The BEST episodes of Riptide (1984) season 3
Every episode of Riptide (1984) season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Riptide (1984) season 3!
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.
#1 - Does Not Compute
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/29/1985
Rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) *see note A liberal city councilman embroiled in controversy for allegedly defaulting on various financial obligations blames it on the "right wing" police department discrediting him through computer tampering. To their surprise, none other than Lt. Quinlan hires the Riptide Detective Agency for Murray to use his computer expertise and disprove the claims and find who the real culprit is. But their investigation angers the hacker who is behind the councilman's problems, who promptly turns his hacking towards the Agency, tampering with their financial accounts and causing them to go into the red. Murray finds himself up against a worthy computer opponent as he tries not only to disprove the councilman's claims, but to prevent the hacker from wrecking the Riptide Detective Agency financially...
#2 - Who Really Watches the Sunset
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/12/1985
After reporter Marlene Lewis learns she in dying, she hires the guys to find out who infected her with an incurable disease. The guys accept the case and soon learn that Marlene had been working on a story with a man named Don Orley. However, Orley had died of a heart attack before she could discover more. Fortunately, the guys get a lead when Marlene receives a phone message from a man named Jeff Rockwell. Unfortunately, the guys arrive at Rockwell's house only to find that he has apparently hung himself. Searching Rockwell's house, the guys learn that Rockwell worked for the F.D.A. Since Orley, a food engineer working on APS (a food enhancer), would have needed F.D.A. approval, the guys realize the connection between the two dead men. Checking into records on APS, the guys discover that Robert Stockwood is the only member of the AP. research team that has not been killed. Therefore, the guys decide to protect Stockwood. Then, at Orley's funeral, Stockwood disappears after a nearby ca
#3 - Smiles We Left Behind (2)
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/25/1986
The guys then go to see a man named Parker who had called in response to one of the Danny Lee posters. The guys learn that Parker originally saw Danny Lee with a briefcase handcuffed to his hand, however, when Parker later saw Lee, the handcuff was hanging loose. Unfortunately, Parker is killed before the detectives can learn anymore. The guys then pay a visit on Janet, who reveals that her government branch has been working with a man named Danny Lee for over 10 years. Janet further explains that Lee, who had been providing information about China's nuclear arms development, had been scheduled to come to San Francisco to meet with the U.S. government. The guys, piecing together the clues, realize that a Chinese spy has killed Danny Lee and is taking his place for the San Francisco meetings. Janet then tells the guys about the next scheduled meeting. The guys proceed to the meeting site only to find a murdered government agent. Later, after Lucy arrives in town and confirms that the ha
#4 - Home for Christmas
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/17/1985
Nick, who has never particularly enjoyed the holiday season, decides to accept an assignment from Colonel Ryan, his Army Reserve commander. Thereby, Captain Nick Ryder is assigned to transport the remains of Private Ricky Wilkenson, a soldier who died in a training accident. However, when he arrives in Wyoming, Nick learns from the funeral home that the body he transported is not Ricky. (Unlike Ricky who had permanently injured his foot when he was a kid, the corpse has a complete set of toes.) After Colonel Ryan denies there was a mistake and a Congressman tries to dismiss the concerns of Ben Wilkenson, Ricky's father, Cody and Murray decide to help their partner investigate the situation. Murray accesses the army's computer system and is surprised when he finds Ricky's records kept with Vietnam files. Once back in California, Nick joins Cody in an attempt to sneak onto the army base for more information. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Walker, one of Ryan's aids, catches the guys. Ryan the
#5 - Lady Killer
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/7/1986
rc: June Chadwick (Lt. Parisi) Nick and Cody manage to make fools of themselves when they both unsuccessfully try to hit on an attractive woman while shopping in a grocery store. After the latest in a string of serial killings, the Agency is hired by a man who claims to have reason to believe that his elusive roommate might be the murderer. The detectives find to their surprise that the woman from the store is none other than their new Police contact; but as they investigate their case, there is a twist they don't expect, as they hunt for a killer with a hatred for engaged women...
