Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.11 “The Garbage Man”

Posted on July 9, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 and McCall deal with some familiar faces.

Episode 1.11 “The Garbage Man”

(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on January 11th, 1985)

This week’s episode is all about spotting the guest stars.

Hey, there’s Christopher McDonald as Sonny Dupree, a parolee who has been accused of murdering his parole officer. He’s on the run but, when Hunter corners him, Sonny makes a convincing argument that he was set up. It also turns out that someone doctored Sonny’s arrest record to make him look like a far more viscous criminal than he actually is.

Hey, there’s Nicholas Worth, playing a friend of Sonny’s. Nicholas Worth might not be a household name but you’d recognize if you saw him. He was big and bald and intimidating.

Oh my God, it’s Frances McDormand! She plays a new parole officer named Nina and she develops a crush on Hunter! At one point, McCall pretends to be Nina on the phone and does a fairly bad imitation of McDormand’s genuine Southern accent.

And wait, is that Ed O’Neill!? Yes, it is. A skinny Ed O’Neill plays Dan Colson, a parole officer who is determined to track down Sonny and who is even more violent than Hunter. When Sonny explains that someone has been executing parolees, it doesn’t take a genius to guess who the killer is.

McDonald, Worth, McDormand, and O’Neill all give strong performances in this episode. Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer get to be their usual dependable selves while the guest cast runs off with all the drama.

As for the overall episode, it features a few plot twists that don’t really make much sense. We’re asked to believe that Sonny Dupree, who is trying to straighten out his life and who has a wife and daughter, would agree to have his criminal record doctored just so he could serve as bait for the vigilante. There’s also — and this was often the case with Hunter — absolutely no suspense about who the murderer is. As soon as we meet Colson, we know he’s guilty. Even if he was being played by as complete nobody, we would know that he was guilty. Hunter is not exactly a subtle show.

That said, this episode had some good action sequences and it also showcased the chemistry between Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer. The scene where McCall and Hunter argue over who should chase Colson was a classic, with McCall sensibly pointing out that she didn’t want to dent up her new car. Hunter’s car, naturally, was already covered in dents.

In the end, this episode worked. The guest stars, the action, the comedy, it all added up to an enjoyable 48 minutes.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.10 “The Shooter”

Posted on June 25, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Hunter and a biker compete to see who has the fastest draw.

Episode 1.10 “The Shooter”

(Dir by Michael Lange, originally aired on January 4th, 1985)

Someone is gunning down motorcycle cops. It’s a crime that both Hunter and McCall take personally. Unfortunately, Bernie Terwiliger is in charge of the investigation and he insists that he doesn’t need any help from Hunter or “the brass cupcake.” Considering that McCall’s husband was a police officer who was killed while doing a routine traffic stop, you would think Terwiliger would be a little bit more sensitive but nope. That’s not the way things are done on Hunter.

Hunter and McCall conduct their own investigation, which leads them a country-western bar and a quick-draw video game. Deke Broder (Robert Dryer) is a redneck who is very proud of having the fastest draw on the game. The only problem is that cops keep coming in the bar and beating his time. So, Deke stalks and kills them.

Deke — it’s just a game!

Soon, Hunter is playing the video game and Deke has a new target.

Now, this is a good episode! It’s everything that you could want from an episode of Hunter. It’s violent. It’s fast-paced. It’s got enough atmosphere to hold the viewer’s interest and it features a bad guy who is more interesting than the run-of-the-mill cop show villain. Deke and Hunter have a lot in common. They’re both cocky. They’re both convinced their the best. And they both really like to shoot their guns. Between the motorcycles and Deke’s leather kill suit, this episode was pure style.

This is exactly what an episode of Hunter should be like.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.9 “High Bleacher Man”

Posted on June 18, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Hunter gets another bad assignment.

Episode 1.9 “High Bleacher Man”

(Dir by Arnold Laven, originally aired on December 7th, 1984)

Hunter and McCall have finally arrested Elton Gavin (Michael Baselon), a murderous punk who has been causing mayhem all over Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Gavin works out a deal. For immunity, he’ll turn on gangster Nate Demarest (Richard Romanus). With Demarest eager to kill the informant, Hunter finds himself assigned to protect Gavin until Gavin can testify.

The problem, of course, is that Gavin is a sociopath. Hunter doesn’t want to protect Gavin. He doesn’t want Gavin to get immunity. He certainly doesn’t want to see Gavin back out on the streets. When Hunter learns that McCall once investigated Demarest for killing a federal agent, he asks her to reopen the case. If they can get Demarest on that charge, then there won’t be any reason to give Gavin immunity.

Poor Hunter and McCall. They always get the worst assignments. This was pretty much a standard episode of Hunter but the chemistry between Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer was fun to watch. In the middle of all the action and the bullets, Dryer and Kramer were actually a pretty good comedy team. It’s fun to listen to them talk.

