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.