Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Hunter breaks rules and shoots people.

Episode 1.2 “Hard Contract”

(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on September 28th, 1984)

When McCall calls in sick and says that she’s taking the week off, Capt. Cain (now played by Arthur Rosenberg) assigns Hunter to work with bowtie-wearing Bernie Terwilliger.  Cain sees this as an opportunity to get rid of Hunter.  He tells Bernie to write down every policy that Hunter breaks throughout the day.

Terwilliger wants to spend the day tracking down whoever is leaving graffiti in the park.  Hunter’s not interested in that.  He wants to know what’s going on with McCall.  Mostly, Hunter wants to find an excuse to draw his gun.  The only thing he gets out of the trip to the park is a chance to arrest a man trying to rob a hot dog vendor.  Hunter gets a hot dog, of course.

Eventually, Hunter drags Terwilliger to a bar where they discover McCall hanging out.  After a bar fight, Hunter and McCall abandon Terwilliger and go after Gus (David Ackroyd), McCall’s former partner.  Gus was McCall’s mentor and she’s still close to Gus and his wife.  However, Gus has fallen on hard times and now, he’s looking for work as a contract killer.

The most interesting thing about this episode is that, even though Gus and McCall are old friends, they’re still totally willing to shoot each other.  That seems to be a recurring theme with Hunter.  Everyone likes to shoot everyone else.

I enjoyed this episode.  It was very, very simple but Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer got to show off their chemistry and there was plenty of humor involving poor old Bernie.  Sometimes, it’s enjoyable to watch something that doesn’t require you to do much thinking and that was certainly the case here.