now (finally) gotten copies of some if not all of the episodes that are avaiable, including the pilot.
I’ve watched only the pilot so far. Here are my thoughts:
It’s not very good. I don’t think the plot was thought through thoroughly enough. Why, after framing Hunter (for bribery and/or fraud) and getting him sent off to prison, does Ingersoll think it necessary to kill him once released?
And in such clumsy ways (or attempts), beginning with an hired killer driving a full-fledged Army tank into a parking garage, trundling over parked cars and shooting its cannon hither and yon, but mostly at Hunter (and missing).
It makes sense that they jettisoned the first attempt. AS a series, it wasn’t going anywhere fast. But I spotted the same chemistry between James Franciscus and Linda Evans as the people behind the scenes did. A stroke of luck there, I’d say, but now I’ll have to watch more the actual series to see what I think about what they came up with instead.
April 27th, 2019 at 12:45 am
The sad thing about having to hunt around for episodes is that they were all available for streaming from AOL’s movie/TV streaming service in the early 2000s. When that service died, the series disappeared (and I had only watched the first couple).