#6 - Requiem for Icarus
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/10/1985
At a party, the guys run into Cathy Skinner, an old friend of Nick's. Nick explains that when he was a cargo pilot, he used to "crash" at the home of Doug Skinner, Cathy's father. While catching up on old times, Nick learns that Cathy is worried about the fact that Doug has been acting very strangely lately. In response to Cathy's concerns, the guys go to see Doug. An ungrateful Doug responds by telling the Riptide Detectives to leave him alone. That night, Doug calls Cathy and tells her that he will be leaving town for a while. Alarmed, Cathy and the guys go to Doug's home. Once there, the guys end up in a shoot out with some men looking for Doug. Unfortunately, the guys are mistakenly arrested by the police. After getting out of jail, the guys trace some pills that they had found in Doug's home. They then learn that Doug has been suffering from delayed stress as a result of an airplane accident that occurred when he was an air traffic controller. (Doug suffered despite the fact that
#7 - Wipe Out
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/1/1985
rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) The detective trio are worried about a new Private Investigation company in the area that is taking all their business, and, to the reluctance of Nick, decide to take on the case sent to them anonymously by post, asking them to investigate the death of a surfer that took place in 1964. Cody and Murray visit Billy Hagen, the lead singer of a popular band at the time, who were playing at a dance that was the scene of a fight between the surfer and another man shortly before the death. Hagen, whom Cody is a big fan of, is planning a comeback, but the deeper the detectives dig into the case and the past, the more it begins to seem that maybe Hagen was more involved in the death than previously thought...
#8 - A Matter of Policy
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/14/1986
rc: June Chadwick (Lt. Parisi) Cody returns from a visit to his mother only to find that his boat is gone, being repaired after Nick damaged it in an accident. But the pair's minds are soon taken off the incident when Nick is informed that the father of a man he once tried to save in Vietnam has recently been killed, and has left Nick a substantial amount of money in his will. With Murray away at a computer convention, Nick and Cody attend the reading of the will, and whilst there, the man's niece, upon learning that they are private investigators, confides that she thinks her uncle was murdered. As they investigate, they uncover what seems to be a huge insurance scam, and meet resistance and hostility from the insurance investigator who is overlooking the legal proceedings...
#9 - Thirty-Six Hours 'til Dawn
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/22/1985
rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) Through Lt. Quinlan, the Government hires the trio to go down to Mexico and bring out a model named Renee Sinclair, the estranged wife of underworld crime-lord Sonny Sinclair, who is prepared to testify against her husband in a case that is sure to send him down, after he murdered her brother. But after making contact with the woman, while Cody and Murray run a decoy, Nick and Renee come under heavy gun-fire, damaging the Screaming Mimi and forcing Nick to make an emergency landing in a canyon in the hills. As Cody and Murray try to goad the reluctant local authorities into helping them search, Nick and Renee find over-night refuge in a drug smuggler's den, and in their time together, they begin to fall in love, faced with the knowledge that Nick will never be able to see or hear from her again when she gets a new identity after the trial...
#10 - The Bargain Department
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/5/1985
With the Riptide Detective Agency in it's worse ever financial trouble, much to Nick's disagreement, Cody is considering an offer to sell the agency to corporate investigation company Tricor, who want to buy them out. After the Riptide is ransacked, adding further to the P.I.s problems, Murray and Cody accept jobs with Tricor, but Nick refuses, and opts instead to leave the agency. But when a friend of the trio, who had been working as a security guard on Pier 56, is murdered, it slowly begins to seem that Tricor is somehow involved, and the Riptide agency's recent financial troubles have been orchestrated by the same company, who are determined to get their hands of a letter left by the dead man to the trio before his death. The key to the whole mystery seems to lie on the unobtainable 13th floor of Tricor, where a secret super-computer is based, and the detectives intend to unlock the secrets held on that floor...
#11 - The Play's the Thing
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/21/1986
The guys once again have a run-in with Gloria Burghoff (last seen in "Polly Want An Explanation") when the FBI agent wannabe turns to them for help. After reluctantly agreeing to help, the guys learn that someone has been following Gloria ever since she bought a trunk that had belonged to a man named Schellbach. Gloria also informs the guys that she believes that the recently deceased Schellbach had located a previously unknown Shakespeare manuscript. Disguised as painters, the guys search Schellbach's office but do not find any clues. However, they do catch a tabloid reporter named Mark Rothrnan following them. Later, while Cody, Murray, and Gloria search Schellbach's home, Nick searches Rothman's hotel room. Both parts of the investigation prove fruitful as Nick finds a check from Rothman to John Ashley, the local coroner, and the rest of the detectives find photocopies of the manuscript. Continuing their investigation, the detectives and Gloria rendezvous at the library. Unfortunate
#12 - Playing Hardball
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/14/1986
The detectives are hired by sports-caster Hal Potter, the owner of a minor league baseball team, to go undercover as part of the team and prove or disprove his concerns that some on his team are drug users. Nick is excited about the case, but Cody, who is less of a baseball fan is rather less enthusiastic, but never-the-less the pair the join the team as new players, while Murray joins Hal as a sports commentator. They soon find that something is going on when a sniper takes a pot-shot at one of their fellow players, and they become suspicious of one of their team-mates, a practical joker who seems to have rather a lot of money for someone playing on a minor league team. But another member of the team, a drug addict, is being set-up by a mysterious, drug-supplying woman to take the fall in a planned murder...
