The BEST episodes of Midnight Caller

Every episode of Midnight Caller ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Midnight Caller!

Follows Jack Killian, a San Francisco cop who accidentally killed his partner. After leaving the police force, he ended up the host of a late-night radio talk show--with a penchant for getting involved with the problems of his listeners.

Last Updated: 7/28/2024Network: NBCStatus: Ended
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star
10.00
1 votes

#1 - Someone to Love

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/14/1989

Jack receives a call from a hospice. Tina Cassidy's battle with AIDS is near the end. As Jack goes to her, he reflects on their time together.

Directors: Robert Singer
Writer: Stephen Zito
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.21
34 votes

#2 - Twelve Gauge

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 12/6/1988

Jack spends most of his radio show talking with a homicidal/suicidal 'spurned lover' - the man is waiting to kill his girlfriend and then himself. It's a race against time for the police to track down the location of the woman's home.

Directors: Robert Butler
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.07
29 votes

#3 - Fathers and Sins

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/14/1989

Jack and Devon are both struggling to come to terms with their fathers. Jack's father returns after an absence of 25 years; Devon's father suffers a heart attack and the two must mend their fences in the face of the illness.

Directors: Robert Singer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
27 votes

#4 - Payback

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/20/1988

A female friend of Jack's from the police force is wounded in the line of duty and her partner killed. They seek comfort in each other's arms to grieve the deaths of their partners. Jack finds himself in the crossfire of the mob hit man trying to silence the only witness to the crime.

Directors: Kevin Hooks
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
30 votes

#5 - Trash Radio

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/24/1989

Jack finds himself being raked over the coals by a jealous competitor who has insider information on an Internal Affairs investigation, which found Jack not guilty of the charges.

Directors: Larry Gross
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
29 votes

#6 - The Fall

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/21/1989

Jack is drawn back to the neighborhood he worked in as a patrolman in response to a mother's plea to help her drug-addicted son.

Directors: Bradford May
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
27 votes

#7 - Ethan's Call

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/4/1989

Jack continues to be haunted by the night of Rusty's death. This time he has to help out Rusty's son, Ethan, who has run away from home and calls Jack to tell him so.

Directors: Matt Clark
Writer: Randy Zisk
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
27 votes

#8 - Wait Until Midnight

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/2/1989

One of Jack's regular callers 'witnesses' a murder in her apartment building while talking to Jack on the phone. She isn't believed by the authorities because she is blind and there is no evidence that a crime has been committed.

Directors: Eric Laneuville
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
27 votes

#9 - Blues for Mr. Charlie

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 5/9/1989

The season finale deals with the issue of gun control, and a citizen's right to bear arms. A neighborhood convenience store owner misinterprets Jack's caution to protect himself, ends up killing a man and places partial blame on Jack for the idea.

Directors: Robert Singer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.97
30 votes

#10 - But Not for Me

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/17/1989

Jack receives a phone call from a kidnapper who informs Jack that he has taken a suspected murderer into his personal custody so he won't hurt any more women. He continues to use Jack's show as a forum for his demands. A supposed suicide is revealed to be an elaborate murder cover up.

Directors: Peter Levin
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.90
30 votes

#11 - After It Happened

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/13/1988

Jack's old girlfriend, Tina, arrives in town. She informs him she has contracted AIDS and will die. Unable to handle the hopelessness of the situation, Jack sets out to find the man responsible. Jack is shocked to see that the message of safe sex is still being ignored, despite the obvious consequences. He uses his show as a forum on AIDS awareness as well as a means of tracking down the man who infected Tina.

Directors: Mimi Leder
Writer: Stephen Zito
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.81
31 votes

#12 - Promise to a Dead Man

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/7/1989

On the fortieth anniversary of one of San Francisco's most celebrated unsolved murders, Jack is drawn into a case that hits closer to home than anyone could imagine.