As I watched this episode, I suddenly remembered that Hunter’s father was a gangster and therefore, one would think that Hunter would have more contacts in the world of organized crime than he does. Hunter’s mob background is one of those things that the show sometimes seems to forget about.

The other thing that occurred to me as I watched this episode is that, in 1984, John Amos probably had one of the easiest jobs in television. He played Dolan, Hunter and McCall’s captain. As far as I can tell, his role consisted of showing up at the end of each episode and yelling at Hunter for taking unnecessary risks. That was pretty much it. Amos just had to be annoyed for two-minutes every week.

Of course, it didn’t matter how much Dolan got annoyed,

Hunter got results!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.8 “Dead or Alive”

Posted on June 11, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, there’s somebody else shooting criminals in L.A.

Episode 1.8 “Dead or Alive”

(Dir by Guy Magar, originally aired on November 30th, 1984)

Jimmy Joe Walker (Wings Hauser) is a cowboy bounty hunter who wears black and carries a wide array of weapons. He hunts for criminals who are wanted “dead or alive.” He specializes in brining them in dead because …. well, he just like shooting people. Hunter and McCall try to capture the escaped bank robber Panhandle Pete (Jimmie F. Skaggs) before Jimmy Joe puts a bullet in him.

This was a pretty average episode of Hunter, one that was mostly distinguished by the cheerfully unhinged presence of Wings Hauser. With his Southern accent and his country clothes, Hauser largely gives the same performance here that he gave in Vice Squad. The only difference is that he’s playing a bounty hunter and not a pimp here. He still finds time to beat up McCall. I can’t help but notice that McCall is constantly getting either shot or punched on this show. I think the idea is to show that McCall is just as tough as Hunter and I do like the fact that, no matter how serve the injuries, McCall never stops fighting back. That said, it would be nice to see someone else get a black eye for once.

(This is also yet another episode that finds McCall working undercover as a prostitute. She spends the first half of the episode wearing a blue top with feathers attached to the sleeves. I kept expecting someone to mention the feathers but not even Wings Hauser said a word about them. You would expect Wings to be all over that.)

The plot of this one felt a bit silly. A bank robber named Panhandle Pete? Really? I get the feeling that this episode was done in order to protect the show from charges that it glorified the idea of gunning down criminals. We’re supposed to look at Hunter and Jimmy Joe and say, “Hunter shoots a lot of people but at least he doesn’t laugh about it.” This was Hunter’s version of Magnum Force.

Again, this was an average episode but it’s worth watching just for Wings Hauser.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.7 “Pen Pals”

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Hunter goes to jail!

Episode 1.7 “Pen Pals”

(Dir by Larry Stewart, originally aired on November 16th, 1984)

Rick Hunter, murderer!

Well, not quite. It is true that someone used Hunter’s gun to assassinate a drug dealer but, at the time of the shooting, Hunter was helping a woman who came by his apartment and said that her car had broken down. It’s a set up! But, because Hunter threatened to kill the drug dealer earlier and he’s killed around 20 0ther people since the pilot, everyone assumes that he’s guilty. He’s sent to jail for 72 hours. McCall, forced to partner up with the charming but incompetent Detective Glascow (Tim Thomerson), attempts to prove that Hunter was framed. Meanwhile, Hunter befriends one prisoner (Tracey Walter) and is targeted by another (Jack O’Halloran).

There were a few odd things about this episode. First off, why wasn’t Hunter put in protective custody? Everyone in the jail knew that he was a cop. He hadn’t actually been convicted of anything. So, what was he doing in general population?

Secondly, what happened to Hunter’s mob connections? Previous episodes have hinted that Hunter’s father is one of the most powerful gangsters in California. Wouldn’t that give him some sort of protection in prison? Couldn’t the Hunter crime family have asked around and discovered who set Rick Hunter up?

Oh well, no matter. This was a fun episode! Tim Thomerson was wonderfully smarmy as McCall’s new partner. Jack O’Halloran was properly psychotic as the scary prisoner looking to take down Hunter. If any actor was born to be filmed beating up people in a prison cafeteria, it was Fred Dryer.

Luckily, Hunter got out of jail at the end of the episode. Now, he and McCall can get back to falling in love.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.6 “Flight of the Dead Pigeon”

Posted on May 21, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Hunter searches for a pigeon.

Episode 1.6 “Flight of the Dead Pigeon”

(Dir by Michael Preece, originally aired on November 9th, 1984)

When a little girl (Marissa Mendenhall) shows up at the police station and asks for Hunter’s help in finding her stolen carrier pigeons, Hunter’s like, “Buzz off, kid!” However, when it turns out that the girl’s uncle was a degenerate gambler and that he was thrown off the roof of a building by the mob, Hunter and McCall get involved. It turns out that the Mexican cartels want to use the pigeons to carry drugs into America. Because the little girl is the only one who knows how to train the pigeons, they want to kidnap her as well….

