The BEST episodes of Riptide (1984) season 2

Every episode of Riptide (1984) season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Riptide (1984) season 2!

Cody Allen and Nick Ryder, were two long-time friends who had served together in Vietnam, whose Private Investigation business was based on Cody's boat, The Riptide, in King Harbour, Los Angeles.

Last Updated: 11/30/2024Network: NBCStatus: Ended
Peter Pan Is Alive and Well
star
7.40
5 votes

#1 - Peter Pan Is Alive and Well

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/11/1984

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley) The trio are hired by the manager of a local beach club to investigate a series of valuables being stolen on the beach, and while there, Cody is pleased to find that an old room-mate, Byron Monk, is working as lifeguard at the club, and seems to be romancing a number of the club's female members. As they investigate the missing valuables, they find themselves uncovering a plot to both blackmail and kill Byron, but they more they investigate, the more it becomes apparent that he may be just asking for trouble with his attitude towards his relationships with women... The case is made more light-hearted by Murray's experimenting with taking on a tough guy image...

Directors: Tony Mordente
Watch Now:Amazon
Baxter and Boz
star
7.17
6 votes

#2 - Baxter and Boz

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/22/1985

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley) *see note After meeting a down-and-out who is also a fellow inventor, and helping him iron out a kink in his latest creation, Murray learns that the man is actually reclusive billionaire Baxter Bernard. In gratitude for his help, Baxter gives Murray a Baxtercraft 1000, a sophisticated new helicopter, as thanks. But the detectives end up helping the billionaire to stop the corrupt men who now control Baxter Aviation, who are willing to sell a flawed new helicopter to the Government no matter how many lives it costs...

Directors: Michael Lange
Writer: Bill Nuss
Watch Now:Amazon
Prisoner of War
star
7.00
5 votes

#3 - Prisoner of War

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/15/1985

rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Things are getting serious between Nick and his new girlfriend Peggy. But returning from a date on the beach, they witness an accident in which a young serviceman is fatally hit by a car, which triggers a strange reaction in the woman, who promptly races off in Nick's Corvette. After being notified by Lt. Quinlan, the Riptide detectives find the ‘Vette abandoned in a red light district, with no sign of Peggy. It emerges that Peggy served as a Nurse in Vietnam, and the soldier's death triggered off delayed stress syndrome in her, but her confused state which drives her to the red light district sees both her and the P.I.s walking into the middle of a turf war between two pimps...

Watch Now:Amazon
It's a Vial Sort of Business
star
6.86
7 votes

#4 - It's a Vial Sort of Business

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/4/1984

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley) Cody and Nick's patience is being tested with Dooley's singing while working off some debts and Murray causing chaos with the Riptide's electricity, when the agency's latest clients arrive, a couple with the seemingly straightforward task of asking them to find their missing son William, who has disappeared since dropping out of University. But things suddenly get more serious when they come under attack from thugs who try and grab William's suitcase from his parents. The detectives presume that William is in some kind of trouble and the thugs were after him, but unbeknown to them, Dooley also has people after him! It seems that Dooley has been making off-the-record visits to a local race-track, and has got his hands on a vial that some bad guys want, but unfortunately for the missing William, who is merly pursuing his dream of becoming an actor, both the Riptide detectives and the thugs presume him to be mixed up in the trouble...

Directors: Bruce Seth Green
Watch Now:Amazon
Gams People Play
star
6.83
6 votes

#5 - Gams People Play

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/8/1985

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley)* see note, Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) When Nick returns from National Guard duty, he thinks Cody and Murray are playing a trick on him when they tell him they've been hired to over-watch a beauty contest. But sure enough, it's true, they've been hired when one of the contestants, Charlene West, receives threatening phone calls. Their immediate suspect is a big-headed, womanising Game Show host who is the M.C. for the pageant, but when he is killed, they must dig deeper to find the true culprit...

