HUNTER ONLINE
Webmaster's Picks



Here is a list of the webmaster's favorite episode from each season of HUNTER.

Pen Pals
November 16, 1984
Rick Hunter is falsely accused of police brutality and imprisoned. When he arrives at the prison, a great number of inmates are not very happy with the fact that he is now one of them and they let him know it. He befriends another inmate, Arch, who is killed with a book bomb meant for Hunter. Dee Dee fights for him and in the end, he is cleared of all charges and put back on the force.


Rape And Revenge
PART ONE: November 2, 1985
PART TWO: November 9, 1985

In my opinion, the single most powerful episode in the show's history! A member of the Curguyan Consolate rapes and murders a cleaning lady in the building where he is staying. When the police start questioning people at the scene, McCall questions the murderer, who acts as though he's done nothing. Thus, McCall never suspects him. When the man sees McCall, he starts flirting with her by repeatedly asking her out to dinner, but she refuses. The next day is McCall and Hunter's weekend off. McCall decides to spend most of her weekend staying at home reading. In the morning, she is reading on her sofa and the doorbell rings. At the door is a deliveryman with a dozen roses. She takes them into her kitchen and reads the card, which says "All my love, Raoul". It is from the man who had flirted with her the day before. She sits back down and starts reading again, only to be interupted by the same deliveryman again with another dozen roses. A third try to continue reading interupts her with a third dozen roses, this time delivered by Raoul himself. He starts to make advances and she fights him off and orders him to leave her house. He responds by savagely beating her, then throwing her down on her bed and raping her. After he leavs the house, she is still on her bedroom sobbing. She strugles to her phone and dials Hunter's number. All she can get out is a very shaky and teary "Hunter, help me!". Hunter races to her house to find her on her bedroom floor, trying to crawl up onto her bed. He took one look and knew what was wrong. He accompanies her to the hospital then briefly leavs to arrest the rapist. However, when the man claims diplomatic Immunity, Hunter's hands are tied and legally, he can do nothing. But because of his strong personal friendship with McCall, he takes matters into his own hands. He waits for the man outside his house and assaults him. "I'm gonna be on your case every day! You're gonna wish to God I killed you!", Hunter says, as he throws the man into his car. Because of his behavior, Hunter is suspended without pay. He goes home only to be greeted at his door by the rapist, who is carrying a gun. Hunter is shot in the shoulder, but recovers quickly. When the man returns to his country, Hunter flies to San Pablo Curaguay to see if there;s any way the rapist will get what he deserves. McCall surprises him there, trying to dissuede him from getting into any more trouble. Hunter finally meets up with him and in a shootout, Hunter shoots and kills him. The episode ends with Hunter and McCall boarding a private helicopter, going home.

This was an extremely well done episode that was instrumental in demonstrating the terrific acting ability of both Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer.


Shades
July 18, 1987
The season finale of the 1986-1987 season. Hunter travels to Fulsom Prison to visit a friend of his late Father. While there, he places a panic phone call to Dee Dee in the middle of the night. She immediately goes to where he is staying, but before she gets there, Hunter is abducted by a group of vigilantes. McCall enters the house where he was staying and finds it totally trashed and finds Hunter's keys on the coffee table. After a long search, they are unable to find Hunter and he is presumed dead. McCall reluctantly accepts the assistance of a new partner to help solve the case. After a long investigation, ending in a major shootout killing the entire vigilante group, McCall finds Hunter's body laying in the back of a panel van. She holds his head in her arms, saying "You're gonna be alright, Rick.". Hunter does recover and the episode ends on a comical note, with Hunter flirting with his beautiful nurse.


City Of Passion
PART ONE: November 7, 1987
PART TWO: November 14, 1987
PART THREE: November 21, 1987

