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Tom Walsh's Salvage 1 episode guide

 

Episode Guide
Even though I first saw these episodes 20 years ago, some scenes stayed with me all that time. One instant that still stands out is from the episode, "Shangri-la Lil". The Salvage team comes across a Japanese soldier in a remote jungle who does not know that World War II ended over 30 years earlier. He captures Harry and his friends as prisoners of war. Harry finally convinces the old soldier that the war is over. When the Japanese soldier asks who won, Harry, not wanting to upset him, says Japan did. As proof, he pulls off his Japanese-made wristwatch and says, "Look, made in Japan." The old man then believes him and straightens with pride.

First Season - Winter & Spring, 1979

1. Salvage (2 hour premiere movie)
Airdate: Jan 20, 1979

Junkyard owner Harry Broderick assembles a team to pull off the ultimate salvage operation. With former astronaut Skip Carmichael and fuel expert Melanie Slozar, Harry builds the spacecraft Vulture in order to bring back the equipment left on the moon during the Apollo moon expeditions.
Guest Cast
Lorene... Jacqueline Scott
Fred....... Raleigh Bond

2. Dark Island
Airdate: Jan 29, 1979

On their first authorized salvage job...an aerial survey of Antarctic icebergs...Harry, Melanie and Skip make an unauthorized stop on a supposedly uninhabited island to pick up valuable spider monkeys for a zoo. What they find instead is a lone scientist and a giant man-ape.
Guest Cast
John Goodwin... Henry Jones
Creature............ Ray Young

3. Shagri-la Lil
Airdate: Feb 5, 1979
Harry takes his teammates on a sentimental journey to the Burmese jungle to recover the well-preserved B-25 bomber he flew in Doolittle's 1942 raid on Tokyo. They find that the plane is being guarded by an old Japanese soldier who doesn't know the war has ended. He takes the Salvage team as war prisoners.
Guest Cast
Toshiro............... Mako
General Morse... Dane Clark
Fong.................... Byron Chung

4. Shelter Five
Airdate: Feb 19, 1979

While salvaging an abandoned government fallout shelter, an earthquake traps Melanie, Skip, a little girl and her dog. Harry puts together a rescue operation as he races against time to save them.
Guest Cast
Maj. Phil Burke... Sam Groom
Susan Burke........ Michelle Stacy

5. The Haunting of Manderly Mansion
Airdate: Feb 26, 1979

After Harry purchases a famous haunted mansion with plans to salvage it, strange things begin to happen. The Salvage team discovers it is actually inhabited by a strange alien waiting to be transported home.
Guest Cast
Sam Bishop... Bert Freed
Kramer........... Howard Mann
Auctioneer... Henry Sutton
Burglar........... Keith McConnell
Burglar........... Bob Hoy

6. The Bugatti Treasure
Airdate: Mar 5, 1979

At an auction, Harry outbids an antiquarian for a classic 1934 automobile he has always dreamed of owning. Harry and his crew discover a treasure map hidden in the car. The antiquarian, who is known to traffic in precious objects, doesn't give up quite so easily as the Salvage crew goes treasure hunting.
Guest Cast
Caspar Beckman... Severn Darden
Wilbur.................... Ron Soble
Max Jacoby........... David Opatoshu

7. Golden Orbit (part 1)
Airdate: Mar 12, 1979

A plan to retrieve a gold-plated satellite before it falls from orbit hits two snags: the Government impounds the Vulture, and NASA offers Skip a long-awaited mission aboard a space station. A dangerous liquid nitrogen leak traps Skip and his fellow NASA crewmembers aboard the ship.
Guest Cast
Buck Fulton.......... Edward Winter
Vanessa Ashley... Ellen Bry
Dr. Singleton......... Barry Nelson
Jim Webster.......... Gary Stephan Swanson

8. Golden Orbit (part 2)
Airdate: Mar 19, 1979

Conclusion. Harry convinces NASA that he is the only one who can rescue the crew-including Skip-that is freezing to death in an orbiting space station. Harry and Melanie launch in the Vulture to save them.
Guest Cast
(See part 1)