#13 - The Wedding Bell Blues
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/21/1986
rc: June Chadwick (Lt. Parisi) Cody, Nick and Murray take on one of their bizarrest cases when they are hired by an eccentric millionaire to find a model that he wants to marry, a girl that he has only seen in photos and has never met! But unbeknown to them, the girl's father is a crime lord, and their seemingly strange but simple case finds them walking into the middle of a fierce mob war that has restarted after the girl stood the son of another mobster up at the alter...
#14 - Dead Men Don't Floss
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/4/1986
rc: June Chadwick (Lt. Parisi) After a female reporter with the hots for Nick writes an article naming him as the primary force behind the Riptide Detective Agency, an argument ensues between himself, Cody, and Murray. Lt. Parisi tries to put a stop to the squabble by taking three help wanted ads from the newspaper and giving one to each of them, with the first to complete their individual task to be declared the best detective of the trio. Murray's case is to find a biker's estranged girlfriend; while Nick must find a short-tempered battleaxe's missing man; and a gifted young boy, unhappy at home, wants Cody to prove that he's adopted. Meanwhile, the boyfriend of the woman who penned the article behind all the trouble sees Nick as a threat, and sets out to kill him...
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#15 - Chapel of Glass
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/11/1986
rc: June Chadwick (Lt. Parisi) The detectives are investigating how an unqualified chemical company was able to win a disposal contract that led to a local beach being contaminated, when two phoney cops try to kill them. At the police station after the incident, they are reminded that Lt. Parisi is engaged to get married. As they investigate their assignment, they learn that the fake cops were employed by someone to keep them away from investigating the case, and also find that someone has been using their high-ranking position to illegally fix Government contract bids, and that person is none other than Lt. Parisi's fiance, Michael Todd! As they confront Todd and he claims he was blackmailed into the scam, they are torn whether and how to tell their friend Lt. Parisi...
#16 - Still Goin' Steady
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/19/1985
Murray is having a running winning streak on TV quiz show 'Brain Basher', and at a congratulatory gathering celebrating his winnings, an old friend from high-school, who Murray has a crush on, unexpectedly appears on the scene, asking for his help. After buying the rights to a solar powered car, which doesn't even work properly, she is receiving threats, a claim that is backed up when they are almost run down by a speeding car. Murray agrees to help both solve the car's problems and look into who is threatening her, but Nick and Cody aren't quite as convinced by her story and decide to check her out, only to find that she's not everything that she claims to be, and is in trouble with a dangerous loan-shark...