Directors: Eric Laneuville
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.80
30 votes

#13 - No Exit

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/7/1989

A young runaway, forced into prostitution, turns to Jack via his radio show for assistance in breaking away from her pimp who is involved in the white slavery market.

Directors: John Patterson
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.79
28 votes

#14 - Baby Chase

Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/11/1989

Assisting an injured woman on the street, a young doctor is faced with every mother's nightmare when her infant daughter is abducted by a young woman whose grasp on reality is failing. Jack uses the show as a forum to track down the kidnapped child, who, on top of everything, is desperately ill and will die without her medication.

Directors: Larry Gross
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.79
28 votes

#15 - Blame It on Midnight

Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/28/1989

An abused wife calls Jack's show fearing for her life. Their paths cross and they become romantically involved. The reappearance of the abusive husband throws Jack into the middle of a murder investigation - as the prime suspect.

Directors: Peter Levin
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.74
31 votes

#16 - The Execution of John Saringo

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/10/1989

Jack, Devon and Billy are forced to examine their belief in capital punishment when they are invited to broadcast the final hours of a death row inmate's life.

Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.73
30 votes

#17 - Bank Job

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/3/1989

As Jack's luck would have it, he goes into a bank to cash a cheque and finds himself a hostage in a bank robbery. The media and the police wait out the negotiations, all with a personal interest in Jack's well-being.

Directors: Michael Zinberg
Writer: Stephen Zito
Watch Now:Amazon
star
6.98
66 votes

#18 - Conversations with an Assassin

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/25/1988

Jack Killian retires from the San Francisco Police Department after accidentally shooting his partner, Rusty, in a crossfire situation. He's drawn back to the world of the living by an offer to be a late night talk radio host. A serial killer begins calling Jack, explaining the assassinations and Jack's inadvertently pulled back into the crime fighting world.

Directors: Thomas Carter
Watch Now:Amazon
star
6.00
1 votes

#19 - Evil is Live Spelled Backward (2)

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/3/1989

When Devon becomes a kidnap victim of the call-in killer, Zymak and Jack work together to discover that the crimes are a twisted vendetta against Jack and KJCM.

Directors: Bradford May
Watch Now:Amazon
star
5.75
4 votes

#20 - Tarnished Shield

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/1989

Jack's mentor on the police force is reunited with him under horrific circumstances. His policeman son-in-law commits suicide after calling Jack's show. Jack finds himself involved in a convoluted plot of understanding why, which has him questioning the ethics of some fellow officers.

Directors: Kevin Hooks
Watch Now:Amazon
star
4.00
2 votes

#21 - Based on a True Story

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/16/1990

The devastating San Francisco earthquake is re-enacted as Jack and Billy help citizens connect with loved ones via the radio waves, Devon has a close encounter, and Zymak and his family re-unite under tense circumstances.

Directors: Michael Zinberg
Watch Now:Amazon
star
2.00
1 votes

#22 - The Leopard

Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/26/1991

Jack and Nikki find themselves as proxies in a poker game; Jack's father's life is at stake.

Directors: James Quinn
Watch Now:Amazon
star
2.00
1 votes

#23 - The Added Starter

Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/5/1991

A frequent caller to the show witnesses a murder; however no one believes her because the crime scene is cleaned up before the cops get there. She turns to Jack for help, protection, and comfort.

Directors: Eric Laneuville
Writer: David Braff
Watch Now:Amazon
star
2.00
1 votes

#24 - Uninvited Guests

Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/1/1991

When Zymak's relationship with an immigration officer seems to be clouding his judgment in a murder investigation, Jack becomes involved at the request of one of the deceased person's relatives.

Directors: James Quinn
Writer: James Kramer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
2.00
1 votes

#25 - Home to Roost

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/7/1990

A child of the Vietnam war, whose father was a U.S. serviceman, instigates a hostage situation into which Jack is drawn.

Directors: Robert Singer
Watch Now:Amazon