Directors: Ron Satlof
Watch Now:Amazon
Curse of the Mary Aberdeen
star
6.83
6 votes

#6 - Curse of the Mary Aberdeen

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/29/1985

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley), Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Late one evening during a fierce thunderstorm, Murray is alone on the Riptide when a mysterious character suddenly appears seemingly out of nowhere, and pays $1000 cash for the Riptide Detective Agency to find the Mary Aberdeen, a supposedly cursed boat who's former owners have all been killed, before she kills again. Finding Murray's story of the incident hard to believe, Cody and Nick are certain that someone, probably Lt. Quinlan, is playing a joke on them, when the phone number on the business card that the man left turns out to be for the local cemetery. They visit the original owner of the Aberdeen, only to have him hire them, with $5000 in cash, to find the boat as well. As they look into the case, they are surprised, and worried, to find that what was the Mary Aberdeen is now the Riptide! What's more, somebody seems determined to stop them investigating, and is the Riptide really cursed and haunted, or is there a more logic

Directors: Ron Satlof
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Catch a Fallen Star
star
6.80
5 votes

#7 - Catch a Fallen Star

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/18/1984

The trio come to the rescue of an elderly lady vagrant who is being grabbed by two thugs, only to learn that she is none other than a once-famous actress who vanished fifty years previously. It turns out she had been placed in a sanitarium by a man connected with the Mob that she was having an affair with after she refused to marry him, and what's more, she owns the deeds to Pier 56. The thugs were sent out by the man's son, who, determined to finish what his father has started, is determined to get his hands on the deed, the one last possession of the woman's that his father never took from her, even if it's against his father's wishes...

Directors: Mike Vejar
Watch Now:Amazon
Harmony and Grits
star
6.80
5 votes

#8 - Harmony and Grits

Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/14/1985

rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Cody and Nick are loath when Murray drags them to a "harmonising" seminar, an event that ends in a punch up. But afterwards, a woman, having heard them introduce themselves as Private Detectives, hires the trio to check out her husband Chris, who she believes is having an affair. However, when the P.I.s set about following the man, they find that, instead of having an affair, he is involved with something much more sinister, but as they watch the man, they witness to the husband's distress - the shooting of a man involved with the shady operation. The next day, Quinlan tells them that the body has disappeared and the investigation has been dropped – leaving the P.I.s even more certain that there is something big to investigate, something to do with the sale of a top secret project, and set about finding out just what the woman's husband is mixed up in... Meanwhile, all the way through the investigation, the detectives toy with the "honesty" methods they h

Directors: Bob Bralver
Watch Now:Amazon
Boz Busters
star
6.67
6 votes

#9 - Boz Busters

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/5/1985

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley), Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Realising that something is bothering their friend, Cody and Nick try to find out what's troubling Murray, only to learn that he has been offered an unmissable job position to work at a cutting edge robotics company. Sadly leaving his friends, Murray decides to take the job. Missing their friend almost as soon as he's gone, Cody and Nick decide to deliver the rest of his belongings personally, but upon arrival find that the supposed company that he's gone to work for doesn't exist. As they investigate, they remember how they first met Boz in the Army, assigned to escort him to prison after he had punched a Colonel in the nose, the same man who is now intending to sell him to the Soviets for his electronic skills...

Directors: Bob Bralver
Watch Now:Amazon
Where the Girls Are
star
6.29
38 votes

#10 - Where the Girls Are

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/1984

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley), Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Cody has agreed at the request of his mother to take care of three college student girls who are visiting the area, but upon arrival at the airport to pick them up, the detective trio find themselves foiling a kidnap attempt on the girls. The girls just laugh it off as a prank by a rival faculty, but the P.I.s suspicion is raised, and they intend to keep a firm watch over them. As it becomes more apparent that someone is trying to get their hands on the girls, the trio have their work cut out for them as they attempt to find out who is responsible, while trying to keep the rather spoilt girls entertained and safe...

Directors: Ron Satlof
Watch Now:Amazon
The Orange Grove
star
6.22
36 votes

#11 - The Orange Grove

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/16/1984

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley), Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Two suited men try to force Dooley to leave a curious package on-board the Riptide, but he ignores their demands and alerts his friends. The detectives fear the package to be a bomb, but it actually turns out to be a bag of cocaine; and soon after, they receive a visit from two FBI agents, who take Cody and Nick to the head of FBI 's Special Services. He wants their help to prove that their former Army commander, General Doug "Pittbull" Johnson, is now involved in drug smuggling. Although certain of their commander's innocence, Cody and Nick reluctantly agree to prove if the claims are true or not, but they unwittingly find themselves being duped into setting up Johnson, with the planted drugs on their boat intended to stop them investigating any further...