#17 - The Frankie Kahana Show
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/11/1986
At Straightaway's club, Murray and his girlfriend Carla (who is not mentioned in any other episode) are trying to fix up a music teacher named Lisa with either Nick or Cody. However, the matchmaking is interrupted when some armed men arrive and unsuccessfully try to capture Frankie Kahana, the club's marginally talented Hawaiian singer. Carla, who is the club's manager, convinces the guys to find Kahana, who had fled the scene. The guys begin to investigate but, unfortunately, Cody is captured and brought to a mobster named Lemana. While Lemana tries to convince Cody to tell him where Kahana is, Nick and Boz go to speak to Parisi. Then, based on pictures some club customers had taken of Kahana's attackers, Parisi realizes that Lemana is involved. Murray and Nick go to Lemana's hotel only to end up in a car chase. Although Lemana's men escape, Nick and Murray do manage to rescue Cody. The guys soon locate Kahana (who Cody has learned is not an entertainer but was Lemana's bookkeeper) wh
#18 - If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/18/1986
The episode begins with Parisi arranging for the guys to serve as consultants for a television detective drama starring Rosalind Grant and Cary Russell (the Maddie Hayes and David Addison lookalikes). As a result, the guys allow Grant and Russell to follow them on a case for sleazy attorney Myron Bell. The guys begin their case when they meet with Myron and learn that Lenny, the attorney 's partner had stiffed Myron for $10,000. The case becomes more exciting for the two actors when someone unsuccessfully tries to shoot Myron. Although the shooter manages to escape, a little computer work soon turns up Lenny's location. Unfortunately, Lenny has already been killed by the time they get there. Later, the guys manage to bail Myron out of trouble when they stop a bookie named Kyle Ludwig from torturing the attorney. Afterwards, the detectives confront Myron and learn that although Ludwig is mad at the attorney, it is a racketeernamed Vince Sibriati who is trying to kill Myron. Myron furthe
#19 - Echoes
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/22/1986
The guys are hired by a man named Warwick to find his son Nathan. Unfortunately, their client is actually Judd Thompson, the father of a girl that Nathan Warwick has been accused of raping and murdering. A gunfight ensues when Thompson sees Warwick. As a result, Cody is shot and Murray is forced to shoot Warwick. Regrettably, Murray kills Warwick in the process. After Cody is taken to a hospital to recover, Nick and Murray are shocked when Elaine Warwick, Nathan's sister, hires them to prove that her brother never raped Thompson's daughter. Feeling guilty over leading Thompson to Nathan, Nick accepts the case and he and Murray are soon heading to Cyprus Bay, the Warwick's hometown. Pretending to be writing a book about the Warwick-Thompson shooting, Nick and Murray begin to investigate Nathan's past. They therefore are left alone in the sheriff's office where they find a list of the townspeople with codes next to the names. Nick and Murray soon uncover the fact that the sheriff and his
#20 - Robin and Marian
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/3/1985
rc: Jack Ging (Lt. Quinlan) The trio are at a party on Pier 56 when one of the guests discovers that all of the boats in the harbour have been burgled. The guys assure the residents they'll find the taken things, but Murray goes frantic when he finds that the Roboz has been taken! They trace the Roboz's tracking signal to a woman named Marian's house, where Quinlan's men are removing the hoard of stolen items. The woman, begging not to be taken her away from her three foster children, insists that a man named Robin Loxley gave her all the items. The detectives are soon on the trail of Robin - an ice-cream vendor who sees himself as a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from the wealthy to give to the poor - who has bitten off more than he counted on when one of the items he stole was some counterfeit printing plates, and the crooks he took them for are determined to get them back at any cost...
#21 - The Pirate and the Princess
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/7/1986
"It was the Spring of 1676, when the pirate captain William Tyson came upon a fleet of Spanish treasure galleons somewhere in the Caribbean. Never one to let a fortune pass him by, Tyson set about doing the very thing he does best, he attacked! The battle raged for hours. Though the galleons bravely defended themselves, they were no match for Tyson's cannons nor his seamanship. Expecting to find a cargo of gold and silver, Tyson came across far more valuable, Princess Carlotta, of the order of the King himself. "And so began the legend of the Pirate and the Princess. Using the island of Martigua as their home port, they sailed the Caribbean, attacking the King's navy, plundering a vast amount of treasure..." In the present day, Cody, Nick and Murray arrive in Martigua on vacation to visit their oceanographer friend Angelo, who with daughter Giovanna and son Tony, is searching for Tyson's sunken treasure. But Angelo's expedition is being sabotaged, and soon the P.I.s are soon helpi
#22 - Smiles We Left Behind (1)
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/25/1986
When only Danny Lee's luggage shows up for his cousin Lucy's wedding, Lucy turns to her friends at the Riptide Detective Agency to find out what happened. The guys accept the case and are soon on the Mimi heading for San Francisco, the last connection on Danny Lee's flight from China. Once in San Francisco, the guys meet up with Jerome Sedgewick, a wealthy friend of Murray's. Sedgewick then provides the guys with a base of operations on his yacht. Sedgewick also invites the guys to a party where Cody is reunited with Janet Ingram, his college girlfriend. Later, after Cody briefly catches up with Janet and learns that she is working as a government liaison, the guys distribute posters of Danny Lee and head to the site of a meeting that was marked on a map in Danny Lee's luggage. After someone tries to unsuccessfully kill the guys by shooting at them, the detectives stumble over a dead body. Unfortunately, as a result, the guys are temporarily detained and interrogated by government agen