A three-part episode with a few different storylines. First, a prominent judge is busted for soliciting to prostitution and spends the entire three-part episode insisting that the arresting officer, Sergent McCall, trapped him. Another storyline explores the personal life of officer Brad Navarro, whose wife has filed for divorce, claiming that he lost feelings for her since he started working with female officers, namely Sergent McCall and Sergent O'Hearn of the Hollenbeck Division. He eventually works through his problems with his wife and they wind up back together. The final, and most important storyline deals with a serial rapist of whom Dee Dee McCall was nearly his next victim. She arrests him for another rape and when he is parolled, out of revenge, he seeks out McCall and attacks her in her own home. She is able to fight him off before he rapes her. Fearing how people may judge her since she was raped 2 years earlier, she chooses not to tell anyone about what happened, including Hunter. While on sick leave, claiming she had the flu, McCall stays at home, waiting for her attacker to return, which he does. When he enters the house, she shoots him and just stares at him laying on her floor. Having a gut feeling that something's wrong with Dee Dee, Hunter keeps calling her home, only to repeatedly get no answer. Later that night, her doctor calls Hunter out of concern for Dee Dee and tells him what happened to her a couple of nights before. Hunter races out of the station and over to McCall's. He enters the house and finds her sitting on her sofa, still staring at the wounded attacker lying on the floor. When Dee Dee sees Hunter, he gently takes her hand and she puts her arms around him sobbing, saying "I couldn't tell you". The man is arrested and while at the station, his wife meets him there. She grabs an officer's pistol and shoots him 3 times, killing him. The episode ends with Dee Dee walking over to Hunter's desk, taking his hand and saying a simple, but teary "Thank you".


Last Run
May 13, 1989
A girl is kidnapped by a group of drug dealers. Hunter is investigating the case, however, a detective from another departmant noses into the case. Over the couse of the case, it is discovered that the other detective is the father of the girl who was kidnapped and he's taking matters into his own hands. He tracks down the head drug dealer and forces him, at gunpoint, to take him to his daughter. When he reaches the abandoned warehouse where she is, he finds her tied to a chair, dead. He walks out and prepares to shoot the dealer. As he does, Hunter drives up, preparing to arrest the dealer. Hunter pulls his gun and tries to pursuede the detective not to shoot the dealer. The man yells "What would you do if it was your daughter"? He then cocks his pistol and shoots and kills the dealer. Hunter turns around and slowly starts to walk back to his car. In an interesting turn, the detective then turns the gun on himself, taking his own life. In frustration, Hunter takes his service revolver and hurls it through the building's plate glass window.


Yesterday's Child
November 25, 1989
A moving episode that again demonstrates the terrific acting ability of Fred Dryer! A group of three teenagers steal a car from an exotic car dealer and in their panic, they shoot and kill the salesman who catches them. They take off and the third teenager, a Vietnamese boy, refuses to go because he is scared, now that the other two have killed someone. However, when they pull away, leaving him there, the car dealer's night watchman sees the boy standing there and assumes he's done something. The next morning, the boy's father comes to the station, begging Hunter to take his son's case. He explains that the boy's mother was someone Hunter knew during the Vietnam War. Hunter and the boy's father take a walk to discuss the situation and he the man explains that he is not the boy's natural father. His request is summarized with a final plea. "You must help him, Sergent Hunter. He is your son". This came as a MAJOR shock to Hunter and the rest of the episode deals with Hunter investigating the case and trying to pick the right time to tell the boy the real reason on why he took his case. When Hunter finally tells him, the boy takes off and Hunter tries to find him. The boy's father is then kidnapped and shot by a pair of jewlery smugglers. He recovers in the hospital and when his son gets word of what happened, he arrives at the hospital and when he sees Hunter at his father's bedside, he walks out and sits into the waiting room. Hunter joins him and theytalk things out. He offers to buy the boy something to eat, but he remains silent. They talk a little more and Hunter says "I just want to be a part of your life, if you'd let me". Hunter gets up and slowly starts to walk down the hall. The boy stops him, saying "Hey Rick, I guess I am pretty hungry". The episode ends with the two walking down the hall with Hunter's arm around him.


Oh, The Shark Bites!
November 7, 1990
Hunter and his new partner, Officer Joanne Molenski, investigate the murder of a former mob accountant. During the investigation, they are shocked to discover that Captain Devane's name appeared on the murdered man's "debtor's" list. Captain Devane is extremely shocked and orders Hunter to "Stay out of it"! Determined not to have the Captain's reputation tarnished, Hunter takes matters into his own hands. In danger of loosing his job because of the controversey the case was causing, Captain Devane finally confides in Hunter and explains the situation to him. Turns out, it was his late father's name on the list and he didn't want to tell anyone for the simple fact that it would upset his mother. "Would you take a pension to break your mama's heart"?, he says to Hunter. The episode ends with the two sitting, looking at each other and Hunter saying "You're a good man, Charlie".