9. Operation Breakout
Airdate: Apr 2, 1979

An African dictator kidnaps FBI agent Jack Klinger to exchange for a U.S. missile. The U.S. won't respond, but Harry does. The Salvage 1 team comes to the rescue while pretending to offer the dictator the Vulture as a weapons platform.
Guest Cast
Yaffert Boratu... Moses Gunn
Sanders.............. John Crawford
Pierre.................. Hari Rhodes

10. Mermadon
Airdate: Apr 16, 1979

Skip and Melanie patch up an almost-human robot with damaged memory circuits, not knowing it came from a secret army project and is programmed to kill.
Guest Cast
General Macklin... Ed Nelson
Dr. Maven............ Philip Abbott

11. Up, Up and Away
Airdate: May 14, 1979

The air-freight delivery of a miniature locomotive involves the Salvage trio with the devious pilot of an undependable aircraft, a terrified fourth passenger and additional cargo of enormous interest to the FBI. The plane crashes in an isolated area and the Salvage team assembles a make-shift balloon in order to reach civilization.
Guest Cast
Milo...... Christopher Connelly
Basset... George Furth
Spiro...... Adam Roarke

12. Energy Solution
Airdate: May 21, 1979

Melanie develops a possible-and dangerous-solution to the energy crisis: using monohydrazine to blast new oil out of old dried-out wells. The experiment results in a catastophic underground explosion and fire that must be extinguished.
Guest Cast
Dawson..... Peter Donat
Sanborne... Ben Piazza
Brinks........ Richard Eastham
Krandall..... Stanley Brock

13. Confederate Gold
Airdate: May 28, 1979

The salvagers hunt for legendary buried treasure at a Confederate paymaster's last stand. But they soon find that everyone wants them out of town and the real "Confederate Gold" is supplied by moonshiners.
Guest Cast
Sherrif Moss... R.G. Armstrong
Melba............... Fran Ryan
Shorty.............. Dub Taylor
Buster.............. Med Flory
Billie................. Dirk Blocker


Second Season - Fall, 1979

14. Hard Water (part 1)
Airdate: Nov 4, 1979

The salvage team that went to the moon resurrects an old project: towing an Antarctic iceberg to a drought-stricken island off the California coast. Their plan involves using the Vulture's engines to direct the iceberg's course. The competition is a well-funded and unscrupulous corporation.
Guest Cast
Kress..... Philip Charles MacKenzie
Bishop... Bert Freed

15. Hard Water (part 2)
Airdate: Nov 11, 1979

Harry and crew run into extreme difficulties in bringing an iceberg to California to be used as a source of water. The engine they use to steer the mountain of ice breaks loose and the iceberg drifts into the shipping lanes.
Guest Cast
Captain Barlow... Frank Campanella
Faye Delmont...... Rosemary Prinz

16. Diamond Volcano
UNAIRED

Harry treats the gang to a trip to Hawaii where they find he has other motives. He has arranged for a mining operation into the side of an extinct volcano to retrieve diamonds formed by extreme geologic forces long ago. However, the volcano proves to be more active than they thought.

17. Dry Spell
UNAIRED

When a severe drought threatens a farm belonging to Harry's aunt and uncle in Arkansas, the Salvage team attempts to harvest rain from the clouds using a very unique method: heating the air above the clouds with flame devices mounted on an old biplane.
18. Harry's Doll
UNAIRED

Skip convinces Harry to buy a race horse called "Harry's Doll", based on computer predictions that it will be a winner. When the horse breaks its leg in its first race, a NASA doctor is brought in to meld the bone using laser technology. Against all odds, the horse races again with young Michelle as the jockey, but will it win?
19. Round Up
UNAIRED

The Salvage team learns that a herd of wild horses are going to be shot as part of a government program to control their numbers. To save them (and make a profit), they round them up to sell them to a local police department as mounted patrols.