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, someone wants to help out Hunter!

Episode 1.12 “The Avenging Angel”

(Dir by James Whitmore, Jr., originally aired on January 18th, 1985)

After Hunter receives an anonymous phone tip, he arrests Dr. Pierpoint (Angus Duncan) for attempting to hire a criminal known as “The Rat” to kill his wife.  When Hunter makes the arrest, he actually has to Mirandize him twice because the doctor was unconscious the first time that Hunter read him his rights.  Oh, Hunter!

Unfortunately, things fall apart at trial.  The Rat (Robert Pastorelli, whose career later fell apart after the mysterious death of his girlfriend) changes his testimony at the last minute and says that Pierpoint never hired him to kill his wife.  The case is dismissed.  Hunter is upset.  Even more upset is Arnold Morton (Robert Gray), a surveillance expert who idolizes Hunter and who makes it his mission to take down not just Pierpoint and the Rat but also defense attorney Nell Armstong (Nancy Stafford).

This was an interesting episode.  The story didn’t quite work but the idea behind it was intriguing.  Morton, who has bugged Hunter and has been following him for weeks, considers himself to be Hunter’s avenging angel.  When Hunter makes it clear that he’s not cool with the whole vigilante thing, Morton turns on him like a lover scorned.  This is like Hunter’s version of Magnum Force.

As for McCall, she spends most of this episode just trying to go on a date with her latest boyfriend, Ted (Rod Haase).  Unfortunately, Hunter keeps interrupting.  Ted is a nice guy about it but it’s pretty obvious that McCall and Hunter are meant to be together.

The highlight of this episode?  Hunter destroying his phone while searching for a bug.  In the role of Captain Dolan, John Amos got to do his whole, “Hunter, what the Hell are you doing!?” thing.  That’s always entertaining.

As I said, the episode didn’t quite work.  I never really bought that Arnold could do everything that he managed to do in this episode.  I mean, for someone who lived in an abandoned arcade and drove a broken-down van, Arnold seemed to have unlimited resources.  I will give a shout out to the show’s art department for including a poster of Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 in Arnold’s office.

It’s always funny to me how, in every episode, Hunter has got someone trying to kill him and no one but McCall seems to care.