Directors: Michael Lange
Watch Now:Amazon
Polly Want an Explanation
star
6.20
35 votes

#12 - Polly Want an Explanation

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/5/1985

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley) Nick and Cody are none too happy when their latest client, met with in a rough biker's bar, turns out to be Mack McPherson, an "acquaintance" who landed them in trouble in the Army. He explains that he has written book about his time as a CIA agent, and now has to lie low before it's publication and is unable to go home, and simply wants them to look after his pet parrot while he's away. With $300 to persuade them, the Riptide trio reluctantly accept the "simple" assignment, but soon regret it when they meet Mack's ditzy girlfriend, Gloria, who is actually a FBI stenographer; when it becomes apparent that Mack hasn't been truthful with them; and when he seemingly dies in a helicopter crash. But nothing is as is seems, and it turns out that Mack's publication is actually a "tell all" book about his involvement with a mobster. They soon have the mobster's men after them, and the key to the whole situation is the parrot...

Directors: Michael Switzer
Watch Now:Amazon
Father's Day
star
6.14
35 votes

#13 - Father's Day

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/20/1984

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley), Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) When a troubled young woman named Cheryl leaves her baby at the local church, the priest, Father Bob, heads to the Riptide Detective Agency to ask the guys to investigate the trouble the girl is in, and also leaves the baby girl with the trio for safe keeping. The Father is sworn to confidentiality over what Cheryl had told him in confession, but as the detectives juggle investigating the case and trying to find Cheryl with trying to look after the young child, they find a superior Police Officer with connections with the Mob to be connected with the trouble that she is in. But solving the case is only half the problem as the three bachelors must learn how to take care of the young baby...

Directors: Tony Mordente
Watch Now:Amazon
Arrivederci, Baby
star
6.14
35 votes

#14 - Arrivederci, Baby

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/7/1985

rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Murray takes Nick and Cody to a party where they meet famed oceanographer Angelo Guirilini and his attractive daughter Giovanna, but the festivities grind to a halt when Angelo's son Tony stumbles in, after being shot while on a dive. With Tony in hospital, they investigate and discover that someone is worried that Angelo's latest expedition will stumble on a batch of illegally dumped toxic waste...

Directors: Michael Lange
Watch Now:Amazon
Be True to Your School
star
6.14
36 votes

#15 - Be True to Your School

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/27/1984

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley) Nick takes Cody and Murray with him as he attends his 15th year high-school reunion, but the nostalgic proceedings are suddenly interrupted when masked men with automatic rifles burst onto the scene and open fire, seemingly warning a group of the ex-classmates out of something. Afterwards, his old friends insist it was just guys from a rival high-school playing a prank, but the suspicious Private Investigators quickly spot that the bullets the masked men were firing were real. As Nick investigates, much to his upset he finds that his old high-school friends are mixed up in drug running, and worse still, have fallen foul of a mobster in doing so...

Directors: Michael Lange
Watch Now:Amazon
Catch of the Day
star
6.12
33 votes

#16 - Catch of the Day

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/23/1984

An injured young woman appears out of the water to Arnie, a kind-hearted fisherman with learning disabilities, warning him that a ship named the Morning Rose needs help, before she sinks beneath the waves. Cody and Nick have agreed to allow an infamous reporter to come and do an article on the Riptide Detective Agency, much to the annoyance and upset of Murray, whom she has insulted in a previous article. The reporter is just beginning to get her claws into the trio, when a distressed Arnie arrives, telling them of the incident at sea. But when they report the incident to the Coast Guard, they are amazed and bemused to hear that Arnie claims the girl he saw was a mermaid; but believing Arnie's sincerity, the detective trio agree to investigate, much to the humour of the reporter. As they look into the case, they learn that the couple who were sailing on the Morning Rose were involved in some rather shady business, but exactly who or what did Arnie see that he believed to be a mermaid

