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 is killing criminals in Los Angeles and, for once, it’s not Rick Hunter!

Episode 1,15 “The Beach Boy”

(Dir by Richard Colla, originally aired on April 6th, 1985)

A Hawaiian drug lord is angered when five Los Angeles drug dealers decide to stop dealing his product.  So, he sends his main assassin — Wes “Beach Boy” Kapano (Brett Clark) — to L.A. to kill all five of them.  Hunter and McCall find themselves in the strange position of providing productive custody to the dealers while trying to stop Kapano.

This was a typical “chase-em-and-shoot-em” episode of Hunter.  Dee Dee even managed to get shot for the second time this season.  (And, once again, it didn’t seem to actually hurt her.  “I’m fine!”)  For the first season, at least, Hunter kept things simple.  In between the flirtatious Hunter/McCall banter, there would be at least one car chase and three shootings.

What sets this episode apart is that Hunter and McCall are protecting drug dealers.  While McCall makes it clear that she doesn’t actually care what happens to the dealers, Hunter’s feelings are a bit more ambivalent.  He’s been chasing the dealers for so long that he’s developed a grudging affection for them.  When one of them is killed while helping the police, Hunter’s actually upset about it.

The other thing that sets this episode apart was Brett Clark’s intimidating turn as the assassin.  The Beach Boy, as he’s called, doesn’t waste too much time with conversations.  He doesn’t brag about how clever he is or go to a lot of trouble trying to fool anyone.  Instead, he just shows up and starts firing.  He wears a bulletproof vest, as well.  McCall shoots him twice and he barely flinches.  He’s a scary dude!

That said, Hunter still manages to kill him.  How many people have been killed by Rick Hunter so far?  I’ve lost track.  Most officers are suspended after a shooting so that the shooting board can rule whether or not it was justified.  Hunter is always back on the streets within an hour of killing someone.  Considering how quick he is with a gun, I probably wouldn’t want to tell him he was suspended either.

Much like Hunter and McCall, this episode was brutal and efficient.