Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.16 “Guilty”

Posted on August 13, 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, it’s another violent couple of days in Los Angeles.

Episode 1.16 “Guilty”

(Dir by Michael Lange, originally aired on April 13th, 1985)

In 1979, Louis McMahon (Ken Foree) was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. Six years later, he’s been paroled and …. wait, really? He served six years for murder? What the Hell, California!?

Louis is free and working as a cook. When someone starts stalking and killing the jurors at his trial, Louis is the number one suspect. However, before the killer strikes, he always calls his victims and rasps, “Guilty.” Louis’s throat was slashed in prison and he’s now mute! Or is he? McCall suggests that Louis is faking being mute and …. well, yeah. That’s what he was doing alright.

This is the most simplistic episode of Hunter yet. McCall and Hunter figure out quickly that Louis is the murderer. All the other cops refuse to take Hunter and McCall seriously because of …. reasons, I guess? I mean, there really is no other suspect. Louis is the one person who has a reason to what to commit the murders. The only thing linking the victims is that they all voted to convict Louis. And yet, once again, Hunter and McCall find themselves being told not to bother the obvious murderer.

Of course, Hunter ends up shooting Louis. We haven’t finished the first season and I’ve already lost track of the amount of people that Hunter has shot. While I am as concerned as anyone is about trigger-happy cops, I do have to say that everyone that Hunter has shot had it coming. That’s especially true of Louis, who was an absolute monster. Ken Foree did a really good job playing him. Foree was so scary so that it kind of made up for the fact that this was one of the most predictable hours of television that I’ve ever watched.

Once again, Hunter and McCall save countless lives and they get no credit for it. Instead, they get sent to park to arrest muggers. As the episode ends, they actually catch one. I was surprised Hunter didn’t just shoot him.

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 1.3 “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.

Special Memorial Day Edition: Audie Murphy in BATTLE AT BLOODY BEACH (20th Century Fox 1961)

Posted on May 30, 2016 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

When I was in college, I wrote a paper on Audie Murphy for history class. Murphy was a real American hero, the most decorated combat soldier of World War II. He held off an entire squad of German soldiers alone, armed with a machine gun and bleeding from a leg wound, under fire from both foot soldiers and tank fire. Then he rejoined his men and led an attack on the Germans, driving them back and earning the Medal of Honor for his valiant efforts.

Murphy was noticed by Hollywood upon his return from the war, and soon was cast in a successful series of Westerns: THE KID FROM TEXAS, KANSAS RAIDERS, DUEL AT SILVER CREEK, RED BADGE OF COURAGE, GUNSMOKE, and a remake of DESTRY. His autobiography TO HELL AND BACK was a national best seller, and Audie played himself in the film version. Surprisingly, Murphy only starred in one other war film…

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