Writer: Frank Lupo
Watch Now:Amazon
The Twisted Cross
star
6.12
33 votes

#17 - The Twisted Cross

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/12/1985

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley), Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Walking through Chinatown, Cody, Nick and Murray see a gang of masked men trying to kidnap a teenage boy away from his father, and intervene. The next day, giving their report of the incident at the Police Station, Quinlan tells them that the boy's mother was brought in over suspicion of the attempted kidnap. But outside, admits to the P.I.s that she was behind the attempted kidnapping, explaining that her ex-husband Kyle, who has custody of her son Chad, is teaching him bad ways and preventing her from seeing him. Convinced by her story, the Private Detectives stop by Chad's school, only to find him in a fight with a black pupil, and carrying Nazi literature. Finding that the boy's father runs a local Boys Institute that is peddling the Nazi message to other youngsters too, they send Dooley undercover to see exactly what is taught at the Institute. The leader of a local Neo-Nazi party informs them that Kyle was thrown out for refusi

Watch Now:Amazon
Beat the Box
star
6.12
34 votes

#18 - Beat the Box

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/13/1984

rc: Ken Olant (Dooley), Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Nick and Cody are on the Riptide reluctantly helping Murray test out his new lie-detector game creation, "Beat The Box", when a television producer comes aboard to hire them to protect an upcoming guest on the show she works for - an author, who was nearly murdered when he arrived at the airport. But as they arrive to escort the man, he has seemingly gone insane and dives out of his high-rise window. As they investigate, they find themselves uncovering the slaughter of thirty soldiers in Vietnam years before, a case in which Murray's new game plays a key part in solving...

Directors: Arnold Laven
Watch Now:Amazon
Girls Night Out
star
6.09
34 votes

#19 - Girls Night Out

Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/19/1985

rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Cody is finding it hard to get rid of an unwanted girlfriend, who smothers him with affection, and who's hyperactive dog has a particular dislike for him. But that becomes the least of the P.I.s troubles when, after Murray has come into money from some book royalties, Quinlan accuses them of having got the money from robbing a number of local houses (where a copy of Murray's book was found at the scene of the latest robbery). Faced with having to cancel a planned fishing trip while Quinlan investigates his flimsy claims, the trio are determined to prove they are innocent by finding the real robbers - who are actually two sisters forced into making the robberies by a dangerous loan-shark they owe money to, in order to pay off their debts...

Directors: Bob Bralver
Watch Now:Amazon
Mirage
star
6.00
33 votes

#20 - Mirage

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/30/1984

rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Teaching a science class at a local collage, Murray falls for an attractive student who appears to be interested in him too. But when two thugs steal the girl's paper that Murray is marking, the detectives are shocked to learn that the girl is actually married, to a millionaire Arabian, who ordered the papers taken after becoming worried that Murray is having an affair with his wife. He warns him that in his culture, the punishment for committing adultery is death. But afterwards, the girl claims that her husband is abusing her and begs for Murray's help; unfortunately, everything is not as it seems about the girl, and Murray is unwittingly being set-up...

Directors: Bruce Kessler
Watch Now:Amazon
Oil Bets Are Off
star
6.00
34 votes

#21 - Oil Bets Are Off

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/12/1985

rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) When an oil tycoon, an old friend of Murray's, is killed, the man's daughter is certain that it was murder, and asks the detectives to investigate. Their immediate suspect is the man's partner in the oil business, after the two had been arguing shortly before the death, but as they dig deeper, they pose as high rollers as investigations take them on-board a casino ship, and the killers are from a very unexpected quarter...

Directors: Michael Lange
Watch Now:Amazon
Fuzzy Vision
star
6.00
32 votes

#22 - Fuzzy Vision

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/19/1985

Out at sea on a fishing trip, a blown armature on the Riptide brings the P.I.s vacation to a halt. They manage to make it to shore to a nearby small village, which is seems to be stuck in the 1950s, for help, where they meet an eccentric elderly lady who seems to be a clairvoyant and is expecting them! What's more, she warns them that her nephew will soon be murdered and that she will be arrested. The trio take her with a pinch of salt, but the more they are stuck in the village, the more the predictions come true. Helping to clear her of the murder which indeed does take place, the trio find themselves digging up an unsolved seven-year-old killing of a local beauty queen... The fact that locals mistake Cody for an infamous local trouble-maker whom he seems to resemble, does not exactly help matters...

Directors: Bruce Kessler
Watch Now:Amazon