The BEST episodes of S.W.A.T.

Every episode of S.W.A.T. ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of S.W.A.T.!

This series features the missions of the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Weapons and Tactics team. They are a team of highly trained and heavily armed police officers who's purpose is to make coordinated assaults on armed and dangerous criminals in sensitive situations and defensible locations.

Last Updated: 11/1/2024Network: ABC (US)Status: Ended
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The Vendetta
star
7.33
9 votes

#1 - The Vendetta

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/11/1975

Mel Lang and Ralph Costa have served sentences in prison after being framed by one Carl Rigby and arrested by Hondo Harrelson. When S.W.A.T. is called upon to assist police in evicting heavily armed brothers Will and Johnny Brewer from a home taken over by Rigby, Lang and Costa plan to execute Hondo and Rigby and create evidence pointing to the Brewer Brothers.

Directors: Bob Kelljan
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Blind Man's Bluff
star
7.30
20 votes

#2 - Blind Man's Bluff

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/19/1975

While leading the team in the rescue of several women being held hostage by two known killers in a massage parlor, Hondo is grazed by a bullet across his temple. He refuses to take time off for tests until dizziness and blurred vision force him temporarily to relinquish his command to Lt. Purcell, an officer whose methods and personality have a demoralizing effect on the S.W.A.T. team.

Directors: George McCowan
Writer: Walter Black
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Death Score
star
7.16
25 votes

#3 - Death Score

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/7/1975

A terrorist group takes a professional basketball team hostage and demands money.

Directors: Phil Bondelli
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Jungle War
star
7.12
25 votes

#4 - Jungle War

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/31/1975

Bo Pritchard is a veteran police officer who also served with Hondo in Vietnam. Having completed S.W.A.T. training, Pritchard all but begs Hondo to give him a chance to work on the team until "Deacon" Kay recovers. But going into action with Hondo recalls memories of jungle warfare to Pritchard whose hostility and resentments eventually pull him into an emotional breakdown.

Directors: George McCowan
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Vigilante
star
7.11
9 votes

#5 - Vigilante

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/25/1975

Radio repairman Paul Julian has patched in on the S.W.A.T. radio band so he can show up at a scene of police action, where he can observe and judge each case from a concealed position. when Julian decides to punish two disarmed gunmen who have been talked into surrendering by Lt. Hondo Harrelson, S.W.A.T. is suspected of causing the senseless killings.

Directors: Bruce Bilson
Writer: Walter Black
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Deadly Weapons
star
7.11
9 votes

#6 - Deadly Weapons

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/21/1976

Bud Haskins, disowned after marrying a girl whom his father, John Haskins, disapproved, decides to help three "professionals" crack open the safe in the elder Haskins' warehouse. Bud is unaware that the thieves are actually after a huge arsenal of sophisticated, unmarked weapons that have been secretly imported for sale. Bud is slain after helping the criminals burglarize the warehouse. Although S.W.A.T. is assigned to investigate the burglary-murder, John Haskins recruits members of a tough Eastern mob to find the killers of his son.

Directors: Reza Badiyi
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Deadly Tide (1)
star
7.08
13 votes

#7 - Deadly Tide (1)

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/13/1975

Hondo and his team go after a gang of jewel thieves who make their getaways under water.

Directors: Gene Levitt
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Sole Survivor
star
7.00
16 votes

#8 - Sole Survivor

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/26/1975

After making a careful study of S.W.A.T. methods, Frank Hunter, a recently dismissed parole officer, recruits a group of ex-convicts with special skills. Then, after setting off a series of false S.W.A.T. calls throughout the city, Hunter and his well-armed specialists help themselves to a fortune in rare gold coins from a heavily guarded rare coin auction.

Directors: Earl Bellamy
Writer: Sean Baine
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Strike Force
star
7.00
10 votes

#9 - Strike Force

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/15/1975

Hondo and his team are assigned to handle security for a demagogic former general who now leads a racist paramilitary group.

Directors: Bob Kelljan
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Lessons in Fear
star
7.00
7 votes

#10 - Lessons in Fear

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/31/1976

Hondo Harrelson and his team are called upon to investigate robbery-homicides in which powerful drills and cutting equipment have been stolen. Meanwhile, Dom Luca is dating a student, Sharon Merlingdale, who is being carefully watched by Mark Worth, one of the killer thieves. The more Sharon sees Dom Luca, the more convinced North becomes that the girl must be eliminated.

Directors: Dick Moder
Writer: Dan Ullman
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Time Bomb
star
7.00
8 votes

#11 - Time Bomb

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/4/1975

After completing S.W.A.T. exercises at a movie studio, Street realizes that he left his beeper on the lot. When he and his girlfriend return to collect it, they are trapped in the deserted studio by an embittered stuntman, who is planting explosives with the intent of blowing up the lot as an act of revenge.

Directors: George McCowan
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Pressure Cooker
star
6.97
36 votes

#12 - Pressure Cooker

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/17/1975

Hondo and his men have been working around the clock on cases such as a food market heist and a kidnapping investigation, when lady journalist Meredith Cooper reports, with police department approval, to spend several days with the S.W.A.T. team. Ms. Cooper's presence creates problems. Her beauty is distracting. Her manner is pushy and her opinion of policemen is anchored somewhere below sea level.