Yeah, this was a pretty dumb episode. I don’t doubt that pigeons could be used to smuggle drugs but I do doubt that any successful criminal organization would go through all the trouble that they go to in this episode. There are far simpler ways to smuggle drugs. I’m also sure they could have found someone to train the pigeons without abducting a child. Hunter and McCall are able to rescue the girl and the episode ends with her smiling cheerfully as she’s sent into foster care.

“Hunter,” McCall asks, “have you ever wanted kids?”

“Nope,” Hunter replies.

“Me neither,” McCall says, not sounding particularly convincing.

What a sad ending! Seriously, if Hunter and McCall aren’t married by the end of this series, I will throw a fit. They’re totally meant for each other. Even in a kind of dumb episode like this one, their chemistry saves the day.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.5 “Legacy”

Posted on May 14, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Hunter and McCall investigate a mob hit!

Episode 1.5 “Legacy”

(Dir by Ron Satlof, originally aired on November 2nd, 1984)

Gangster John Vincent (Tony Girogio) has been gunned down in his own mansion. Detective Bernie Terwilliger thinks that it’s a case of burglary gone wrong. Rick Hunter thinks that it was a mob hit and that one of John’s sons is responsible. He and McCall search for Sandy Newton (Mary-Margaret Humes), the woman who was with Michael Vincent (Vincent Baggetta) the night that his father was killed.

I have to admit that I had totally forgotten that Rick Hunter was supposed to be the son of a mobster. This episode featured Rick associating with his childhood buddies and, if nothing else, it showed just how unconvincing Fred Dryer was as the scion of a mob family. Don’t get me wrong. Fred Dryer was great when he was gunning down a suspect and then saying, “Works for me.” And Fred Dryer had a fun chemistry with Stepfanie Kramer. But there was absolutely nothing about Fred Dryer that, in any way, said, “Mobster.” Surrounding Dryer with a bunch of tough-looking Italian-American character actors did nothing to change the fact that Dryer essentially looked like a former football player from sunny California.

This episode had a predictable story but it also had two good action scenes: a fight on a pier and a mob hit in a warehouse. It also introduced John Amos as Captain Dolan, who is the new police captain but who appears to dislike Hunter and McCall just as much as the previous captain. It’s hard not to feel that Amos will be entertaining as he yells at Hunter for not following regulations and costing the city money.

We’ll see how it goes!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.4 “A Long Way From L.A.”

Posted on May 7, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This episode makes the mistake of pretending to leave California.

Episode 1.4 “A Long Way From L.A.”

(Dir by Arnold Laven, originally aired on October 26th, 1984)

Bleh. This episode annoyed me.

Wally Wallerstein (Paul Eiding), a pickpocket wanted in Los Angeles, is arrested in Texas. Because he needs a break from them, Captain Cain sends Hunter and McCall to retrieve him. Wally turns out to be a nice guy but, when Hunter’s car breaks down in Wilson County, Texas, Wally is accused of attacking a local waitress and is then killed by a sniper. The real culprit is pretty obviously Sheriff Jake Cutter (Bo Svenson), who is the stepson of Chuck Easterland (Morgan Woodward), the richest man in town.

Not a single small town stereotype went unused in this episode. As a Texan, I was annoyed by the fact that everyone had a Southern (as opposed to a Southwestern) accent. And while I understand that the show probably didn’t have the budget or the time to shoot on location, it was still hard not to smirk at the sight of a very California mountain range in the background. This is the flatlands, folks. We don’t have mountains like that in Texas.

Hunter and McCall need to stay in Los Angeles.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.3 “The Hot Grounder”

Posted on April 30, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the police commissioner is suspected of murder!

Episode 1.3 “The Hot Grounder”

(Dir by Bill Duke, originally aired on October 5th, 1984)

After the police commissioner’s wife is blown up by a car bomb, all the homicide detectives hide out in the bathroom because they don’t want to get assigned the case. Captain Cain still manages to track them down and gives the case to Hunter and McCall. When McCall asks Hunter why he didn’t do a better job hiding, Hunter replies, “I’m too tall!”

Hunter and McCall soon come to suspect that Commissioner Crenshaw (William Windom) had his wife killed. Because Crenshaw was being blackmailed with photographs of him with another man, his wife was threatening to divorce him. Despite all of the evidence against Crenshaw, the police chief (Jason Bernard) tries to protect him. Hunter and McCall find themselves suspended from the force. They still manage to prove Crenshaw’s guilt. Crenshaw goes to prison and Hunter and McCall get their badges back.

This episode felt like a rough draft. I enjoyed the humor at the start of it. All of the detectives trying to hide felt very realistic. Dryer was always obviously still getting comfortable with the role when this episode was shot but his jokes were well-delivered. That said, the mystery itself felt half-baked and William Windom was not particularly believable in his role. By the end of the episode, Hunter had been reduced to repeating, “Works for me,” over and over again.

This episode didn’t really work for me. It was obvious that the show was still trying to figure out who Hunter and McCall were and how they would react to each other. As such, their chemistry felt off in this episode and the end result was forgettable.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.2 “Hard Contract”

Posted on April 23, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.