Directors: George McCowan
Writer: Walter Black
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Death Carrier
star
6.97
29 votes

#13 - Death Carrier

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/10/1975

In a period of a year, model Janet Warren dated three young men, and each has been killed by a sniper's bullet. Police have been unable to find motives or suspects. Since Janet is the only link, Hondo assigns officer Jim Street to pose as the beautiful girl's latest boyfriend in a plan to draw out the sniper who apparently has Janet under constant surveillance.

Directors: Harry Falk
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The Bravo Enigma
star
6.93
15 votes

#14 - The Bravo Enigma

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/28/1975

The team must find an elusive assassin who is unaware that he is spreading a deadly disease.

Directors: Phil Bondelli
Writer: Herb Bermann
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Omega One
star
6.91
22 votes

#15 - Omega One

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/12/1975

Student protestors steal guns and seize control of a nuclear reactor.

Directors: Earl Bellamy
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Ordeal
star
6.91
11 votes

#16 - Ordeal

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/8/1975

Hondo and a convicted dope dealer are stranded in rough terrain when syndicate thugs who want to keep him from testifying sabotage their helicopter.

Directors: Sutton W. Roley
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Courthouse
star
6.90
10 votes

#17 - Courthouse

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/1/1975

Howard Wilson is jailed and his partners, Mike Simon and Frank Peterson, escape before S.W.A.T. moves in to combat a race track heist involving a female hostage. Wilson is on the brink of revealing the names of his partners when a high-powered attorney, Jason Bridges, assures him that Simon and Peterson are planning to free him at all costs--even if the price involves the lives of court personnel when Wilson goes to trial.

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The Swinger
star
6.88
8 votes

#18 - The Swinger

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/22/1975

D.A. Ainsely Stevens holds secret information which could convict two syndicate chieftains of capital crimes. Because Stevens insists on saying nothing until the grand jury convenes, and because police believe the mob has put out a "major contract" on Stevens, S.W.A.T. is assigned to guard him. But enforcer Mario Rosetti plans to abduct the prosecutor's daughter, Tory, and keep the girl until the father cracks. Oblivious to the danger, Tory is out for kicks as police and crooks try to track her down.

Directors: Barry Crane
Writer: Jack Fogarty
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Deadly Tide (2)
star
6.88
8 votes

#19 - Deadly Tide (2)

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/13/1975

Hondo and his team close in on the gang that has been committing robberies using SCUBA gear.

Directors: Gene Levitt
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Killing Ground
star
6.86
92 votes

#20 - Killing Ground

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/24/1975

Street's partner, officer Rob Duran, is killed in the premeditated police assassination by two brothers bent on revenging their father's death. That and subsequent police killings serve to shape the psychology of Lt. Dan "Hondo" Harrelson's newly formed Special Weapons and Tactics team, "S.W.A.T." The team's task is to combat high risk, contemporary, urban crime as a strike force. The team consists of James Street, David "Deacon" Kay, T.J.. McCabe, Dominic Luca, and Harrelson. "S.W.A.T."'s first assignment is an acid test of their ability to survive as individuals and as a team. Their rigorous training is literally a fight against time.

Directors: Harry Falk
Writer: Rick Husky
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Coven of Killers
star
6.81
75 votes

#21 - Coven of Killers

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/3/1975

Three members of Joey Hopper's "family," including newcomer Judy Collins, engineer Hopper's escape from a prison's hospital ward. After executing an assistant District Attorney, Hopper sends a recorded message to "Hondo" that he will be the next victim and that he also intends to punish the jury that found him guilty of other homicides. Russ Collins, owner of an underground newspaper which has published sympathetic articles about Hopper, refuses to admit knowledge of Hopper's whereabouts until "Hondo" informs Collins that his daughter has become a member of the treacherous cult.

Directors: George McCowan
Writer: Skip Webster
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The Steel-Plated Security Blanket
star
6.80
20 votes

#22 - The Steel-Plated Security Blanket

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/5/1975

As Hondo Harrelson and the S.W.A.T. team investigate the theft of an armored car, T.J. McCabe is spending his lunch hour with his fiancée, Susan, who is public relations representative for the Miss American Beauty Pageant. As Miss New Mexico tries on the crown and scepter, the armored car thieves attempt to steal the jewels, taking Susan and Miss New Mexico as hostages.

Directors: George McCowan
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Hit Men
star
6.68
25 votes

#23 - Hit Men

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/24/1975

Vincent Ritchie, serving a prison sentence, agrees to expose the secrets of a crime syndicate before a Senate committee when he learns of "family" plans to insure his permanent silence. As he is transported with a police escort from the penitentiary, Ritchie is gravely wounded in an ambush attack which claims the life of a police officer. While doctors fight to save the convict's life, Hondo's team and other S.W.A.T. units station themselves throughout the hospital, awaiting an expected attempt to finish Ritchie off.

Directors: Harry Falk
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The Running Man (2)
star
6.67
6 votes

#24 - The Running Man (2)

Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/24/1976

The SWAT team protects a key government witness against an organized crime boss.

Directors: George McCowan
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Dragons and Owls
star
6.63
8 votes

#25 - Dragons and Owls

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/6/1976

Clues to the perpetrators of a series of rapes are a religious medal and a Biblical quotation overheard by one of the victims.

Directors: Bernard McEveety
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